Post on 12-Jan-2015
description
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
1
49th Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium
March 30, 2011
Bill WrobelDirector, Wallops Flight Facility
Activities at Wallops Flight Facility
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
2
Wallops 6000 Acre CampusMain Base
Wallops Island
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
3
Wallops History
• Founded by NACA in 1945
• Over 16,000 rocket launches conducted over 65+ years
• Wallops’ first satellite, Explorer 9, launched 50 years ago on February 16, 1961
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
4
The Wallops Role
Manage & implement – frequent, – quick-response, – low-cost, – risk-tolerant
missions supporting NASA science & technology research
• Major mission elements– Suborbital & small orbital research carriers– Research Range operations– Carrier & operations technology development
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
5
Sounding Rockets
• 20+ missions flown annually
• 10 vehicle configurations
• 9 worldwide launch sites + mobile campaigns
• Supporting– Heliophysics– Astrophysics– Planetary physics– Technology development– Education
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
6
Exoplanet Finding using Sounding Rockets
• The Planet Imaging Concept Testbed Using Sounding Rocket (PICTURE) uses nulling interferometers.
• PICTURE will flight qualify several key technologies – Extremely light-weight mirror
– Visible nulling coronograph
– Deformable mirror
– 0.5 milli arc-sec pointing
• PICTURE is a collaboration between – Boston University
– Jet Propulsion Laboratory
– Goddard Space Flight Center
– Charles Stark Draper Laboratory
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
7
Scientific Balloons• ~14 missions annually
• Features– Balloon volumes up to 60M cubic ft.– Suspended loads up to 8000 lbs.– Float altitudes of up to 160K feet
• Balloon Classes– Conventional: 2-36 hour duration– Long Duration: 40+ days– Super Pressure: Up to 100 days
• Worldwide launch sites
• Support to– Astrophysics– Technology development– Education
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
8
The Balloon Program Legacy
• Over 4 decades, 30 spacecraft missions have been evolved from balloon missions
TRACER BOOMERANG
TIGER / ANITA
CREAMInFOCuS
FIREBall
AESOP
SunriseBLAST
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
9
New Balloon Technologies
• Super Pressure Balloons– Will provide mission durations of 60-100 days– Recent successful 14MCF test flight from
Antarctica, with 4000 lbs. payload
• Wallops Arc Second Pointer– Providing accuracies of 0.75 arcseconds– Test flight scheduled for Fall 2011– Proposed in recent NASA Explorer Mission of
Opportunity
• Future plans include trajectory control
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
10
Super Pressure Balloon Test Flight (1/2011)
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
11
Airborne Science
• Wallops P-3 currently in Greenland supporting Operation Ice Bridge
• Airborne Topographic LIDAR (ATM) provides precision ice-thickness maps, repeated on an annual basis
• More than 250 science flight hours planned
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
12
Unmanned Aerial Systems - Big & Small
• Wallops will serve as base of operations for NASA’s Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS-3)– Global Hawk flights studying formation of
severe storms– 5-year program beginning in Summer 2012
• Wallops UAS Technology Initiative– 3-year program to demonstrate capabilities
of small UAVs for Earth Science– Standardized instrument support interface
architecture– Miniaturized instrument (e.g., ATM)– Demos using L-3 Viking 300 UAS
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
13
Small Satellites
• Wallops developing proto-flight “6U” small sat design, based on Cubesat standard
• 6U spacecraft provides standardized architecture supporting multiple instrument concepts
• ~2/3 of volume available for instruments
• Initial unit & deployer will complete qualification testing by end of FY11
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
14
Supersonic Inflatable Aeroshell Demonstrator (SIAD)
• Office of Chief Technologist sponsoring program to demonstrate high-speed inflatable decelerator concept for planetary or Earth reentry– JPL-led project team
• Flight tests proposed between 2012-2014
• Wallops providing balloons, avionics, and operations support– High-speed parachute demos– High-altitude rocket accelerated reentry
tests
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
15
Supersonic Inflatable Aeroshell Demonstrator (SIAD)
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
16
ORS-1
• 1st operational spacecraft launch for DoD’s Operationally Responsive Space office– Provides quick-reaction satellites
supporting urgent military needs
• Electro-optical & infrared imaging spacecraft to be launched on a Minotaur 1
• Launch Date: May 2011?
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
17
Lunar Atmosphere Dust Experiment Explorer (LADEE)
• NASA Ames & Goddard built Lunar orbiting spacecraft. Instruments:– Neutral Mass Spectrometer (GSFC)– Ultra-Violet Spectrometer (ARC)– Dust Detector (LASP)– Lunar Laser Comm (Lincoln Labs)
• Wallops providing end-to-end launch service support– USAF-provided Minotaur V– Launch site I&T– Launch range services from WFF’s Pad 0B
• Highlights– 1st flight of Minotaur V– 1st NASA flight on USAF Minotaur vehicle– 1st planetary mission from WFF
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
18
Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Explorer (LADEE)
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
19
Taurus II
• Taurus II expands Wallops capabilities to medium-class ELVs
• Initial missions are 9 launches supporting NASA’s COTS & CRS programs for commercial resupply of the ISS• Future Science & non-NASA
missions expected
• >$100M in new launch infrastructure underway
• Initial flight in late 2011
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
20
Taurus II & ISS Resupply
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
21
Horizontal Integration Facility
GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility
22
Pad 0A Medium-Class ELV Launch Complex