NASA LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER WILL UTILIZE THE CONTRACTORS POLYSONIC WIND TUNNEL TO SUPPORT THE ARES PROJECT…

Public award description

NASA LANGLEY RESEARCH CENTER WILL UTILIZE THE CONTRACTORS POLYSONIC WIND TUNNEL TO SUPPORT THE ARES PROJECT. TO SUPPORT THE ASSESSMENT OF THE ARES DAC 2 CONFIGURATION, THE DATA TO DEVELOP THE AERODYNAMIC DATABASE IS REQUIRED OVER THE ASCENT MACH RANGE. A 0.01-SCALE ( ~ 38 LONG) WIND TUNNEL MODEL HAS BEEN BUILT TO TEST AT NASA LARCS UNITARY PLAN WIND TUNNEL, FOR THE MACH RANGE 1.5-4.6. DATA IS REQUIRED AT THE LOWER SPEEDS FOR THE INITIAL PHASE OF ASCENT. THE CONTRACTORS POLYSONIC WIND TUNNEL TEST COVERS THE MACH RANGE 0.4-1.6 PROVIDING DATA FOR THE EARLY ASCENT PHASE FOR ARES FLIGHT. THIS FACILITY ALLOWS THE USE OF THE NEWLY FABRICATED MODEL, STING, AND BALANCE HARDWARE. THE CONTRACTOR SHALL PROVIDE HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS FOR TESTING IN THE POLYSONIC WIND TUNNEL. THE CONTRACTOR SHALL PROVIDE A TASK BALANCE IF THE NASA LARC NTF-107 BALANCE EXHIBITS EXCESSIVE DYNAMICS DURING TESTING OR FAILS DURING TESTING. THE CONTRACTOR SHALL PROVIDE THE WIND TUNNEL FACILITY AND PERSONNEL TO INSTALL THE MODEL HARDWARE AND PERFORM THE BELOW TEST MATRIX AND SHALL PROVIDE ALL DATA REDUCTION SET-UP, TRANSMITTALS, DATA FILES AND VERIFICATION. THE CONTRACTOR SHALL PERFORM CHECK-LOADINGS AND ANGLE-OF-ATTACK VERIFICATION, WIND OFF ZEROS, AND WEIGHT TARE PROCEDURES. BASED ON THE TEST MATRIX, THE CONTRACTOR SHALL PROVIDE FLOW ANGULARITY EVALUATIONS. THE CONTRACTOR SHALL PROVIDE PRELIMINARY TEST DATA TO NASA LARC ON-SITE ENGINEERS FOR REVIEW DURING THE TEST.