NASA is finally ready to light the engines for a Space launch system (SLS) megarocket.
The space agency plans to test the four main engines of their first SLS heavy lift Saturday (January 16) at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. It is an emergency test for NASA and the final step in the group’s “Green Run” series of tests to ensure that the SLS rocket is ready for the first launch, Artemis 1, which will launch the Orion spacecraft without spread around the moon later this year.
Video: NASA’s SLS rocket heart rate will soon be put to the test
The SLS is NASA’s rocket for sending astronauts to the moon by 2024 as part of their Artemis program. Artemis 1 is the first of what is expected to be a series of missions leading up to Artemis 3, NASA ‘s first crew moon to land since Apollo.
In the upcoming hot-fire engine test, engineers will load the Boeing-built SLS heart rate with more than 700,000 gallons of cryogenic (i.e. indeed cold) moves into the rocket’s fuel tanks and ignites all four of its RS-25 engines at the same time. The engines fire for 485 seconds (just over 8 minutes) and generate a whopping 1.6 million pounds of effort during the test.
“This test will show that this designed and developed basic stage is ready for launch,” SLS platform manager Julie Bassler said today (Jan. 12) at co- “Experiments provide an opportunity to learn and ensure that the rocket is ready for the astronauts to fly to the moon.”
Prior to the hot fire test, the megarocket was subjected to two “wet uniform forecasts,” during which engineers were loading, controlling, and draining a combustion engine into the tanks. rocket. And, while the rocket’s base level performed “well,” during one of these tests on Dec. 20, the test ended early without explanation, which reportedly caused a delay in this hot-fire test. NASA. Fuel supply was halted earlier in December due to temperature issues. The trial campaign was also delayed due to several tropical storms and hurricanes and measures to reduce COVID-19 transmission among the pandemic.
Photos: NASA’s SLS first-rate megarocket engines are for the moon
“We learned a lot from these two wet dressing preparation tests,” Bassler said. “As a result of those we reviewed some of our procedures, and made a special update to the counting series. In addition, Bassler added, the additional test allowed engineers to gain more confidence in its processes, ground equipment and hardware.
After the upcoming hot fire test, the team behind the test will need “several days to analyze the data and see if we are ready to move forward by updating the main level and delivery to Kennedy, “Bassler said.
“We are very cautious in how we proceed,” said Boeing vice-president and SLS program manager John Shannon during the same press conference. to come, “we will take just the time necessary to ensure that we handle this flight article properly and in marching forward,” said Shannon. go into it [this hot-fire test] with the mind of what we are learning and if we have to stop and regroup and then push forward, we will do it completely. “
After the success of this hot fire test and subsequent unrelated missions to the moon, “the next major step in returning astronauts to the moon and finally moving on to Mars, “said Jeff Zotti, director of the RS-25 program at Rocketdyne Aerojet during the press conference.
NASA SLS program manager John Honeycutt agreed.
“This powerful rocket is going to put us in a position to be ready to support the group in the country’s deep space mission to the moon and beyond,” he said.
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