CALIFORNIA -Information obtained from wind tunnel tests will provide insight into the structural strength of the SLS. It is necessary to know the extent to which the rocket can survive during launch and acceleration from subsonic into supersonic flight.
The first mission rocket will launch the Orion spacecraft to orbit the moon as an initial examination of the system. Fleet of spacecraft to be launched without a crew, but NASA hopes to send astronauts to the moon by 2021 and about extending new generation of aerospace technology.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has a big new rocket being developed. The rocket is designed to carry astronauts into orbit outside the Earth in space.
Reported by Wired, Thursday (12/06/2012), Rocket Space Launch System (SLS) will take a trip into space. However, before the device is launched, the rocket made the U.S. space agency must complete the test phase through a wind tunnel.
The first mission of advanced rocket is reportedly began operating in 2017. Now, NASA engineers are busy working on the design of the final stage on the launch vehicle.
NASA will conduct the test phase a model rocket with a length of 10 feet was in the tunnel TRANSONIC in Langley, Virginia. "This test includes an integrated model of the vehicle to be tested in the wind tunnel," said John Blevins, SLS Lead Engineer for aerodynamics and Acoustics.
John said, it will simulate rocket flights have TRANSONIC that SLS will navigate rocket during flight. This model will be sped up to a speed of Mach 1.2 (supersonic).
There are 360 pressure transducers are scattered across the surface of the model. According to NASA, the data obtained at the level of 13 thousand scans per second.
