Aeroprobe Supports NASA Ares 1-X Launch Success
Ares I-X is an experimental test rocket that will help NASA improve the design and safety of the next generation of American spaceflight vehicles, which could again take humans beyond low Earth orbit. At 11:30 AM EDT on Oct. 28, 2009, the Ares I-X test rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The flight test lasted about six minutes from its launch until splashdown of the rocket's booster stage nearly 150 miles downrange.
The flight test was designed to provide NASA with an enormous amount of data, prominent among which will be the speed and inclination of the rocket. NASA and Lockheed Martin, its prime contractor turned for help to Aeroprobe Corp. Aeroprobe was requested to supply a five-hole air-data probe to be mounted on the CM/LAS nosecone of the Ares I-X vehicle. This probe is expected to provide accurate air speed, pitch and yaw angles and the total and static pressure during the flight time of the Ares I-X, during which time the rocket will be in atmospheric flight. The total and static pressures that are derived from the probe are considered critical quantities, as they will be used as a reference for the remainder of the 300+ pressure sensors on the Ares I-X.
Substantial engineering services were required to produce a high-performance probe assembly for the Ares I-X. In order to provide accurate data, the probe underwent aerodynamic calibrations at Mach numbers from 0.2 to 4.7. A finite-element analysis was performed in order to determine loads, stresses deflections and heat transfer at the vibration, temperature and dynamic pressures expected during flight. Some geometry requirements were the result of the requirement that the assembly fit within the Boeing Polysonic Wind Tunnel (PSWT) for aerodynamic calibration. The 327-foot-tall Ares I-X test vehicle produced 2.6 million pounds of thrust to accelerate the rocket to nearly 3 g's and Mach 4.76, just shy of hypersonic speed. It capped its easterly flight at a suborbital altitude of 150,000 feet after the separation of its first stage, a four-segment solid rocket booster.
Parachutes deployed for recovery of the booster and the solid rocket motor, which were recovered at sea and will be towed back to Florida by the booster recovery ship, Freedom Star, for later inspection. The simulated upper stage and Orion crew module as well as Aeroprobe’s probe ad sensor, and the launch abort system will not be recovered.
