Ares I - DM-1 Test of 5 Segment Motor - September 10th, 2009 - HD

NASA and industry engineers lit up the Utah sky Thursday with the initial full-scale, full-duration test firing of the first stage motor for the Ares I rocket. The Ares I is a crew launch vehicle in development for NASA's Constellation Program.

ATK Space Systems conducted the successful stationary firing of the five-segment solid development motor 1, or DM-1. ATK Space Systems, a division of Alliant Techsystems of Brigham City, Utah, is the prime contractor for the Ares I first stage. Engineers will use the measurements gathered from the test to evaluate thrust, roll control, acoustics and motor vibrations. This data will provide valuable information as NASA develops the Ares I and Ares V vehicles. Another ground test is planned for summer 2010.

"With this test, we have taken lessons learned from many years of experience in solid rocket motor development and have built on that foundation," said Alex Priskos, first stage manager for Ares Projects at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "Our team collected data from 650 sensors today to evaluate the motor's performance. This test and those that follow are essential to understanding as many aspects of our motor as possible, including strengths and weaknesses, and ultimately delivering the safest and most reliable motor possible."

This was the second attempt to conduct the two-minute rocket test at ATK's test stand in Promontory, Utah. The first test on Aug. 27 was canceled with 20 seconds left in the countdown because of a problem with a component of the ground controller unit, which sends power to the system that moves the nozzle during the test. Through a detailed investigation, the engineering team pinpointed the problem and replaced the faulty part.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• NASA
• ATK
• Ares
• DM1
• Five
• Segment
• Motor
• Test
• Utah
• SRB
• Solid
• Rocket
• Booster

[ussjealousy]

WOW! that was wild!

too bad the audio is out of sync

[littlepyro]

That would have to come from YouTube, as the version I have on my computer is right on sync.

[elmatt2288]

fantastic. thanks for getting the video up so quickly

[littlepyro]

If I had faster internet, I'd get it up quicker. My goal is to have it up first. ;)

Thanks for watching, please subscribe if you like my videos!

[Aswarp]

gaastart, you will never learn how to do stuff if you never question how it's done and why. NASA is just no religion to me, and if someone told me to skydive without a parachute, I would question it even if he was wearing with a NASA badge on his arm.

Of course, no offence meant by any comment, just chatting calmly with people about a cool video.

[Aswarp]

Now, that is what I call an informed answer, Nicolasherdwick. If only a bit too acronomy-ous. Thanks a lot

[Nicolasherdwick]

Capturing carbon emissions is a noble cause, but in this case simply not feasible at the moment.The SRB is an open loop air burning cycle in which you can't tinker a lot with the combustion process. This means you'd have to air capture the CO², a process which is in its infancy and costs a lot of energy that also needs to be (cleanly) produced somehow. We can't make this carbon capturing work on mundane cars at the moment, and this is an ultra powerful SRB with massive combustion rate and temps

[Aswarp]

A huge black cloud of smoke tells me that they did not capture any carbon emission... at least.

the point is not to measure it, but to keep the Earth's ozone layer in good shape and our lungs clean and happy.

[Nicolasherdwick]

"They could get much more out of this test"? This test was equiped with 630 sensors. Just how much more would you want?

As for your examples: CO² measurements at the end would be not so relevant, and biased "a bit" by the CO² extuinguishing system, and who says they didn't measure them anyway? And testing the fire resistance of things is done far more efficiently and controlled in dedicated test setups rather than behind a burning sand storm of Utah dust shot away by 3.5 million lbs thrust.

[Aswarp]

Not actually all kind stuff. Somebody maybe ;)

Now, seriously, from an economic perspective they could get much more out of this tests. Like to ensure that the latter state-of-the-art ignifugous tank armour plates, or shuttle tiles, are really that resistent.

That last comment about work sounds to me more like a group integrity keeper thug's to me. I won't start a flame (hey! flame! heh...)

Anyway, who wants to work at NASA when we can work at CERN? :)

[Kloran27]

You want to put all kinds of stuff like that in the path of 22,000,000 horsepower? LOL

This is why you don't work @ NASA.

[Aswarp]

And they will get even less if they are taxed by the carbon emissions comission. Apart from the fact that by chasing only industrial results they have wasted a valuable opportunity to do experimental science of the best kind. How much would an unflammables factory lab pay for such a field test of their products?

[laserfloyd]

They'll be happy if this thing even gets built and is able to fly. Capturing emissions and measure heat exposure are the least of their worries. They want to know how this motor performs and that's the bottom line. They don't get much money as it is. (less then 1% of the entire federal budget)

[gaasart]

Aswarp - It's NASA. I think their scientists did what they thought possible, and I also have a feeling they would know exactly what that is better than you. No offence.