Ares I-X

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jgln

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This should be something to see. :rockin:


BLOGGER UPDATE: 9:20 a.m.: Ares I-X Secured At Pad. NASA is gearing up for a six-day series of tests and check outs of the Ares I-X rocket as the agency marches toward a planned launch next Tuesday. NASA engineers secured the vehicle to launch pad 39B around 9:18 a.m., capping a 4.2-mile move from the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building. NASA mission managers say the slender "single stick," which was secured to its mobile launcher platform by just four large bolts, remained steady throughout the eight-hour, 40-minute move. Engineers monitoring strain gauges said the forces encountered by the rocket were only 10 percent of certification limits despite sometimes breezy conditions. The rollout keeps NASA on tract for a launch during a window that will extend from 8 a.m. to noon next Tuesday. Target liftoff time for the test flight is 8 a.m.

You can keep updated here and I am sure they will have links to the launch on Tuesday if you have no other media to view it from. NASA TV is the best bet for coverage though.

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
 
It's just a stock 4-segment Shuttle booster, a dummy 2nd stage and an instrument package. It tests none of the actual Ares I components.
 
david_42 said:
It's just a stock 4-segment Shuttle booster, a dummy 2nd stage and an instrument package. It tests none of the actual Ares I components.
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I know that but you are saying this is not worth watching?

It is almost 2x the size of the shuttle and nothing that tall has been launched since the Saturn V days. It is a new design for a rocket and a first launch. I think it is worth watching and of interest and I am pretty excited about it. If my facts are correct it is 327 feet tall, only slightly less than the 363 Saturn V.

NASA is readying the world's tallest rocket for rollout at Kennedy Space Center and officials are confident the Ares I-X will fly no matter what course the Obama Administration charts for the agency.

Standing 327 feet tall in NASA's 52-story Vehicle Assembly Building, the super-sized rocket is about 15 stories taller than a NASA space shuttle. It is scheduled to roll out to launch pad 39B on Oct. 26 and then launch five days later.
 
It's one SRM with a very big empty tube stuck on. A little like a pint of Bud that's 80% foam.
 
I guess we disagree then, no problem. I find the whole development and testing process interesting, there is a lot riding on this test and it is going to launch, not just sit there looking pretty. I worked for GE Aerospace, later Lockheed Martin for many years building satellites and even working launch operations working on top of the rocket getting it ready for launch and I know the amount of work that is going into this test. I remember spending months sometimes years preparing for a test. This is not just to see if a SRB is going to burn.
 
david_42 said:
It's just a stock 4-segment Shuttle booster, a dummy 2nd stage and an instrument package. It tests none of the actual Ares I components.
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Well, the "real" Ares booster will also be an SRM, just with 5 segments. The important part of this flight will be to see if they've shaken the vibration issues that plagued the Ares design under simulation.
 
jgln said:
I guess we disagree then, no problem. I find the whole development and testing process interesting, there is a lot riding on this test and it is going to launch, not just sit there looking pretty. I worked for GE Aerospace, later Lockheed Martin for many years building satellites and even working launch operations working on top of the rocket getting it ready for launch and I know the amount of work that is going into this test. I remember spending months sometimes years preparing for a test. This is not just to see if a SRB is going to burn.
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This one should be interesting, but if you want a high-stakes launch, go with the upcoming SpaceX launch where they decided to double-down and launch their untested capsule on top of their (still laregly unsuccessful/in testing) rocket. That one is the high-risk launch!

This one is comparatively a bottle-rocket compared to a real Ares launch, but it will be impressive nonetheless if everything goes well!

I do airborne telemetry support....now if NASA would just pay me to be a redundant TM asset or something for this launch :rockin:
 
The important part of this flight will be to see if they've shaken the vibration issues that plagued the Ares design under simulation.
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No, this simulation problem is in the non-existent second stage. All four of the show-stoppers are absent from this test. The main purpose of the shoot is to test the ground support.

will provide NASA an early opportunity to test and prove hardware, models, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I launch vehicle.
...
critical data during ascent of the vehicle's integrated stack, which includes the Ares I with a simulated upper stage, Orion and launch abort system.
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david_42 said:
No, this simulation problem is in the non-existent second stage. All four of the show-stoppers are absent from this test. The main purpose of the shoot is to test the ground support.
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No, it was the SRBs. Wikipedia rocks! This test is (among other things) specifically looking to validate the new SRB configuration has solved the vibration problem. It's all in the NASA briefs...
 
Positive: Space Program finally going somewhere.

Negative: This rocket is based on the same technology as the ones they built in the 60's. They actually had to go back to museums and static displays to re-invent the wheel.
 
I'm not so sure that's a negative. The J-2 engine that's being resurrected has proven reliable, is half the cost of the shuttle engine, and has some unique abilities like restart and the ability to fire in vacuum. Reusable SRB(s) for the 1st stage also leverages proven cost-effective technology. I think NASAs on the right track with this one...
 
My gripe with the space program isn't really with NASA. It's with the apathetic attitude of the American people along with the lack of support from the government to explore space. We really should have been a lot farther along than this. The last moon landing was the year I was born. Since then manned spaced flight has suffered. We have done some cool things with unmanned vehicles, but with the technology we have right now, we couldn't go back to the moon if we tried.

People argue that space exploration is too costly and serves no benefit, yet fail to realize how many things we use today were a result of space exploration.

A step in the right direction I agree, but it's almost like we fell down the stairs and had to start climbing again.
 
Agreed on the lack of will (government and civilian), but I disagree on the manned bit. Hauling fragile carbon-based sacks of water about space is a massive waste of $$$. I'd rather see the money spent on LOTS more un-manned missions. If we're gonna put humans in space, we'd better be GOING somewhere to live.
 
McKBrew said:
My gripe with the space program isn't really with NASA. It's with the apathetic attitude of the American people along with the lack of support from the government to explore space. We really should have been a lot farther along than this. The last moon landing was the year I was born. Since then manned spaced flight has suffered. We have done some cool things with unmanned vehicles, but with the technology we have right now, we couldn't go back to the moon if we tried.

People argue that space exploration is too costly and serves no benefit, yet fail to realize how many things we use today were a result of space exploration.

A step in the right direction I agree, but it's almost like we fell down the stairs and had to start climbing again.
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Neal Armstrong walked on the moon exactly 22 years before I was born. I am 28, and have never had a person on the moon or other extra-terrestrial object in my lifetime.

It's pretty sad where we're at now.

I'm a little worried that this Ares launch is also a bit of a quick roll-out/PR setup in order to try to keep that program rolling. I just really hope that NASA gets it right, and that we really see a good re-investment in space within the next 5 years.
 
News quotes:

The Ares I-X is equipped with more than 700 sensors designed to gather aerodynamic data in an effort to determine whether computer models and wind tunnels accurately predict the actual flight environment.

Also to be tested on the flight: The system that separates the Ares I-X first and second stages, and the rocket's first-stage parachute recovery system.
 
I work in the middle of my avatar.;) I always get various nice pics of launches (our parking lot is only a 1/4 mile from the VAB) and I'll post 'em when I get 'em.

IMO, we do it because we are human and humans explore. It's just in our blood. But I would also agree that most space flight should be unmanned.

As far as going somewhere to live...we are REALLY far away from anything habitable. IMO that's not the reason for human space flight. IMO it's more about learning, growing, exploring...because we're human.

EDIT: Just remembered somebody sent some pics of it on the pad so here's one:

AresI_XonPad.jpg
 
SpanishCastleAle said:
I work in the middle of my avatar.;) I always get various nice pics of launches (our parking lot is only a 1/4 mile from the VAB) and I'll post 'em when I get 'em.

IMO, we do it because we are human and humans explore. It's just in our blood. But I would also agree that most space flight should be unmanned.

As far as going somewhere to live...we are REALLY far away from anything habitable. IMO that's not the reason for human space flight. IMO it's more about learning, growing, exploring...because we're human.

EDIT: Just remembered somebody sent some pics of it on the pad so here's one:

AresI_XonPad.jpg
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That is cool. I know I mentioned this here before but I was offered a position twice to work shuttle operations down there working on the shuttle itself but turned the first one down, accepted the second one then changed my mind. Kind of burnt my bridges with that but I am getting to old to be doing that work much longer now anyway. I sometimes think about how much fun that would have been but I made my decision and too late now. But I have other memories working with unmanned stuff here and in CA. that I will always remember fondly.
 
I see there is an article now about the debate of the $360M cost of the test, I also read an article Goldman Sachs has set aside $5.4B for 3rd qtr bonuses alone, with approaching $20B for the year. I know they don't compare but after reading that $360M for continuing space exploration doesn't sound that bad.
 
jgln said:
I see there is an article now about the debate of the $360M cost of the test, I also read an article Goldman Sachs has set aside $5.4B for 3rd qtr bonuses alone, with approaching $20B for the year. I know they don't compare but after reading that $360M for continuing space exploration doesn't sound that bad.
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The report that the Augustine Commission is releasing tomorrow shows that for an extra $3B a year for NASA, they could be doing some really, really neat things, including manned Asteroids, Mars, and other missions. It's pretty cool.

Yea, this test is only $360M, but remember part of the reason why they're firing it is to get some heritage on the engine and relevant systems. You don't qualify something as man-rated when you've only popped it off once or twice. This is a good way to get some confidence in some of the more "ho-hum" systems that you just expect to work right, but are complex enough to be worried about.
 
jkarp said:
SpanishCastleAle! Any chance of a high-res of that pic?
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No I get sent random pics like that all the time but they're usually just snapshots, and most of them get tossed after I view them. Here's a cool shot of a meteor while a shuttle was being rolled-out (with cameos by Venus, Mars, and Betelgeuse :D):

sts128rolloutMeteor_900.jpg


And here's a shot of a landing from our parking lot. This one was really cool. There was a low-lying, flat layer of clouds above and we couldn't see the orbiter coming in but we could see it's shadow 'tracking' across the cloud layer...then it just 'burst' through that cloud layer almost directly overhead and somebody caught a shot right at the moment it burst through.

ShuttleLanding.jpg
 
Just bumping this, they are about 10 minutes away from launch. Again, floridatoday.com will have coverage. Best to watch on the NASA channel though. Luckily we have a TV with a dish here at work!
 
I checked it about 10 seconds before lift-off. Thanks for the link! Launch was cool. After the engine cut, the rocket split in two sections, then the video was cut. I didn't have audio so I'm not sure if it was planned that way.
 
Homercidal said:
I checked it about 10 seconds before lift-off. Thanks for the link! Launch was cool. After the engine cut, the rocket split in two sections, then the video was cut. I didn't have audio so I'm not sure if it was planned that way.
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So far they say everything was a success. I liked the camera view looking down from the top of the rocket. On the pad you could see the rainbirds flooding the pad with water just before ignition and once in the air you got a very clear picture of the booster burn.
 
Fionally it went up...I missed the launch by a few seconds. When I walked out of my office it was already going up. bummer
 
Looked like one hell of a good launch to me. The stage separation dynamics looked a little rough, but I hadn't looked at the simulations to see what it was supposed to look like, so it may have been nominal.

Other than that, it looked like they lost the TM source for the video at chute deployment. I don't know if the camera went down, or they just lost the TM link, but it was pretty awesome.

In the end, a most impressive flight for something that was scratches on paper 3 years ago. There's still a long way to go, and some serious political and funding hurdles, and a couple of technical ones, but you gotta love it when you see new things fly. That was a seriously impressive vapor buildup when they started breaking the speed of sound. It was really cool.

I just wish that they had tasked us to support it!
 
kaiser423 said:
Looked like one hell of a good launch to me. The stage separation dynamics looked a little rough, but I hadn't looked at the simulations to see what it was supposed to look like, so it may have been nominal.

Other than that, it looked like they lost the TM source for the video at chute deployment. I don't know if the camera went down, or they just lost the TM link, but it was pretty awesome.

In the end, a most impressive flight for something that was scratches on paper 3 years ago. There's still a long way to go, and some serious political and funding hurdles, and a couple of technical ones, but you gotta love it when you see new things fly. That was a seriously impressive vapor buildup when they started breaking the speed of sound. It was really cool.

I just wish that they had tasked us to support it!
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Yeah, it was. For those of you who want to see it floridatoday.com has a good picture posted right now. That is a good place to keep updated on that stuff if you enjoy it and they always have pictures of girls in bars and at the beach posted there too as a bonus. :D
 
jgln said:
I see there is an article now about the debate of the $360M cost of the test, I also read an article Goldman Sachs has set aside $5.4B for 3rd qtr bonuses alone, with approaching $20B for the year. I know they don't compare but after reading that $360M for continuing space exploration doesn't sound that bad.
Click to expand...

NASA's budget for this year is smaller than the bail out sent to GM. GM is asking for more money and will get it. NASA will continue to struggle with what it gets.

SpanishCastleAle Nice to see others like us on here. I am out at WSTF in the middle of the desert.
 
And I built and tested this from the ground up (with others of course), took many years. I have also worked on others (or parts of) of about 20 or so. GPS, Milstar, DMSP, Tiros, EOS, Intelsat, Discs and maybe a few other I forget. This picture appeared on the cover of Aviation weekly. I was in the original photo for the magazine but they came back and took another because the camera had not yet been mounted as it is in this photo. I was there that day just went out for lunch a couple of my co-workers guys got on the cover instead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landsat_7
 

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