NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) 20120006571: Peregrine 100-km Sounding Rocket Project

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by  NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Physical Sciences
CCD Camera Lens Interface for Real-Time
Theodolite Alignment
The lens simulates the human eye and creates an improved way to align a system.
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
Theodolites are a common instru- coupled device) array attached to the can be utilized with multiple theodolites
ment in the testing, alignment, and theodolite, but this technique limited the simultaneously. This technology removes
building of various systems ranging from ability to achieve proper focus of the a substantial part of human error by rely-
a single optical component to an entire theodolite because it did not properly ing on the CCD camera and monitors. It
instrument. They provide a precise way simulate the human eye, and therefore in- also allows image recording of the align-
to measure horizontal and vertical an- troduced error. ment, and therefore provides a quantita-
gles. They can be used to align multiple This technology minimizes time re- tive means to measure such error.
objects in a desired way at specific an- quired to align a system with a Leica This method allows a fast and accurate
gles. They can also be used to reference WildT3000 Theodolite or multiple method of alignment and minimizes the
a specific location or orientation of an theodolites. The secondary objective was need for multiple individuals to perform
object that has moved. Some systems to allow a single individual to align a single alignment of multiple theodolites. It also
may require a small margin of error in coupled system to multiple theodolites, si- eliminates the need to look through the
position of components. A theodolite multaneously, in real time. This technol- eyepiece of the theodolite, thus eliminat-
can assist with accurately measuring ogy mounts a CCD camera with a lens at ing the chance of eye injury when dealing
and/or minimizing that error. the theodolite eyepiece. This simulates the with high-intensity light sources. This
Previously, when aligning a system with human eye and creates an improved way method allows the ability to place the
a theodolite, it required the user to use to align a system with the theodolite by in- theodolite in constrained locations that
their unaided eye with the theodolite eye- creasing accuracy and adding the ability to someone using the traditional human eye
piece. When viewing the alignment record alignment quantitatively. technique could not do.
through the eyepiece, the user could in- The technology is an adapter for a CCD This work was done by Shane Wake and V.
duce human error by how well they could camera with lens to attach to a Leica Wild Stanley Scott, III of Goddard Space Flight
see the alignment indicators. Other at- T3000 Theodolite eyepiece that enables Center. Further information is contained in a
tempts have used a bare CCD (charge viewing on a connected monitor, and thus TSP (see page 1).GSC-16175-1
Peregrine 100-km Sounding Rocket Project
The objective is to design, build, test, and fly a stable, efficient liquefying fuel hybrid rocket.
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California
The Peregrine Sounding Rocket capable of 100-km altitude; cluding one full duration burn during
Program is a joint basic research pro- (cid:129) Designed and fabricated flight-weight 1st phase of ground testing.
gram of NASA Ames Research Center, combustion chamber, main oxidizer valve, While this was a significant progress
NASA Wallops, Stanford University, and throttle system, and thrust structure; by any measure, the project suffered a
the Space Propulsion Group, Inc. (cid:129) Successfully completed CoDR, prelimi- schedule setback due to the July 2007
(SPG). The goal is to determine the ap- nary design review (PDR), Critical De- explosion at the Scaled Composites test
plicability of this technology to a small sign Review (CDR), and Integrated site involving nitrous oxide. A thor-
launch system. The approach is to de- Test Readiness Review (ITRR) for ough review of the system design and
sign, build, and fly a stable, efficient liq- ground test facility at NASA Ames Re- nitrous oxide operational procedures
uefying fuel hybrid rocket vehicle to an search Center; was undertaken and several changes
altitude of 100 km. The program was (cid:129) Completed subsystem testing for flight have been implemented to increase
kicked off in October of 2006 and has weight main oxidizer valve, throttle sys- human safety.
seen considerable progress in the subse- tem, helium pressurization system, ig- This research group began studying
quent 18 months. nition system, and thrust structure; liquifying hybrid rocket fuel technology
Within this period significant progress (cid:129) Completed facility integrated test se- more than a decade ago. The overall
was made, including: ries including five cold-flow tests, two goal of the research was to gain a better
(cid:129) Successfully completed Conceptual De- with live igniters, and three hot-fire understanding of the fundamental
sign Review (CoDR) and Prelimin ary tests; physics of the liquid layer entrainment
Design Review (PDR) for flight vehicle (cid:129) Successfully fired motor ten times, in- process responsible for the large increase
NASA Tech Briefs, January 2012 27
in regression rate observed in these fuels, eters of 3, 4, and 6 in. (7.6, 10.2, and (cid:129) Fabricate the sounding rocket sys-
and to demonstrate the effect of in- 15.2 cm) have been flown, but Peregrine tem, transport it to the NASA
creased regression rate on hybrid rocket at a diameter of 15 in. (38.1 cm) and Wallops facility, and launch a payload
motor performance. At the time of this 14,000-lb (62.3-kN) thrust is by far the to 100 km using paraffin and N2O as
reporting, more than 400 motor tests largest system ever attempted and will be the propellants.
were conducted with a variety of oxidiz- one of the largest hybrids ever flown. (cid:129) Demonstrate operational efficiency at
ers (N2O, GOx, LOx) at ever increasing Successful Peregrine flights will set the the Wallops launch site.
scales with thrust levels from 5 to over stage for a wide range of applications of This work was done by Gregory Zilliac of
15,000 pounds (22 N to over 66 kN) in this technology. The metrics of the pro- Ames Research Center. Further information is
order to move this technology from the gram are: contained in a TSP (see page 1).
laboratory to practical applications. (cid:129) Demonstrate satisfactory motor per- Inquiries concerning rights for commercial
The Peregrine program is the natural formance in ground test. use of this invention should be addressed to
next step in this development. A num- (cid:129) Demonstrate motor throttling in the Ames Technology Partnerships Division at
ber of small sounding rockets with diam- ground test. [phone]. Refer to ARC-16240-1.
SOFIA Closed- and Open-Door Aerodynamic Analyses
A series of important evaluations are completed.
Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California
Work to evaluate the aerodynamic rations. Any differences between con- door flights using tufts on the aft por-
characteristics and the cavity acoustic figurations were examined. tion of the fuselage. Video was taken
environment of the SOFIA (Strato- Air data calibration maneuvers were from a chase plane. This video was ana-
spheric Observatory for Infrared Astro- also flown and calibrations were devel- lyzed for various flight conditions, and
nomy) airplane has been completed. oped for the various air data systems, general flow descriptions of the aft fuse-
The airplane has been evaluated in its including the airplane pitot static sys- lage of the 747SP were developed for
closed-door configuration, as well as tem and a Flush Air Data Sensing the different closed and open door con-
several open-door configurations (see (FADS) system. Results were compared figurations.
figure). Work performed included: for different door configurations, to This work was done by Stephen Cumming,
acousticanalysis tool development, cav- determine if door position affected air Mike Frederick, and Mark Smith of
ity acoustic evaluation, stability and con- data measurements. Dryden Flight Research Center. For further in-
trol parameter estimation, air data cali- Qualitative airflow data were ob- formation, contact Yvonne D. Gibbs at
bration, and external flow evaluation. tained during the closed- and open- [email protected]. DRC-010-016
Cavity acoustics were evaluated
using measured pressure data. Of
primary interest were sound pres-
sure levels and frequency response
curves. Analysis tools were primarily
written for MATLAB. Several tools
were developed to allow rapid
analysis of acoustic data, giving en-
gineers the ability to calculate and
examine results from acoustic sen-
sors in and around the telescope
cavity. A batch analysis capability
was created so that analysts could
process data from an entire flight
with one command.
Significant effort was put into
completing the evaluation of the
aerodynamic characteristics of the
modified 747SP airplane in closed-
door and open-door configurations.
Parameter identification maneuvers
were designed and then performed
during closed and open door flight
tests. Parameter estimation data
analysis techniques were used in
conjunction with existing aerody-
namic models to create aerodynamic
models for various airplane configu- Photo of 747SP SOFIA Airplaneundergoing tests in an open-door configuration.
28 NASA Tech Briefs, January 2012