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ADTO # 66 - June 4, 1999 PART 1: Upcoming Chats UPCOMING CHATS
QuestChats require pre-registration. Unless otherwise noted, registration is at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/chats/#chatting Wednesday, June 9, 1999, 10 AM Pacific Daylight Time: Mary Reveley, aerospace engineer Mary works in the Propulsion Systems Analysis Office (PSAO), which is a systems analysis group. The group uses different methods to try to predict how aircraft and engine designs will perform. Mary is also responsible for determining the cost of manufacturing new propulsion and aviation technologies, as well as how they will affect the environment. Read Mary Reveley's profile prior to joining this chat. http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/team/reveley.html Choose a chat!! Do you have a chat of your dreams you'd like to request? Is there a time that would be perfect to chat? Send me a note I'll try to choose the experts and times that will guarantee your attendance!! Susan Lee, slee@mail.arc.nasa.gov PROJECT NEWS
Right Flying at the United States Air Force Academy Aeronautics Lab WebCast See the action of "Right Flying Gliders" being tested in the Wind Tunnel. Participate in a Webchat with other students about the test! Which planes do you guess will have the best performance? - - - - - - - Prepare for the High Speed Civil Transport Test! Did you love following the Wright Flyer Wind Tunnel Test? Well, we've got a great test coming up in July, 1999. It's another test of the model of the High Speed Civil Transport model that was tested here last in 1997. Future travelers may use this new type of aircraft, designed by NASA, to traverse the globe in a matter of hours. The High Speed Civil Transport promises to be the fastest airliner ever conceived, reaching speeds four times that of the Concorde, delivering passengers in Tokyo three hours after departure from San Francisco. Here's what you can do to get ready for this test: Read Mina Cappuccio's Profile: Mina is the main researcher on this test. http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/team/cappuccio.html Read Fanny Zuniga's journals from the last HSCT test in the 12 foot pressure wind tunnel. Find out what happened the last time the HSCT model was here! http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/events/test.html [Editor's note: Mary Reveley works as an Aerospace Engineer at Glenn Research Center. She works in the Propulsion Systems Analysis Office. She uses computers to study the cost of new propulsions system both in terms of how expensive they are in $'s and in environmental costs! Read her profile at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/team/reveley.html ] SHOW ME THE MONEY! by Mary Reveley Journal entry for June 2, 1999 Money always gets people's attention. My job is to determine how much money is needed for new and unconventional aeropropulsion technology concepts on engine/aircraft systems. The results of which are used to influence the NASA technology investment and decision making processes. Today I was given a new assignment: determine/find/development a new cost estimating method for estimating the costs associated with a reusable rocket based combined cycle launch vehicle. An active area of hypersonic propulsion research at Glenn is the application of air-breathing propulsion to launch vehicles in order to reduce the cost of space access. . Air-breathing propulsion: the piston engine, turbojet, ramjet- all depend on the combustion of fuel with air, where the air is obtained directly from the atmosphere. In contrast, the rocket engine carries both its fuel and oxidizer and is completely independent of the atmosphere for its combustion. Thus, the rocket can operate in the vacuum of space, where obviously the air-breathing engines cannot. Space access is costly for a number of economic and technical reasons. A rocket is an expendable launch vehicle used for only one flight. The Space Shuttle has a number of expendable components such as the external tank. Others, such as the main engines must be refurbished after every flight. The various components must then be reassembled prior to the next flight. This makes the shuttle one of the most expensive means of putting payload into orbit. From a qualitative technical standpoint, a case can be made for launch vehicles that would be reused many time's without refurbishment or re-assembly. This implies a highly reusable, single-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle. It currently costs on the order of ten to twenty thousand dollars per pound to launch payload into orbit. The future of the space program is hindered by this high cost and associated low reliability. The rocket-based combined cycle engine combines the high thrust of a rocket, which is needed for lift-off, with the ram jet engine, which can be exploited after an initial acceleration to sufficient velocity. Upon reaching an appropriate maximum ramjet Mach number, the rocket is re-ignited for the final acceleration to orbit. Getting back to my problem for the day (and the rest of the month!) is how do I estimate the costs of developing, manufacturing and using this rocket-based combined cycle engine? Welcome to NASA where the unusual is usual! I will spend time researching any work already done by fellow workers, search for information at our library, and contact the Air Force since they have done cost estimating work on advanced concepts. I will also have to learn a cost estimating program used widely by government and industry called Price-H which is a hardware cost estimating computer model. Today I have been reviewing how the following engines work: the rocket-based combined cycle, the scram jet and the ram jet. SUBSCRIBING & UNSUBSCRIBING: HOW TO DO IT!
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