Ares 1

The Ares 1 is part of the Constellation program that NASA is developing for man’s return to the Moon. The Ares 1 is the crew launch vehicle(CLV). The Ares rocket is to be used to replace the Space Shuttle program that is scheduled to be retired at the end of 2010. The CLV is to be used for manned spaceflight only. NASA plans to use Ares I to launch Orion. The Orion spacecraft is being designed for NASA human spaceflight missions. This capsule is intended to complement the larger, unmanned, Ares V which is the cargo launch vehicle for Constellation.

In 1995 Lockheed Martin produced an Advanced Transportation System Studies report. A section of the ATSS report describes several possible vehicles much like the Ares I design, with liquid rocket second stages stacked above segmented solid rocket booster first stages. The variants that were considered included both the J-2S engines and Space Shuttle main engines for the second stage. A Shuttle-derived launch architecture was selected by NASA for the Ares I. Originally, the vehicle would have used a four-segment solid rocket booster for the first stage, and a simplified Space Shuttle main engine for the second stage. An unmanned version was to use the five-segment booster, but with the second stage using the single SSME. Additional tests revealed the Orion spacecraft to be too heavy for the four-segment booster to lift. So, in January 2006 NASA announced they would slightly reduce the size of the Orion spacecraft, add a fifth segment to the solid-rocket first stage, and replace the single SSME with the Apollo-derived J-2X motor. While the change from a four-segment first stage to a five-segment version would allow NASA to construct virtually identical motors, the main reason for the change to the five-segment booster was the move to the J-2X.

At approximately $20-25 million per engine, the J-2X will cost less than half as much as the more complex Space Shuttle main engine. Unlike the Space Shuttle Main Engine, which was designed to start on the ground, the J-2X was designed to be started in both mid-air and in near-vacuum. This air-start capability was critical, especially in the original J-2 engine used on the Saturn V’s S-IVB stage, to propel the Apollo spacecraft to the Moon. Near-vacuum restart capability is needed for the Ares I because it is intended to fly an Earth orbit rendezvous, and because the Orion spacecraft has limited fuel reserves.

Project design is to continue through the end of 2009, with development and qualification testing running concurrently through 2012. As of July 2009, flight articles are to begin production towards the end of 2009 for a first launch in June 2011. Since 2006 the first launch of a human has originally been planned for no later than 2014. The first test flights were to begin in 2011; however, the independent analysis found in late 2009 that due to technical and financial problems Ares I was not likely to have its first crewed launch until 2017-2019 under the current budget, or late 2016 with an unconstrained budget.

Ares 1 and the Constellation program represent the next great leap in spaceflight. There is a good article about Ares 1 here. We offer a great article here on Universe Today about the lightening protection that had to be constructed to protect the Ares 1. Astronomy Cast offers a good episode about the Constellation program as a whole.

Source: NASA

Tagged as: Ares 1, Constellation program