By Marina Malenic
ATK [ATK] yesterday conducted a successful ground test of the second Ares five-segment Development Motor (DM-2), the company said.
Initial test data indicated that the motor, which was chilled to a 40 degree F core temperature since early July, performed as designed, according to ATK. DM-2 produced approximately 3.6 million pounds of thrust and burned for just over two minutes.
DM-1 was conducted approximately one year ago, on Sept. 10. On Oct. 28, the Ares I-X was launched from Kennedy Space Center, Fla., and flew for six minutes before splashing down into the Atlantic.
Ares is part of Constellation, a space shuttle replacement program that had been intended to carry astronauts to the moon by 2020. The Orion capsule and the longer-term Ares V heavy-lift rocket are also part of the program. Boeing [BA] is the prime contractor for the Ares I upper stage, and Lockheed Martin [LMT] is the prime for Orion.
President Barack Obama called in February for eliminating Constellation and instead investing in private companies to send astronauts to low-Earth orbit. After lawmakers resisted the White House’s proposed NASA budget, Obama in April pledged to begin building a new heavy-lift rocket by 2015 and later a crew-rescue vehicle based on Orion.
Since then, the Senate passed a NASA authorization bill for fiscal year 2011 through FY ’13 last month that would direct the space agency to begin building a heavy-lift rocket right away, instead of waiting until 2015 as the White House proposed, and to continue working on a crew capsule based on Orion.
Yesterday’s test was another milestone on the road to a critical design review next year for Ares.
“The information collected from this test, used together with data from DM-1 and the Ares I-X flight test, will help further validate the five-segment design leading to critical design review next year,” said Charlie Precourt, vice president and general manger, ATK Aerospace Systems, Space Launch Systems. “The data will also confirm the performance and reliability of this solid rocket, which can be configured for use on multiple launch vehicles.”
The main test objectives from the static motor firing were measuring the first-stage rocket’s performance at cold temperatures and verifying the performance of new materials in the motor joints at the lowest range of operational temperatures.
DM-2 is the largest human-rated solid rocket motor built today, measuring 12 feet in diameter and 154 feet in length. The five-segment motor is based on the Solid Rocket Boosters on the Space Shuttle Program.
If Congress continues to provide funding for the effort, the next test for the program, DM-3, will be a hot temperature test to be conducted next year, ATK officials said.