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Forum:	Exploration: Moon to Mars
Topic:	[SLS] Composite booster development and tests

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Your Reply: HTML is ON UBB Code is ON Smilies Legend	[QUOTE]Originally posted by Robert Pearlman: [B]NASA release <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="+0">[b]A Composite Booster Gets a Burst of Energy[/b]</font> Turning a rocket booster case into spaghetti sounds more like magic than engineering, but a test that did just that could be an important step in the future of human space exploration. As NASA prepares to test the massive solid rocket booster for the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in March, a team of engineers is looking even farther into the future by exploring an advanced composite that someday might be used to create even more powerful boosters. To understand how well these materials could withstand the immense strains of a launch, the engineers conducted a test that involved pressurizing a booster structure made of composite materials to its breaking point to see how it compares with the metallic booster cases currently used. <center><a href="http://www.collectspace.com/review/sls_compositebooster_burst01-lg.jpg" target="AirLock"><img src="http://www.collectspace.com/review/sls_compositebooster_burst01.jpg" width="400" height="561" border="0"></a></center> [i][b]Above[/b]: Standing more than two stories tall and almost 8 feet in diameter, the composite test structure was pressurized with water until it burst.[/i] In the case burst test, a booster case 25 feet long and 92 inches in diameter was subjected to 3,000 pounds per square inch of pressure — well beyond what would be encountered in flight conditions — to verify exactly what loads the composite material could withstand. "The test is very dramatic," said Angie Jackman, of the SLS Spacecraft/Payload Integration and Evolution (SPIE) office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where the SLS Program is managed for the agency. "When composites fail, it’s the glue or the resin that fails first — not the fiber that fails. There’s a big boom, and it’s all spaghetti." Before the test, damage was purposefully caused at multiple points on the case to study what effect it would have on how the case fared. Even so, the damaged case performed as well as an intact case, demonstrating not only the composite case could withstand the rigors of launch, but that it could do so even in a damaged condition. <center><iframe width="400" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0rFZZ2HfUVE?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center> The test was conducted by Orbital ATK of Promontory, Utah, which made the solid rocket boosters flown on the space shuttle and will provide the boosters for the first flights of SLS. During the test, the case failed within 1 percent of pretest estimates, validating the models for strength of the composites. One-hundred-twelve channels of instrumentation provided data on the case failure. The rocket motor case test is part of an effort to optimize a composite case design that may be stronger, lighter, yet more affordable than traditional steel cases. In turn, this would provide increased payload performance due to reduced weight inherent in composite materials. After the initial flights of SLS, the rocket will be upgraded from a configuration capable of delivering 70 metric tons (77 tons) to low-Earth orbit to an evolved configuration that will launch 130 metric tons (143 tons). To reach its full capability, SLS will use more powerful boosters. NASA is preparing today for that evolution by working with industry partners to test technologies that could be used to develop new liquid or solid rocket boosters.</BLOCKQUOTE> <center><iframe width="400" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FjhVnM3raPQ?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></center>[/B][/QUOTE]
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<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="600"><TR><td bgcolor="#000000"><TABLE BORDER=0 cellpadding=4 border=0 cellspacing=1 WIDTH="100%"><TR bgcolor="#660000"><TD COLSPAN=2><CENTER>T O P I C     R E V I E W</CENTER></TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top>Robert Pearlman</TD><TD>NASA release <BLOCKQUOTE>A Composite Booster Gets a Burst of EnergyTurning a rocket booster case into spaghetti sounds more like magic than engineering, but a test that did just that could be an important step in the future of human space exploration.As NASA prepares to test the massive solid rocket booster for the agency’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in March, a team of engineers is looking even farther into the future by exploring an advanced composite that someday might be used to create even more powerful boosters. To understand how well these materials could withstand the immense strains of a launch, the engineers conducted a test that involved pressurizing a booster structure made of composite materials to its breaking point to see how it compares with the metallic booster cases currently used.<center><a href="http://www.collectspace.com/review/sls_compositebooster_burst01-lg.jpg" target="AirLock"><img src="http://www.collectspace.com/review/sls_compositebooster_burst01.jpg" width="400" height="561" border="0"></a></center>Above: Standing more than two stories tall and almost 8 feet in diameter, the composite test structure was pressurized with water until it burst.In the case burst test, a booster case 25 feet long and 92 inches in diameter was subjected to 3,000 pounds per square inch of pressure — well beyond what would be encountered in flight conditions — to verify exactly what loads the composite material could withstand."The test is very dramatic," said Angie Jackman, of the SLS Spacecraft/Payload Integration and Evolution (SPIE) office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where the SLS Program is managed for the agency. "When composites fail, it’s the glue or the resin that fails first — not the fiber that fails. There’s a big boom, and it’s all spaghetti."Before the test, damage was purposefully caused at multiple points on the case to study what effect it would have on how the case fared. Even so, the damaged case performed as well as an intact case, demonstrating not only the composite case could withstand the rigors of launch, but that it could do so even in a damaged condition.<center><iframe width="400" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0rFZZ2HfUVE?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

The test was conducted by Orbital ATK of Promontory, Utah, which made the solid rocket boosters flown on the space shuttle and will provide the boosters for the first flights of SLS.

During the test, the case failed within 1 percent of pretest estimates, validating the models for strength of the composites. One-hundred-twelve channels of instrumentation provided data on the case failure. The rocket motor case test is part of an effort to optimize a composite case design that may be stronger, lighter, yet more affordable than traditional steel cases. In turn, this would provide increased payload performance due to reduced weight inherent in composite materials.

After the initial flights of SLS, the rocket will be upgraded from a configuration capable of delivering 70 metric tons (77 tons) to low-Earth orbit to an evolved configuration that will launch 130 metric tons (143 tons). To reach its full capability, SLS will use more powerful boosters. NASA is preparing today for that evolution by working with industry partners to test technologies that could be used to develop new liquid or solid rocket boosters.

Robert Pearlman

Northrop Grumman photo release

Northrop Grumman Completes First BOLE Solid Rocket Motor Segment for NASA's Space Launch System
Northrop Grumman Corporation completed the first Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) motor segment for the next-generation Space Launch System (SLS) solid rocket booster.
Above: A Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension motor segment is transported to final assembly ahead of its first demonstration test scheduled for late 2024. (Northrop Grumman)
BOLE adds nearly five metric tons of payload capacity for SLS Block 2 Moon and Mars missions above the enhancements already in work for the SLS Block 1B configuration slated to fly on Artemis IV. The new solid rocket boosters will be used on Block 2 beginning with Artemis IX when all the recovered and refurbished shuttle-era steel cases have been expended.
Building on the foundation of the largest and most powerful solid rocket boosters ever flown, Northrop Grumman's BOLE booster incorporates cutting-edge carbon fiber technology and a weight-saving composite case. Combined with other upgrades, it generates 11% more total impulse than the current five-segment solid rocket boosters.
The first BOLE demonstration test is scheduled for this year, featuring a full-scale static test with all five segments integrated and horizontally fired in a test bay.

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