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Ames Research Center has played and will

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continue to play an important role in

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returning the space shuttle flight games

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has contributed to safety of the shuttle

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in several ways computing simulations

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and lab tests generated new data for

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preparing the shuttle and new facilities

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here will provide operational support

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during missions during every launch a

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certain amount of debris falls away in

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order to understand this phenomena we

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needed to simulate the event without

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actually flying a shuttle a technique

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called computational fluid dynamics or

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cfd is a method of using computers to

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simulate airflow over the shuttle wing

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during launch and reentry it requires

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millions of calculations but it can

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we've been working very closely with a

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number of engineers at Johnson for a

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quite a number of years in developing

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our computational fluid dynamics tools

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we've helped supply them with

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computational capability to analyze the

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sense of the redesigned external tank as

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well as to understand the debris

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environment that the vehicle has to go

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through as it's flying through the air

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even very small pieces of debris when

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they're traveling extremely fast and

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still in part significant impact to the

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vehicle and these are things that we

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have to look out for that we're still at

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risk for but that we have a very good

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understanding of what that risk is and

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we can try to avoid it the super

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computing facility here at Ames is

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absolutely unique and it's the fastest

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operational supercomputer in the world

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and its really allowed us to analyze our

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data compute our cases and just do

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things that we never would have been

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able to do without this facility in

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addition to the Columbia supercomputer

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Ames has several test facilities that

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are necessary to validate the cfd

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simulations with real-world data one is

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the ballistic range

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the CFD folks thought they are

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constructed a pretty good code it will

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really predict the motion of the shuttle

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form fragments but they wanted to check

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it so they said look you guys in the

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range you fire maybe 2025 projectiles

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see how they actually fly and we'll see

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if we can predict them with the CFD code

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what we're firing is a small disk like

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projectile it's about 1.4 inches in

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diameter for these particular tests were

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firing at about Mach 3 or about one

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kilometer or a second another way of

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validating CFD results involve building

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a small model of the shuttle three

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percent of its actual size and equipping

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it with hundreds of miniature sensors

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this allowed us to look at design

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modifications on the fuel tanks fairings

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and other areas of shuttle that might

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we were looking at doing some fairly

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detailed measurements on a three percent

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scale model of the shuttle in its ascent

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configuration with the external tank and

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SRB is attached tests in the 70s were

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done as part of the design process they

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really didn't understand the

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aerodynamics of the vehicle until they

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did the wind tunnel tests and those

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tests were primarily concerned with the

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performance some loads measurements but

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certainly not the detail that we need to

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look at now to make sure that the

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vehicle is safe to fly and the

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modifications that are being made will

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be safe there's new measurement

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techniques in particular pressure

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sensitive paint gives a complete map of

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the pressure over the entire geometry

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new types of measurements using optical

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techniques have made measurements

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possible that we couldn't do back in the

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70s so it it really is much richer

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database now that we're able to generate

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for the for the shuttle those

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measurements helped validate our

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calculations and show that the

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computational work matches the real

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the agency had to develop a few repair

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materials and techniques for treating

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damage to the shuttles wings one of the

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critical test facilities at Ames is

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called an arc jet this is a closed wind

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tunnel that generates air speeds and

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heating similar to what the shuttle

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encounters during reentry the agency was

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concerned that a debris strike would

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punch a hole in the wing leading edge

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and so they came up with a concept of a

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plug this is a typical plug

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configuration it's designed with some

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curvature to fit over the curvature of

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the wing leading edge early in the test

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program a lot of the plugs were failing

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and we learn lessons from those failures

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we knew we had to change the materials

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we had to change the shape and the

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angles to really try to adjust this plug

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so that it will stands the entry

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conditions this data was passed on to

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another group of CFD engineers who

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focused on analyzing the effects of

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atmospheric heating on specific types of

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tile damage and the repairs that might

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be made to them one is the analysis of

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damage and the other is the analysis of

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repair the object of CFD is to analyze

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both and determine whether both are in

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fact good candidates for entry or not

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you need on the order of a hundred

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solutions in under 24 hours in order to

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put enough credible data on the table to

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make a decision we had the ability to do

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CFD but it took us three weeks to

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generate even one solution during the

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return flight program we've moved the

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capabilities to the Columbia

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supercomputer we can now turn around a

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after every landing it's extremely

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important to closely examine all the

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shuttle services for damage in the past

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this has been extremely tedious and a

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time-consuming chore done manually one

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of our research has developed a device

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that could speed up the task and create

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a much higher degree of accuracy we

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developed a handheld laser scanning

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device that helps the technicians it

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speeds up their measurements

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tremendously and it makes the

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measurements more accurate and more

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reliable so you put the unit over the

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tile and you press a button and it takes

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a scan in about two seconds they will

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know as soon as they take the

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measurement if there is a problem with

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that tile that needs to be repaired so

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it takes a lot of the human tedious work

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out of it and therefore I think it

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increases the safety because it

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some of the ongoing support the names is

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given to the space program has been

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the vertical motion simulator is

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actually a simulation of the space

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shuttle coming in through landing and

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roll out the simulator out here at NASA

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Ames Research Center is a fantastic

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simulator for us to not just practice

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normal landings but to also practice

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emergency landings any type of failure

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that could possibly happen to the Space

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Shuttle on touchdown things like blown

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tires or you know brakes not working

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nose wheel steering a nice kid hi

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crosswinds it's a high fidelity sim and

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Glenn tastic training another great

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thing about the sim is in the visuals it

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could put runways from all over the

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world so we train all of our backup

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landing sites we have two runways in

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Spain and one of France we can also land

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at Edwards Air Force Base in Southern

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California white sands and New Mexico we

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don't really have the resources to take

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an airplane out there and look at all

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those airfields so it's really efficient

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for us to come out here and see in the

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they're very few off-the-shelf solutions

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really comes down to building space

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flight hardware you need to use a lot of

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different disciplines and you need

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insights from a lot of different people

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I think we've been invaluable to the

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program as a center and so it's been

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very gratifying to help help the program

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move forward NASA Ames is committed to

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astronaut safety and mission success all

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of these contributions add up to

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something we're very proud of returning