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发帖数: 1242 | 1 http://www.space.com/19379-saturn-5-f1-engines-test-firing.html
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NASA is reigniting its mighty moon rocket engine using parts retrieved from
museums and displays.
Engineers working this month at the Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala., are completing a series of test firings using recovered
components from 40-year-old F-1 engines. The 19-foot-tall (5.8 meter) by 12-
foot-wide (3.8 meter) Apollo powerhouses launched the space agency's Saturn
V rockets on voyages to Earth orbit and to the moon.
Between 1967 and 1973, a total of 65 F-1 engines were launched, five per
flight, on 13 Saturn V boosters.
Saturn V F-1 Engine Gas Generator Test Firing
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[Pin It] On Jan. 10, 2013, a Saturn V F-1 engine gas generator completed a
20-second hot-fire test at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala.
CREDIT: NASA
View full size image
NASA is reigniting its mighty moon rocket engine using parts retrieved from
museums and displays.
Engineers working this month at the Marshall Space Flight Center in
Huntsville, Ala., are completing a series of test firings using recovered
components from 40-year-old F-1 engines. The 19-foot-tall (5.8 meter) by 12-
foot-wide (3.8 meter) Apollo powerhouses launched the space agency's Saturn
V rockets on voyages to Earth orbit and to the moon.
Between 1967 and 1973, a total of 65 F-1 engines were launched, five per
flight, on 13 Saturn V boosters.
To develop the Space Launch System (SLS), NASA's next generation heavy-lift
rocket, engineers are dissecting, refurbishing and re-firing components from
the remaining F-1s to gain a better understanding of how the engine was
designed and worked. Even four decades later, the F-1 is still the most
powerful single-chamber liquid-fueled rocket engine ever developed. [Graphic
For these tests, which included a 20-second hot fire on Jan. 10, the team
removed a gas generator from an F-1 engine that was stored at Marshall and
another in almost pristine condition from the Smithsonian's National Air and
Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
From display stand to test stand
"Being able to hold the parts of this massive engine that once took us to
the moon, restoring it, and then seeing it come back to life through hot
firings and test data has been an amazing experience," Kate Estes, a NASA
liquid propulsion systems engineer, said in an agency release.
The team decided to take apart the gas generator, the part of the engine
responsible for supplying power to drive the giant F-1's turbopump, because
its component parts were small enough to be tested in Marshall's
laboratories. The gas generator is often one of the first pieces designed on
a new engine because it is a key part for determining the size of the final
engine assembly.
Once they had the artifacts-turned-test-samples in hand, Marshall's team
used a novel technique called structured light 3D scanning to produce three-
dimensional computer-aided design drawings of the gas generator.
"This activity provided us with information for determining how some parts
of the engine might be more affordably manufactured using modern techniques,
" Estes said. "We decided that using modern instrumentation to measure the
generator's performance would provide beneficial [data] for NASA and
industry."
The engineers then used a digital manufacturing technique called selective
laser melting to quickly produce the metal parts they needed for the test
and to determine the hot gas temperature and pressure inside the test
article.
Old pad, new tricks
The series of hot-fire tests were conducted on Test Stand 116 in the
Marshall Space Flight Center's East Test Area.
"We modified the test stand to accommodate a single kerosene gas generator
component," test conductor Ryan Wall said. "These tests demonstrate the
stand's new capabilities, which will be beneficial for future NASA and
industry propulsion activities."
The most noticeable aspect of these firings is the sheer power when the gas
generator ignites and creates roughly 31,000 pounds (14,000 kilograms) of
force. When the original F-1 lit up, the gas generator powered the enormous
turbomachinery that pumped almost three tons of propellant each second into
the thrust chamber and accelerated through the nozzle, creating an
incredible 1.5 million pounds (680,000 kg) of thrust.
"Modern instruments, testing and analysis improvements learned over [the
past] 40 years, and digital scanning and imagery techniques are allowing us
to obtain baseline data on performance and combustion stability," said Nick
Case, an engineer from Marshall's propulsion systems department. "We are
even gathering data not collected when the engine was tested originally in
the 1960s."
Since NASA conducted this work in-house, the data that was collected is not
proprietary. It will be shared with the agency's industry partners and
academic researchers.
More F-1 tests on the horizon
"This effort provided NASA with an affordable way to explore an engine
design in the early development phase of the SLS program," said Chris
Crumbly, manager of the SLS Advanced Development Office.
The larger, evolved SLS vehicle will require an advanced booster with more
thrust than any existing U.S. liquid- or solid-fueled booster. Last year,
NASA awarded contracts aimed at improving the affordability, performance,
and the reliability of the rocket's advanced booster.
Dynetics Inc. of Huntsville, Ala., in collaboration with Pratt & Whitney
Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif. — the same company that developed the F-1
engine — will use these early tests as a springboard for more gas
generator testing at Marshall. Then, they will use modern manufacturing to
build a new gas generator injector that also will be hot fired in Test Stand
116 and then compared to the baseline data collected during the earlier
test series.
Additionally, Dynetics plans to fabricate and test several other F-1 engine
parts, including turbine blades, leading to the testing of an entire F-1B
powerpack including the gas generator and turbopump, the heart of engine
operations. |
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