Update Manager
11-23-2008, 06:55 AM
NASA's Griffin would use $2B to add test, hasten Ares debut to 2014
BY TODD HALVORSON
FLORIDA TODAY
CAPE CANAVERAL -- NASA likely would stage an extra Ares 1 test flight and accelerate a crucial engine-development project if President-elect Barack Obama makes good on a campaign promise to inject an extra $2 billion into the agency's budget.
The added test flight would blast off from Kennedy Space Center in 2012, enabling NASA to move up the debut of the nation's next-generation spacecraft to early 2014 -- a year ahead of schedule.
And that would significantly reduce the amount of time the United States would rely on Russia to fly American astronauts to and from the $100 billion International Space Station, an outpost largely built by U.S. taxpayers.
"We are ready to tackle head-on the task of narrowing the gap between shuttle retirement and Ares-Orion deployment -- if the newly elected nation's policymakers want us to do that," NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said.
NASA is operating under a presidential directive to complete station assembly and retire its aging shuttle fleet by Sept. 30, 2010.
The U.S. will rely on Russia to fly American astronauts until Ares 1 rockets and Apollo-style Orion crew capsules are ready to launch. The first piloted flight is targeted for March 2015.
But the Obama and John McCain campaigns both pledged to provide an extra $2 billion to speed development of Ares and Orion, a move that would minimize a five-year hiatus in U.S. human spaceflight. Both campaigns also signaled intentions to review retirement plans for the shuttle fleet.
In response, Griffin ordered two studies. One showed that it would cost about $2 billion a year to operate the shuttle fleet between 2010 and 2015. But the risk of losing a crew would increase from a statistical probability of 1 in 12 to 1 in 8.
"These are sobering odds -- one reason why the Columbia Accident Investigation Board recommended the shuttle be replaced as soon as possible," Griffin wrote in a Nov. 2 guest column in FLORIDA TODAY.
A second study aims to see how NASA could accelerate Ares and Orion and to examine how much it might cost. Analyses are ongoing, but the preliminary candidates include:
Inserting an Ares 1 high-altitude abort test in 2012. A first stage comprising a five-segment solid rocket booster would be tested for the first time on this flight, too.
Speeding development of the J2X engine, which will power the second stage of the Ares 1 rocket. J2X engine development is a pacing item for NASA's Project Constellation, which aims to return American astronauts to the moon by 2020.
Buying "long-lead" parts -- parts that take a lengthy time to manufacture.
The extra Ares test flight appears to be one of the best ways to speed development.
NASA's current plan calls for a high-altitude abort test in 2013. That flight would be the first with a five-segment booster, a second stage with a J2X engine and the Orion Launch Abort System. If the 2012 flight were added, the upper stage would be a simulator.
Mounted on a slender mast that tops the Ares 1, the crew escape system would employ rocket motors to pull the Orion spacecraft and its astronauts away from its launch vehicle during an emergency.
The extra funding would enable NASA to move up by a year the high-altitude abort test as well as the first test of an Ares 1 with a five-segment booster serving as its first stage.
In that case, a test flight in 2013 would launch an Orion spacecraft simulator all the way into orbit, clearing the way for a first piloted flight a year earlier than now planned.
"That would save us considerable time," Griffin said.
Ares first-stage manufacturer ATK, which also builds the primary rocket motor for the Orion escape system, said it would be ready to support an earlier high-altitude abort test.
"Certainly you could add a test flight like that. It's going to be funding-dependent, but it's a reasonable approach," said former NASA astronaut Charlie Precourt, vice president of ATK's space systems division.
"This is one very good candidate," he said. "You can get a fairly significant test objective done. . . . This is an obvious thing that pops into your head as a good thing to get out of the way."
More... ([Only Registered Users Can See Links])
BY TODD HALVORSON
FLORIDA TODAY
CAPE CANAVERAL -- NASA likely would stage an extra Ares 1 test flight and accelerate a crucial engine-development project if President-elect Barack Obama makes good on a campaign promise to inject an extra $2 billion into the agency's budget.
The added test flight would blast off from Kennedy Space Center in 2012, enabling NASA to move up the debut of the nation's next-generation spacecraft to early 2014 -- a year ahead of schedule.
And that would significantly reduce the amount of time the United States would rely on Russia to fly American astronauts to and from the $100 billion International Space Station, an outpost largely built by U.S. taxpayers.
"We are ready to tackle head-on the task of narrowing the gap between shuttle retirement and Ares-Orion deployment -- if the newly elected nation's policymakers want us to do that," NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said.
NASA is operating under a presidential directive to complete station assembly and retire its aging shuttle fleet by Sept. 30, 2010.
The U.S. will rely on Russia to fly American astronauts until Ares 1 rockets and Apollo-style Orion crew capsules are ready to launch. The first piloted flight is targeted for March 2015.
But the Obama and John McCain campaigns both pledged to provide an extra $2 billion to speed development of Ares and Orion, a move that would minimize a five-year hiatus in U.S. human spaceflight. Both campaigns also signaled intentions to review retirement plans for the shuttle fleet.
In response, Griffin ordered two studies. One showed that it would cost about $2 billion a year to operate the shuttle fleet between 2010 and 2015. But the risk of losing a crew would increase from a statistical probability of 1 in 12 to 1 in 8.
"These are sobering odds -- one reason why the Columbia Accident Investigation Board recommended the shuttle be replaced as soon as possible," Griffin wrote in a Nov. 2 guest column in FLORIDA TODAY.
A second study aims to see how NASA could accelerate Ares and Orion and to examine how much it might cost. Analyses are ongoing, but the preliminary candidates include:
Inserting an Ares 1 high-altitude abort test in 2012. A first stage comprising a five-segment solid rocket booster would be tested for the first time on this flight, too.
Speeding development of the J2X engine, which will power the second stage of the Ares 1 rocket. J2X engine development is a pacing item for NASA's Project Constellation, which aims to return American astronauts to the moon by 2020.
Buying "long-lead" parts -- parts that take a lengthy time to manufacture.
The extra Ares test flight appears to be one of the best ways to speed development.
NASA's current plan calls for a high-altitude abort test in 2013. That flight would be the first with a five-segment booster, a second stage with a J2X engine and the Orion Launch Abort System. If the 2012 flight were added, the upper stage would be a simulator.
Mounted on a slender mast that tops the Ares 1, the crew escape system would employ rocket motors to pull the Orion spacecraft and its astronauts away from its launch vehicle during an emergency.
The extra funding would enable NASA to move up by a year the high-altitude abort test as well as the first test of an Ares 1 with a five-segment booster serving as its first stage.
In that case, a test flight in 2013 would launch an Orion spacecraft simulator all the way into orbit, clearing the way for a first piloted flight a year earlier than now planned.
"That would save us considerable time," Griffin said.
Ares first-stage manufacturer ATK, which also builds the primary rocket motor for the Orion escape system, said it would be ready to support an earlier high-altitude abort test.
"Certainly you could add a test flight like that. It's going to be funding-dependent, but it's a reasonable approach," said former NASA astronaut Charlie Precourt, vice president of ATK's space systems division.
"This is one very good candidate," he said. "You can get a fairly significant test objective done. . . . This is an obvious thing that pops into your head as a good thing to get out of the way."
More... ([Only Registered Users Can See Links])