Results for “BOOSTER” — Page 12

NASA NTRS2011

Innovative Comparison of Transient Ignition Temperature at the Booster Interface, New Stainless Steel Pyrovalve Primer Chamber Assembly "V" (PCA) Design Versus the Current Aluminum "Y" PCA Design

An assessment of four spacecraft pyrovalve anomalies that occurred during ground testing was conducted by the NASA Engineering & Safety Center (NESC) in 2008. In all four cases, a common aluminum (Al) primer chamber assembly (PCA) was used with dual NASA Standard Initiators (NSIs) and the nearly simultaneous (separated by less than 80 microseconds) firing of both initiators failed to ignite the booster charge. The results of the assessment and associated test program were reported in AIAA Paper AIAA-2008-4798, NESC Independent Assessment of Pyrovalve Ground Test Anomalies. As a result of the four Al PCA anomalies, and the test results and findings of the NESC assessment, the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) project team decided to make changes to the PCA. The material for the PCA body was changed from aluminum (Al) to stainless steel (SS) to avoid melting, distortion, and potential leakage of the NSI flow passages when the device functioned. The flow passages, which were interconnected in a Y-shaped configuration (Y-PCA) in the original design, were changed to a V-shaped configuration (V-PCA). The V-shape was used to more efficiently transfer energy from the NSIs to the booster. Development and qualification testing of the new design clearly demonstrated faster booster ignition times compared to the legacy AL Y-PCA design. However, the final NESC assessment report recommended that the SS V-PCA be experimentally characterized and quantitatively compared to the Al Y-PCA design. This data was deemed important for properly evaluating the design options for future NASA projects. This test program has successfully quantified the improvement of the SS V-PCA over the Al Y-PCA. A phase B of the project was also conducted and evaluated the effect of firing command skew and enlargement of flame channels to further assist spacecraft applications.

Saulsberry, Regor L.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Air Force Reusable Booster System: A Quick-look, Design Focused Modeling and Cost Analysis Study

This paper presents a method and an initial analysis of the costs of a reusable booster system (RBS) as envisioned by the US Department of Defense (DoD) and numerous initiatives that form the concept of Operationally Responsive Space (ORS). This paper leverages the knowledge gained from decades of experience with the semi-reusable NASA Space Shuttle to understand how the costs of a military next generation semi-reusable space transport might behave in the real world - and how it might be made as affordable as desired. The NASA Space Shuttle had a semi-expendable booster, that being the reusable Solid Rocket MotorslBoosters (SRMlSRB) and the expendable cryogenic External Tank (ET), with a reusable cargo and crew capable orbiter. This paper will explore DoD concepts that invert this architectural arrangement, using a reusable booster plane that flies back to base soon after launch, with the in-space elements of the launch system being the expendable portions. Cost estimating in the earliest stages of any potential, large scale program has limited usefulness. As a result, the emphasis here is on developing an approach, a structure, and the basic concepts that could continue to be matured as the program gains knowledge. Where cost estimates are provided, these results by necessity carry many caveats and assumptions, and this analysis becomes more about ways in which drivers of costs for diverse scenarios can be better understood. The paper is informed throughout with a design-for-cost philosophy whereby the design and technology features of the proposed RBS (who and what, the "architecture") are taken as linked at the hip to a desire to perform a certain mission (where and when), and together these inform the cost, responsiveness, performance and sustainability (how) of the system. Concepts for developing, acquiring, producing or operating the system will be shown for their inextricable relationship to the "architecture" of the system, and how these too relate to costs. Design and technology features bear special relevance to early program research and development directions. Given the uncertainties involved in both their actual performance promise and their relation to costs of operational systems, this later relationship is also given special attention.

Zapata, Edgar↗

NASA NTRS2012

Creation of an Upper Stage Trajectory Capability Boundary to Enable Booster System Trade Space Exploration

The problem of trajectory optimization is important in all space missions. The solution of this problem enables one to specify the optimum thrust steering program which should be followed to achieve a specified mission objective, simultaneously satisfying the constraints.1 It is well known that whether or not the ascent trajectory is optimal can have a significant impact on propellant usage for a given payload, or on payload weight for the same gross vehicle weight.2 Consequently, ascent guidance commands are usually optimized in some fashion. Multi-stage vehicles add complexity to this analysis process as changes in vehicle properties in one stage propagate to the other stages through gear ratios and changes in the optimal trajectory. These effects can cause an increase in analysis time as more variables are added and convergence of the optimizer to system closure requires more analysis iterations. In this paper, an approach to simplifying this multi-stage problem through the creation of an upper stage capability boundary is presented. This work was completed as part of a larger study focused on trade space exploration for the advanced booster system that will eventually form a part of NASA s new Space Launch System.3 The approach developed leverages Design of Experiments and Surrogate Modeling4 techniques to create a predictive model of the SLS upper stage performance. The design of the SLS core stages is considered fixed for the purposes of this study, which results in trajectory parameters such as staging conditions being the only variables relevant to the upper stage. Through the creation of a surrogate model, which takes staging conditions as inputs and predicts the payload mass delivered by the SLS upper stage to a reference orbit as the response, it is possible to identify a "surface" of staging conditions which all satisfy the SLS requirement of placing 130 metric tons into low-Earth orbit (LEO).3 This identified surface represents the 130 metric ton capability boundary for the upper stage, such that if the combined first stage and boosters can achieve any one staging point on that surface, then the design is identified as feasible. With the surrogate model created, design and analysis of advanced booster concepts is streamlined, as optimization of the upper stage trajectory is no longer required in every design loop.

Walsh, Ptrick↗

NASA NTRS2014

A Monte Carlo Analysis of the Thrust Imbalance for the RSRMV Booster During Both the Ignition Transient and Steady State Operation

This paper presents the results of statistical analyses performed to predict the thrust imbalance between two solid rocket motor boosters to be used on the Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle. Two legacy internal ballistics codes developed for the Space Shuttle program were coupled with a Monte Carlo analysis code to determine a thrust imbalance envelope for the SLS vehicle based on the performance of 1000 motor pairs. Thirty three variables which could impact the performance of the motors during the ignition transient and thirty eight variables which could impact the performance of the motors during steady state operation of the motor were identified and treated as statistical variables for the analyses. The effects of motor to motor variation as well as variations between motors of a single pair were included in the analyses. The statistical variations of the variables were defined based on data provided by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center for the upgraded five segment booster and from the Space Shuttle booster when appropriate. The results obtained for the statistical envelope are compared with the design specification thrust imbalance limits for the SLS launch vehicle

Foster, Winfred A., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS2014

A Monte Carlo Analysis of the Thrust Imbalance for the Space Launch System Booster During Both the Ignition Transient and Steady State Operation

This paper presents the results of statistical analyses performed to predict the thrust imbalance between two solid rocket motor boosters to be used on the Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle. Two legacy internal ballistics codes developed for the Space Shuttle program were coupled with a Monte Carlo analysis code to determine a thrust imbalance envelope for the SLS vehicle based on the performance of 1000 motor pairs. Thirty three variables which could impact the performance of the motors during the ignition transient and thirty eight variables which could impact the performance of the motors during steady state operation of the motor were identified and treated as statistical variables for the analyses. The effects of motor to motor variation as well as variations between motors of a single pair were included in the analyses. The statistical variations of the variables were defined based on data provided by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center for the upgraded five segment booster and from the Space Shuttle booster when appropriate. The results obtained for the statistical envelope are compared with the design specification thrust imbalance limits for the SLS launch vehicle.

Foster, Winfred A., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS2015

CFD Simulations of the Space Launch System Ascent Aerodynamics and Booster Separation

This paper presents details of Computational Fluid Dynamic modeling of the Space Launch System during ascent. The primary focus of the paper is the flow simulation of the vehicle during ascent using the Overflow Navier-Stokes code. Computations of 739 first-stage flight conditions covering a range of Mach numbers, angles of attack, and roll angles were computed. The overset grid system contained 375 million grid points, and over 28 mil- lion CPU hours were used in the simulations. The simulations were run on the Pleiades supercomputer at the NASA Advanced Supercomputer Center at Ames Research Center. The data products from this work include integrated line-loads, surface pressure coefficients, venting pressures, and protuberance air-loads. Detailed comparisons were made of the aerodynamic performance predicted by Overflow and the wind-tunnel derived aero- dynamic database. A small number of the cases were run with two different turbulence models and with two differencing schemes. These results were used to quantify the sensitivity to the choice of the turbulence model and to the differencing scheme. The paper also introduces an effort to use the inviscid, unstructured Cartesian solver Cart3D to compute the aerodynamics during booster separation. Adaptive mesh refinement is being used to enable accurate simulations of sixteen booster-separation-motor plumes. The use of this tool is explored in preparation for building a booster-separation aerodynamic database.

Ascent Aerodynamics↗

NASA NTRS2019

Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) for Space Launch System (SLS)

A human mission to the moon and Mars is the stated space exploration goal of the United States and the international community. To achieve these goals, NASA is developing the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion crew capsule as key elements in the architecture for missions to the moon and Mars. As part of the SLS Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) program, Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems is working to address booster obsolescence issues in design and manufacturing. The upgraded boosters will also provide increased performance that will benefit future lunar campaigns, science missions, and the eventual Mars campaign.

Tobias, Mark E.↗

NASA NTRS2020

Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) for Space Launch System (SLS)

A human mission to the moon and Mars is the stated space exploration goal of the United States and the international community. To achieve these goals, NASA is developing the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion crew capsule as key elements in the architecture for missions to the moon and Mars. As part of the SLS Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension (BOLE) program, Northrop Grumman Space Systems is working to address booster obsolescence issues in design and manufacturing. The upgraded boosters will also provide increased performance that will benefit future lunar campaigns, science missions, and the eventual Mars campaign.

Tobias, Mark E.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Parametric Study of the Forward Attachment Geometry for the Space Launch System Next Generation Booster

Launch vehicle transonic buffet environments can generate large dynamic structural loads and vibratory responses. For the Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle, the highest transonic buffet environments have been observed in the multibody region between the core and solid rocket boosters, particularly downstream of the booster forward attachment. The buffet environment is particularly sensitive to the outer mold line (OML) of the forward attachment, and even relatively minor geometry changes can have large impacts on buffet and other aerodynamic environments. The SLS program is redesigning the booster for the Block 2 vehicle to support updated mission goals. This redesign necessitated changes in the forward attachment geometry, which raised concerns about the buffet and vibroacoustic environments. A preliminary study was conducted that developed multiple forward attachment geometries that satisfied the programmatic requirements, but the aerodynamic environment impacts were unclear. In March 2022, a wind-tunnel test was conducted at the NASA Ames 11- by 11-foot Transonic Wind Tunnel to study these environments generated from each of the configurations in order to select the most viable candidate. This paper will discuss this test campaign, the results from the parametric study, as well as general observations regarding OML features that impact the buffet environment. Buffet environments will be presented and compared for each configuration and comparisons presented where applicable.

buffet↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Parametric Study of the Forward Attachment Geometry for the Space Launch System Next Generation Booster

Launch vehicle transonic buffet environments can generate large dynamic structural loads and vibratory responses. For the Space Launch System (SLS) vehicle, the highest transonic buffet environments have been observed in the multibody region between the core and solid rocket boosters, particularly downstream of the booster forward attachment. The buffet environment is particularly sensitive to the outer mold line (OML) of the forward attachment, and even relatively minor geometry changes can have large impacts on buffet and other aerodynamic environments. The SLS program is redesigning the booster for the Block 2 vehicle to support updated mission goals. This redesign necessitated changes in the forward attachment geometry, which raised concerns about the buffet and vibroacoustic environments. A preliminary study was conducted that developed multiple forward attachment geometries that satisfied the programmatic requirements, but the aerodynamic environment impacts were unclear. In March 2022, a wind-tunnel test was conducted at the NASA Ames 11- by 11-foot Transonic Wind Tunnel to study these environments generated from each of the configurations in order to select the most viable candidate. This paper will discuss this test campaign, the results from the parametric study, as well as general observations regarding OML features that impact the buffet environment. Buffet environments will be presented and compared for each configuration and comparisons presented where applicable.

buffet↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Post-Flight Aerodynamics Assessment of the Artemis-I Booster Separation Event

The successful launch of the Artemis-I mission in November 2022 was made possible, in part, by years of rigorous vehicle simulation and scaled testing. Correctly anticipating the complex physics of the booster separation event was one of many necessary challenges. The successful booster separation of Artemis-I yielded flight data with which the fidelity of these predictions could be assessed. In this paper, the flight data and flight simulations are reconciled to present a unified assessment of the booster separation event. With this assessment, predictive confidence can be reinforced in support of the crewed Artemis-II mission.

Michael W Lee↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Post-Flight Aerodynamics Assessment of the Artemis-I Booster Separation Event

The successful launch of the Artemis-I mission in November 2022 was made possible, in part, by years of rigorous vehicle simulation and scaled testing. Correctly anticipating the complex physics of the booster separation event was one of many necessary challenges. The successful booster separation of Artemis-I yielded flight data with which the fidelity of these predictions could be assessed. In this paper, the flight data and flight simulations are reconciled to present a unified assessment of the booster separation event. With this assessment, predictive confidence can be reinforced in support of the crewed Artemis-II mission.

Michael Lee↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Dynamics and Clearance Analysis of NASA's Space Launch System Block-1 and Block 1B Solid Rocket Booster Separation Event

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) solid rocket booster separation event is an essential area of study requiring high fidelity modelling to capture the complexity of an intra-atmospheric stage separation event. The setup and analysis for this event leveraged the NASA-developed CLVTOPS multi-body dynamics toolchain to model aerodynamics at the separation event, booster thrust tailoff, and Core Stage engine throttling in addition to the separation system itself (booster separation motors (BSMs), pyrotechnic bolts and struts). The approach documented here will give a brief background on the CLVTOPS toolchain, how key input models are integrated and verified, and how results are quantified using an ordered-statistics approach. Specific areas discussed herein address the performance-to-orbit realized by adjusting the delay time between the separation cue and the actual separation event, and how the orientation of the aft BSMs was tuned to address small clearances between the aft diagonal attach struts and the Core Stage. Post-flight results from the inaugural Artemis I flight are also shown, and validation is performed between predicted vs. actual separation dynamics and clearances. Challenging night launch conditions necessitated comparisons that were more qualitative in nature, but still showed very good agreement to pre-flight predictions.

Carole J Addona↗

DOE OSTI2012

UPGRADING THE CEBAF INJECTOR WITH A NEW BOOSTER, HIGHER VOLTAGE GUN, AND HIGHER FINAL ENERGY

The Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) accelerator at Jefferson Lab will be upgraded from 6 GeV to 12 GeV in the next few years. To meet the requirement of the new machine and to take the opportunity to improve the beam quality, the CEBAF injector will be upgraded with a higher voltage gun, a new booster, and a new accelerating RF module. The CEBAF injector creates and accelerates three beams at different currents simultaneously. The beams are interleaved, each at one third of the RF frequency, traveling through the same beam line. The higher voltage gun will lower the space charge effects. The new booster with optimized beam dynamics will complete the bunching process and provide initial acceleration matched to the new gun voltage. Using our latest SRF design, the new booster has significantly lower x/y coupling effects that should improve our beam setup and operation for the highly sensitive parity experiments scheduled for the CEBAF's future. Finally, the new accelerating RF module will roughly double the injector final energy to match the rest of the 12 GeV accelerator. In this paper we will provide more detail about this upgrade.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2012

The Design of a Large Booster Ring for the Medium Energy Electron-Ion Collider at Jlab

In this paper, we present the current design of the large booster ring for the Medium energy Electron-Ion Collider at Jefferson Lab. The booster ring takes 3 GeV protons or ions of equivalent rigidity from a pre-booster ring, and accelerates them to 20 GeV for protons or equivalent energy for light to heavy ions before sending them to the ion collider ring. The present design calls for a figure-8 shape of the ring for superior preservation of ion polarization. The ring is made of warm magnets and shares a tunnel with the two collider rings. Acceleration is achieved by warm RF systems. The linear optics has been designed with the transition energy above the highest beam energy in the ring so crossing of transition energy will be avoided. Preliminary beam dynamics studies including chromaticity compensation are presented in this paper.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2012

Improving the Fermilab Booster Notching Efficiency, Beam Losses and Radiation Levels

A fast vertical 1.08-m long kicker (notcher) located in the Fermilab Booster Long-05 straight section is currently used to remove 3 out of 84 circulating bunches after injection to generate an abort gap. With the maximum magnetic field of 72.5 Gauss, it removes only 87% of the 3-bunch intensity at 400 MeV, with 75% loss on pole tips of the focusing Booster magnets, 11% on the Long-06 collimators, and 1% in the rest of the ring. We propose to improve the notching efficiency and reduce beam loss in the Booster by using three horizontal kickers in the Long-12 section. STRUCT calculations show that using horizontal notchers, one can remove up to 96% of the 3-bunch intensity at 400-700 MeV, directing 95% of it to a new beam dump at the Long-13 section. This fully decouples notching and collimation. The beam dump absorbs most of the impinging proton energy in its jaws. The latter are encapsulated into an appropriate radiation shielding that reduces impact on the machine components, personnel and environment to the tolerable levels. MARS simulations show that corresponding prompt and residual radiation levels can be reduced ten times compared to the current ones.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2012

Momentum Cogging at the Fermilab Booster

The Fermilab Booster has an upgrade plan called the Proton Improvement Plan (PIP). The flux throughput goal is 2E17 protons/hour which, is almost double the present flux, 1.1E17 protons/hour. The beam loss in the machine is going to be an issue. The Booster accelerates beam from 400 MeV to 8 GeV and extracts to the Main Injector (MI). The current cogging process synchronizes the extraction kicker gap to the MI by changing radial position of the beam during the cycle. The gap creation occurs at about 700 MeV, which is about 6 ms into the cycle. The cycle-to-cycle variations of the Booster are larger at lower energy. However, changing the radial position at low energy for cogging is limited because of aperture. Momentum cogging is able to move the gap creation to an earlier time by using dipole correctors and radial position feedback, and is able to control the revolution frequency and radial position at the same time. The new cogging is expected to reduce beam loss and not be limited by aperture. The progress of the momentum cogging system development is going to be discussed in this paper.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

DOE OSTI2014

BERLinPro Booster Cavity Design, Fabrication and Test Plans

The bERLinPro project, a 100 mA, 50 MeV superconducting RF (SRF) Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) is under construction at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin for the purpose of studying the technical challenges and physics of operating a high current, c.w., 1.3 GHz ERL. This machine will utilize three unique SRF cryomodules for the injector, booster and linac module respectively. The booster cryomodule will contain three 2-cell SRF cavities, based on the original design by Cornell University, and will be equipped with twin 115 kW RF power couplers in order to provide the appropriate acceleration to the high current electron beam. This paper will review the status of the fabrication of the 4 booster cavities that have been built for this project by Jefferson Laboratory and look at the challenges presented by the incorporation of fundamental power couplers capable of delivering 115 kW. The test plan for the cavities and couplers will be given along with a brief overview of the cryomodule design.

Burrill, Andrew↗