{"id":848,"date":"2020-03-13T13:10:34","date_gmt":"2020-03-13T16:10:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/?p=848"},"modified":"2023-03-29T14:05:28","modified_gmt":"2023-03-29T17:05:28","slug":"environment-design-criteria-boosting-efficiency-and-minimizing-risks-and-costs-in-launch-vehicle-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/2020\/03\/13\/environment-design-criteria-boosting-efficiency-and-minimizing-risks-and-costs-in-launch-vehicle-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Environment design criteria: boosting efficiency and minimizing risks and costs in launch vehicle development"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rosa Moraes, Scientific Journalist, Linceu Editorial, S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9 dos Campos, SP, Brazil<\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Scientists Dale L. Johnson and William W. Vaughan of NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (Retired) developed an essential manual for building and applying Natural Environment (NE) design criteria to launch vehicles design and development. The study published by the Journal of Aerospace Technology and Management\u00a0 (vol. 11 and 12), proposes guidelines for collecting data and defining the specific Natural Environment, acting as a guide for the formation and application of knowledge of environmental factors \u2014 Terrestrial and Spacial \u2014 that should influence on the operations and missions of the space vehicles.<\/p>\n

The subject is dealt with in three papers: In the first part, entitled \u201cThe Role of Terrestrial and Space Environments in Launch Vehicle Development\u201d, the authors analyze the influence of these natural environments on all aspects of launch vehicles; their structures and the systems associated with them. At this time, special emphasis is placed on the importance of good alignment between the engineering team and NE researchers\u2019 team, focusing on the setting of design guidelines. The main factors to be observed as sources for the projection of each Natural Environment are introduced in this stage.<\/p>\n

The second part of the study, called \u201cKey Terrestrial and Space Environment Sources\u201d, goes deeper into the environmental impacts that affect the vehicle, analyzing the issues that must be addressed during the conceptual stage of the project, bringing a series of Rules of Thumb that must be carefully observed in each scenario. In this step, the criteria guidelines for applying the NE to the spacecraft\/aircraft design are presented to optimize its functions, improve the system and minimize the risks and costs of the program. The article distinguishes between the terrestrial\u00a0 environment (0 – 90 km altitude) and the space environment (orbital altitudes of the Earth), relating the occurrence of environmental phenomena and their specific effects in each part of the vehicle systems and subsystems, during each new phase of the mission.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Image: NASA<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

As the wind is the most important atmospheric parameter when considering the design of a launch vehicle, the third part, \u201cThe wind environment interactions relative to launch vehicle design\u201d, published in the journal Journal of Aerospace Technology and Management<\/em> (Vol. 12), brings\u00a0 considerations about the effects of aerodynamic loads produced by the wind, which are very significant both on the launch pad stage and on in-flight, and therefore have a major impact on the design of vehicle configurations.<\/p>\n

In clear and detailed language, the article provides guidance on the characteristics of the different profiles and wind loads, with models and examples, exposing the possible risks and critical points in each environment. The effects of wind on the vehicle\u2019s guidance system and the vehicle’s control system are analyzed separately.<\/p>\n

For the analysis of Wind-Vehicle aerodynamic loads, an alternative to Monte Carlo-type statistical analysis is presented. The study describes the main wind disturbances used to calculate the aerodynamic load and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of each method.<\/p>\n

Model examples of the application of NE in the development of aircraft engineering are presented in detail, with the application of the parameters found and their effects. The use of wind models and atmospheric models is also largely addressed in the article, illustrated with graphs and tables.<\/p>\n

It is important that this work gets set from the early concept stages of the program, enforcing the recommendations by Anderson and Smith (1994): “Assessments made early in the development program will prove advantageous in maintaining an economical program and obtaining a vehicle with minimal operational sensitivity to the environment”.<\/p>\n

Also, the article provides a substantial bibliography to guide the NE team in managing and interpreting the information obtained by observing the environmental peculiarities and the relative specific requirements defined or desired about the natural environment, for the implementation of the parameters which will define the design criteria in order to compose the Environment Design Criteria document, to be applied to the system requirements protocol in all phases of operation and flight.<\/p>\n

References<\/h3>\n

ANDERSON. B.J. and SMITH, R.E. Natural orbital environment guidelines for use in aerospace vehicle development (TM-4527). NASA Technical Memorandum<\/em>, 1994.<\/p>\n

\n

To read the article, access it<\/h3>\n

JOHNSON, D.L. and VAUGHAN, W.W. The Wind environment interactions relative to launch vehicle design. J. Aerosp. Technol. Manag<\/em>. [online]. 2020, vol. 12, e0220, ISSN 2175-9146. [viewed 13 March 2020]. DOI: 10.5028\/jatm.v12.1090<\/a>. Available from: http:\/\/ref.scielo.org\/t429jp<\/a><\/p>\n

External link<\/h3>\n

Journal of Aerospace Technology and Management \u2013 JATM: <http:\/\/www.scielo.br\/jatm<\/a>><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The influence of the Natural Environment is a factor that affects all phases of launch vehicle\/aircraft design, development and operation. Factors such as wind, turbulence, temperature extremes, atmospheric density, ionizing radiation, meteors, space debris, plasma and events related to solar activity, among other environmental phenomena, represent constraints and specific requirements that must be taken into account from the beginning of the project development program for a launch vehicle, so that it presents maximum efficiency in fulfilling its mission. The application of environmental design criteria aims to minimize risks, reduce costs and obtain the best possible vehicle performance. …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":288,"featured_media":849,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6,22,12],"tags":[193,23],"class_list":["post-848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engineering","category-jatm","category-press-releases","tag-engineering","tag-journal-of-aerospace-technology-and-management"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/288"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1566,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848\/revisions\/1566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressreleases.scielo.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}