TechLuver.com

HUNTSVILLE, Ala — Dec 17, `07 — In December, NASA will begin testing core components of a rocket engine from the Apollo era. Data from the tests will help NASA build the next generation engine that will power the nation’s new Ares launch vehicles on voyages that will send humans to the moon.

NASA will test the engine’s powerpack, a gas generator and turbopumps that perform the rocket engine’s major pumping and combustion work. These components originally delivered propellants to the Apollo-era J-2 engine that fueled the second stage of the Saturn V rockets.

NASA is using these heritage parts to develop a new engine, known as the J2-X, to power the upper stages of both the Ares I crew launch vehicle and the Ares V cargo launch vehicle. Results from the tests will help engineers modify the machinery to meet the higher performance requirements of these two next-generation rockets.

The powerpack tests will be conducted at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, Miss., where the components were installed in late September 2007.

The Ares rockets support NASA’s goal of providing safe, reliable, affordable transportation to support sustainable, long-term exploration. The Ares I is an in-line, two-stage rocket that will transport the Orion crew vehicle to low Earth orbit.

Orion will accommodate as many as six astronauts on missions to the International Space Station or as many as four crew members on lunar missions. The Ares V, a heavy-lift launch vehicle, will enable NASA to launch a variety of science and exploration payloads and key components needed to go to the moon. More at NASA.

Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle; Ares V Cargo Launch Vehicle

Nov 29, ‘07 — NASA has released details of its strategy for sending a human crew to Mars within the next few decades, reports BBC News.

“The space agency envisages despatching a “minimal” crew on a 30-month round trip to the Red Planet in a 400,000kg (880,000lb) spacecraft.Details of the concept were outlined at a meeting in Houston, Texas.

In January 2004, President George W Bush launched a program for returning humans to the Moon by 2020 and - at an undetermined date - to Mars. The “Mars ship” would be assembled in low-Earth orbit using three to four Ares V rockets - the new heavy-lift launch vehicle that Nasa has been developing.

Notionally despatched in February 2031, the mission’s journey from Earth to Mars would take six to seven months in a spacecraft powered by an advanced cryogenic fuel propulsion system. The details are highly subject to change, and may not represent the way NASA eventually chooses to go to the Red Planet.

However, the document says this is the agency’s current “best strategy” for landing humans on the Martian surface.

Grow your own

The cargo lander and surface habitat would be sent to Mars separately, launched before the crew in December 2028 and January 2029. According to the Nasa presentation seen by BBC News, astronauts could grow their own fruit and vegetables on the way.

Recycled water

The spacecraft itself would be equipped with so-called “closed-loop” life support systems, in which air and water would be recycled. Plants would be grown onboard to feed the crew and contribute to the “psychological health” of the astronauts.

They will also need medical equipment for the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses or injuries. NASA proposes using the Moon as a testing ground for many of these new systems.Details of the plan, which comes under Nasa’s new Constellation program, were presented at a meeting of NASA’s Lunar Exploration and Analysis Group.” More at BBCNews, NASA.

The Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, known as ESMD, at NASA Headquarters in Washington, who oversees the Constellation, human research, exploration technology development and lunar precursor robotic programs as well as the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Project has announced which agency centers will take responsibility for specific work to enable astronauts to explore the moon. The new assignments cover elements of the lunar lander and lunar surface operations.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will take the lead for specific robotic surface mobility efforts. An example is the “All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extra-Terrestrial Explorer” (known as Athlete). JPL will also provide a broad range of support for lunar lander design.

NASA’s Constellation Program is working to send astronauts to the moon, where a lunar outpost will be established to support long-term exploration of the moon and, eventually, Mars.

Video: Athlete of the Future: JPL engineers built a futuristic robot that may one day go to the moon.

In preparation for the US led effort to build a lunar outpost, NASA has completed the first lunar truck prototype, named Chariot. Realizing the importance of crew and payload mobility on the lunar surface, the Exploration Technology Development Program’s Human-Robotics Systems Project set out, in Apollo-like style, to build a lunar truck and the team that could shepherd future lunar truck efforts. With only one year to design, manufacture, and assemble Chariot, NASA, teamed with companies from all across America, conquered the challenge.

Chariot was operational and unveiled to the entire agency only eleven months after the beginning of the project. The vehicle is designed to meet the payload transport, range, terrain and speed specifications defined by NASA’s Lunar Architecture Team. Chariot will serve as a 1g-scaled system for technology evaluation and EVA/Ops field testing. It’s design incorporates many of the lessons learned from the Apollo rovers, as well as trucks that we drive every day. However, the team also needed to challenge many basic assumptions about what a lunar truck might be - Should it have four wheels? Should people sit on seats? Should it have passive suspension? Should it steer like a car?  

These challenges pressed the Chariot engineering team into the design and development of prototypes to answer these and other questions. The Lunar Architecture Team reviewed numerous design options, evaluating vehicle types and scales against mission requirements, launch limits and cost constraints. The Chariot was designed as a 1g (Earth) version of a Lunar Truck, able to work around a construction site like a utility vehicle. The system is sized to be able to carry a mixed suited crew, or combinations of crew and surface payloads such as tools, science equipment, and samples. Chariot’s chassis can be reconfigured to serve as an unpressurized lunar truck, with crew riding onboard in suits, or as a pressurized rover when it is outfitted with a small cabin. Pairs of Chariots can be used to extend crew surface ranges beyond walking distances, expanding the exploration horizon beyond the limits accepted by Apollo crews. More at NASA