On Friday, November eleventh, NASA Affiliate Administrator for Exploration Programs Growth Mission Directorate Jim Free held a media occasion to offer an replace on how the Artemis launch automobile weathered Hurricane Nicole. On the night of Sunday, November thirteenth, the Artemis I mission administration crew met to follow-up on the standing of the Artemis 1 automobile and concluded by giving a “go” for launch within the early hours of Wednesday, November 16.
Results of Hurricane Nicole on the Artemis 1 Car
Climate injury because of Hurricane Nicole to the Orion spacecraft was minimal. In essence, some climate stripping was partly torn-off, a purge umbilical to the Orion spacecraft was blown out of its holding tray, and a few water bought into the crew entry arm.
A bit of RTV, or room temperature vulcanizing, silicon rubber climate stripping on the Orion LAS (launch abort system), the place the ogive on Orion’s LAS meets the crew module adapter, got here lose. One resolution to repair that is to have a technician on the Orion entry arm lean over and, as Assoc. Admin. Jim Free stated, “…snip it off.” The Artemis 1 mission administration crew will meet on the afternoon of Monday, November 14th, to find out what to do concerning the dislocated stripping.
An umbilical line to Orion, for circulating air to keep up a great humidity, got here off the tray that it sat in. The umbilical has since been put again into its tray. The umbilical by no means got here lose as its purge features, which have been being constantly monitored, continued uninterrupted throughout hurricane Nicole.
The Orion Crew Entry Arm bought a little bit water in it, which has since been cleaned up.
That’s is the sum complete of the consequences of Hurricane Nicole on the Orion spacecraft.
As minimal because the injury trigger by Nicole on the Orion spacecraft was, there was even much less injury to the SLS launch automobile that may ship Orion to the Moon.
A water cowl on one of many RS-25 engines was torn however might be mounted.
There are a number of purge traces that feed into the SLS launch automobile. As with the Orion spacecraft, purge actions of the SLS automobile have been monitored throughout Hurricane Nicole. There have been no interruptions throughout the storm.
On the tail service mast, on the base of the SLS automobile, {an electrical} cable on the LH2 (liquid hydrogen) tail service mast was giving some off-nominal electrical alerts. After reseating after which changing the cable to the connector, engineers proceed to see off-nominal electrical alerts. So tonight, Sunday evening, a element of {an electrical} connector on the hydrogen tail service mast umbilical ground-side plate might be changed. NASA has said that ought to changing the connector not treatment the defective alerts, engineers have redundant sources of knowledge supplied by way of the cable and this difficulty is not going to hold-up the Artemis 1 countdown.
Concerning the tail mast 4″ and eight″ LH2 umbilical traces and the QD’s (quick-disconnects) that interface these traces on the base of the launch automobile, wind pace remained beneath certification limits of the LOX and LH2 QD’s. The LH2 and LOX interfaces on the tail mast look good, based on Assoc. Administrator Free.
The Wind Velocity Query
Quite a lot of noise was made by just a few retailers that the wind speeds because of Hurricane Nicole exceeded the designed limits of the Artemis 1 launch automobile. Assoc. Administrator Free tried to make clear for all that NASA’s said wind pace restrict for the Artemis launch automobile of 74 knots wind pace is for 60′ of peak, not the entire peak of the automobile. He famous that wind pace will increase the additional one goes up because of decreased drag induced by the bottom and by turbulence from layers beneath. The Artemis automobile was designed to deal with greater wind speeds at greater places on the automobile.
To seize the wind speeds throughout Hurricane Nicole, NASA positioned a conveyable anemometer (wind pace gauge) at 55′ degree on cellular launch tower. Wind pace on the 132′ degree was additionally measured. Streamers have been put out on the automobile to measure wind course throughout the storm and monitored with cameras. Wind measurements have been additionally taken on the high of lighting towers on the 457’ degree.
The 60’ peak for referencing wind pace information has been used through the years, together with the Shuttle period. The distinction between 55’, the place NASA positioned the moveable anemometer, and 60’ isn’t deemed materials.
Along with monitoring wind pace on the 55′, 132′, and 457′ ranges, masses on the Artemis 1 automobile have been monitored on the eight help posts–there are 4 for every stable rocket booster–which can be on the base of the mobile launch platform, and the automobile stabilizer, which is about 2/3 of the way in which up the launch automobile.
Assoc. Administrator Free made clear that at no time throughout Hurricane Nicole did wind speeds exceed the certification limits of the Artemis 1 launch automobile. Wind pace and masses at automobile stabilizer have been by no means exceeded and remained inside certification throughout Hurricane Nicole.
Assoc. Administrator Free took a while to make clear that the said wind restrict for the Flight Readiness Cycle is 75% of the wind restrict, leaving one other 25%. So even when the wind pace at 55′ had been 74 knots, there was one other 25% of margin left. Moreover, Free said that above that’s the issue of security, which is 1.4.
At one other level, Assoc. Administrator Free talked about that one of many side-effects of designing a automobile over a ten yr interval is that you’ve time to build-in quite a lot of margin, on this case wind pace, but in addition leaving one to wonder if these margins are too conservative. He famous that conservative design margins improve value, so it’s widespread to marvel if these margins shouldn’t be relaxed. He concluded this level by noting that he was glad for the wind pace margins of the launch automobile.
Going ahead, based on NASA, the two-hour window for launch opens at 1:04 AM EST Wednesday and the countdown clock will start-up at 1:54 AM Monday.
