2023-08-01 11:19:13
Illustration of the MAV – NASA
MADRID, 1 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The first launch of a rocket from the surface of another planet, which will star in NASA’s MAV (Mars Ascent Vehicle) on Mars, It will be achieved using two solid fuel engines.
The team that developed MAV –part of the MSR program to bring back samples from the Red Planet– conducted successful tests of the first and second stage solid rocket motors required for launch.
Mars Sample Return (MSR) will bring scientifically selected samples to Earth for study using the most sophisticated instrumentation in the world. This strategic partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) presents the first mission to return samples from another planet. Samples currently being collected by NASA’s Perseverance rover during its exploration of an ancient river delta have the potential to reveal the early evolution of Mars, including the potential of ancient life.
The MAV will currently launch in June 2028and the samples will reach Earth in the early 2030s.
To make it successful, the NASA team in charge of it is currently conducting extensive testing, analysis, and review of the design and components. The vehicle will travel aboard the Sample Retrieval Lander during launch from Earth, a two-year trip to Mars and nearly a year of receipt of samples collected by Perseverance.
After the sample transfer arm on the lander loads the Perseverance samples into a sample container on the nose of the rocket, the MAV will launch from Mars into orbit around the planet, releasing the sample container for the Earth Return Orbiter captures it.
The launch of the MAV will be carried out using two solid rocket motors: SRM1 y SRM2. SRM1 will propel MAV away from the Red Planet’s surface, while SRM2 will spin MAV’s second stage to bring the sample container into the correct orbit of Mars, allowing the Earth Return Orbiter to find it.
To test solid rocket motor designs, the MAV team prepared development engines. This allowed the team to see how the engines will perform and if adjustments need to be made before building them for the mission. The SRM2 development engine was tested on March 29, 2023. Then the SRM1 development engine was tested on April 7.
SRM1’s test was conducted in a vacuum chamber that was cooled to minus 20 degrees Celsius and allowed the team to also test a supersonic split-line nozzle, part of SRM1’s thrust vector control system. Most gimbaled solid rocket motor nozzles are designed in a way that they can’t handle the extreme cold that the MAV will experience, so the team had to come up with something that could: a state-of-the-art trapped ball nozzle with a supersonic split line.
After testing and tearing down the SRM1 development engine, the analysis showed that the team’s ingenuity was successful.
In fact, the split-line supersonic nozzle has reached the sixth of nine technology readiness levels, known as TRL-6, developed by NASA. TRL-1 is the starting point where there is only one idea for a new technology, while TRL-9 means that the technology has been successfully developed, tested, and used for a mission in space.
Benjamin Davis, MAV manager at NASA’s Marshall Center, said it’s a statement that the split-line supersonic nozzle achieved TRL-6 through vacuum bench tests and full-scale hot-fire tests in April. The results are being independently evaluated and will be confirmed in August.
The split-line supersonic nozzle will also undergo qualification testing to ensure it can handle the intense shaking and vibration of launch, the near-vacuum of space, and the extreme heat and cold expected during the MAV’s journey.
#rocket #world #carry #solid #engines