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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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NASA NTRS2005

Backstop: Shuttle Will Fly with Outstanding Waivers; New Oversight Eases Conflicts on Safety

he space shuttle Discovery is carrying some 300 waivers to technical specifications as it enters the home stretch of its planned return to flight next month. There were about 6,000 waivers in place when Columbia crashed. Shuttle managers say they are working to reduce the number of waivers remaining by fixing the problems they highlight, a change prompted by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. In the wake of the accident, NASA has heeded the CAWS recommendation that waivers be the responsibility of an "independent technical authority" (ITA), rather than the shuttle program itself. To carry out the recommendation of the CAIB-which found an inherent conflict of interest in having the same managers make decisions about cost, schedule and safety-then-Administrator Sean O'Keefe designated the agency's chief engineer as the formal ITA. He is responsible for setting, maintaining and granting waivers across the agency. In mid-January, Fred Gregory, then O'Keefe's deputy and now his acting replacement, launched the ITA within NASA under Chief Engineer Rex Geveden, the former program manager on the Gravity Probe B experiment.

Morring, Frank, Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Griffin Lifts Off at NASA With Calls for Speeding Shuttle Replacement, Reopening Hubble Decision

Michael D. Griffin launched his tenure as NASA's 11th administrator on a fast track, using his "emergency" confiimation by the U.S. Senate to plug himself into space shuttle return-to-flight decision-making and urging faster development of the shuttle replacement. He also deftly sidestepped the treacherous issue of letting the aging Hubble Space Telescope die that was left behind by former Administrator Sean O'Keefe. Griffin told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee that he would take another look at a shuttle mission to service the telescope, but not until the redesigned shuttle system makes a couple of test flights. Griffin made clear at his confirmation hearing Apr. 12 that he has long supported the ideas embodied in President Bush s push to move human exploration out of low Earth orbit, while finishing the International Space Station and retiring the space shuttle as soon as possible. And he showed right out of the blocks that his technical training and management background should serve him well in implementing Bush's directives.

Morring, Frank, Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Game Plan

Industry proposals for the Crew Exploration Vehicle that NASA plans as a replacement for the space shuttle are due next week, but the agency's new chief says it might be necessary to slow the CEV procurement at first to speed it up later. After a quick trip to Kennedy Space Center for briefings on getting the space shuttle back in operation, Michael D. Griffin sat down with his growing staff last week to begin work on modifying the CEV procurement. "We are going to rethink our entire program in that area," he said during an inaugural press conference Apr. 18. The proposals due May 2 are being prepared in response to NASA's call for a "risk-reduction flight effort" in 2008 that would lead to delivery of a human-rated CEV in 2014. But Griffin was co-leader on an independent study in 2004 that recommended a way to get the CEV flying astronauts in 2010, the year President Bush has set as a deadline for retiring the space shuttle fleet. In that study, produced for The Planetary Society, Griffin and his team called for development of a 13-15-ton "Block 1" CEV limited to low Earth orbit (LEO) that would be launched atop a single space shuttle solid rocket motor (SRM), with a new cryogenic upper stage based on existing rocket engine technology, Under this approach, NASA would develop a "Block 2" CEV later for human exploration beyond LEO.

Morring, Frank, Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Multi-Tasking: First Shuttle Mission Since Columbia Combines Test Flight, Catch-Up ISS Supply and Maintenance

NASA's space shuttle fleet is nearing its return to flight with a complex mission on board Discovery that will combine tests of new hardware and procedures adopted in the wake of Columbia's loss with urgent repairs and resupply for the International Space Station. A seven-member astronaut crew has trained throughout most of the two-year hiatus in shuttle operations for the 13-day mission, shooting for a three-week launch window that opens May 15. The window, and much else about the STS-114 mission, is constrained by NASA's need to ensure it has fixed the ascent/debris problem that doomed Columbia and its crew as they attempted to reenter the atmosphere on Feb. 1, 2003. The window was selected so Discovery's ascent can be photographed in daylight with 107 different ground- and aircraft-based cameras to monitor the redesigned external tank for debris shedding. Fixed cameras and the shuttle crew will also photograph the tank in space after it has been jettisoned.

Morring, Frank, Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2005

First Cut

Lockheed Martin and a Northrop Grumman/Boeing team expect the Crew Exploration Vehicle proposals they submitted last week to change, given the new top-down push at NASA to close the gap between space shuttle retirement and launch of the new crew carrier. Still, delivery of the proposals gives a first glimpse of at least one of the concepts for a space shuttle replacement. Instead of the ballistic capsule approach put forward in some early CEV concept work, Lockheed Martin proposed a lifting body shape with a two-stage thermal protection system, coupled with a cylindrical mission module to give crews of four to six extra room on trips to the Moon, and a trans-Earth injection module (TEIM) for the return powered-at least in the first cut-by a couple of Pratt & Whitney RL10 rocket engines.

Morring, Frank, Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2005

Robot Swarms

Engineers and interns at this NASA field center are building the prototype of a robotic rover that could go where no wheeled rover has gone before-into the dark cold craters at the lunar poles and across the Moon s rugged highlands-like a walking tetrahedron. With NASA pushing to meet President Bush's new exploration objectives, the robots taking shape here today could be on the Moon in a decade. In the longer term, the concept could lead to shape-shifting robot swarms designed to explore distant planetary surfaces in advance of humans. "If you look at all of NASA s projections of the future, anyone s projections of the space program, they re all rigid-body architecture," says Steven Curtis, principal investigator on the effort. "This is not rigid-body. The whole key here is flexibility and reconfigurability with a capital R."

Morring, Frank, Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2005

One More Time

NASA engineers on the Hubble Space Telescope program are actively preparing a shuttle mission to service the orbiting observatory, perhaps as early as 2007, pending a safe return to flight of the shuttle fleet. Administrator Michael D. Griffin must give final clearance to mount the mission, scuttled by former Administrator Sean O'Keefe on what he said were safety grounds in the wake of the Columbia accident. But Griffin, who has overturned much of O'Keefe's policy in his three months on the job, has already told the Hubble program to proceed as though the mission will take place. In that, he has at least the acquiescence of Harold Gehman, the retired admiral who headed the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB). The CAIB never intended its recommendations to preclude a shuttle-borne Hubble servicing mission, Gehman says, and its members still believe the risk would be no greater than missions to the International Space Station (ISS).

Morring, Frank, Jr.↗
NASA NTRS2020

Progress on Gust Load Alleviation Wind Tunnel Experiment and Aeroservoelastic Model Validation for a Flexible Wing with Variable Camber Continuous Trailing Edge Flap System

This paper discusses a wind tunnel experiment of active gust load alleviation of a flexible wing which took place at University of Washington (UW) in 2019. The experiment performed under a NASA SBIR contract with Scientific Systems Company, Inc (SSCI). The objective of the experiment is to demonstrate active controls of the Variable Camber Continuous Trailing Edge Flap (VCCTEF) system for gust load alleviation and real-time drag optimization. The wind tunnel model is a 8.2% sub-scale Common Research Model (CRM) wing. The wing structure is designed to provide a substantial degree of flexibility to represent that of a modern high-aspect ratio wing. Eight active control surfaces are employed in the VCCTEF. A new gust generator system was designed and installed by UW under a sub-contract with SSCI. The first test entry started in July 2019 and ended in September 2019. During this test entry, many significant issues were found with the hardware and software. The significant issues with the servos prevented the test objective from being completed. A follow-up second test entry in 2020 is being planned. The wing system is being repaired by SSCI. This paper reports on the progress of this experimental effort and the aeroservoelastic (ASE) model validation which was conducted during the test entry.

Nguyen, Nhan↗