March 6, 2014

Image Caption: Two-percent scale models of the Space Launch System (SLS) solid rocket boosters and core stage RS-25 engines. Credit: NASA/MSFC

[ Watch The Video: Models Helping Engineers Better Understand Heat ]

Megan Davidson, NASA

To better understand the heating conditions at the base of what will be the biggest, most powerful rocket ever built, engineers at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., are thinking small really small.

Models of NASAs Space Launch System (SLS) core stage RS-25 engines and solid rocket boosters scaled down to just 2 percent of the actual size of the flight hardware have been designed, built and hot-fire tested at sea level conditions. The tests are part of the Pathfinder Test Program, which is run by Marshall engineers in close collaboration with Calspan-University of Buffalo Research Center Inc., in Buffalo, N.Y. The SLS core stage, towering more than 200 feet tall with a diameter of 27.6 feet, will store the cryogenic liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen that will feed the vehicles RS-25 engines.

The replicas will help engineers in a huge way by providing data on the convective heating environments that the base of the vehicle will experience during ascent. The models were developed for base heating testing scheduled for this summer.

Data from those tests will be used to set specifications for the design of the rockets base thermal protection system, which keeps major hardware such as wiring, and later the crew, safe from the extreme heat the boosters and engines create while burning on ascent.

So why use mini rocket engines?

Using scale models of the SLS core stage engines and boosters are not only cost-effective but also can fit in a wind tunnel, said Manish Mehta, lead engineer for the SLS Base Heating Test Program. Wind tunnel testing is one of the most proven ways to adequately simulate the pressure and heating an actual rocket will experience during ascent. We had to make sure these models achieve aerodynamic and rocket plume similarity with the real flight vehicle as close as possible.

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Mini Rocket Models Used For Space Launch System Base Heating Test