NASA’s Space Launch System Endures Critical Wind Tunnel Testing

If NASA’s ambitions for sending humanity to Mars are ever going to take off, the successful development of a new rocket system is essential. Given that reality, NASA’s engineers have been hard at work building the Space Launch System, a massive rocket that rivals the Saturn V systems which put the first men on the Moon. After years of development, the SLS is becoming more mature, as evidenced by a model of the rocket being subjected to wind tunnel tests.

One of the most critical stages of a rocket launch happens well before the vessel enters the upper atmosphere. As it ascends from the launch pad, the rocket races toward supersonic speed. However, just before it transitions past the speed of sound, turbulence caused by this phase transition can cause the rocket to move erratically.

“Just below supersonic is where shock waves begin to form on the vehicle and can dance and oscillate on the rocket,” explained Langley rocket scientist Dave Piatak. “The first step of these missions is safely getting above Earth’s atmosphere and into orbit.”

Obviously, an oscillating rocket isn’t really what NASA’s mission control team is hoping for on the day of launch. To ensure that those conditions never reach the Cape Canaveral, NASA’s team turned to their Transonic Dynamics Tunnel, a wind tunnel at Virginia’s Langley Research Center.

Engineers and dynamics experts at Langley used a 10-foot model of the SLS laden with 446 miniature microphones to record the shakes and buffets that shimmied across the rocket’s body as it approached supersonic speed.

Using high-performance data acquisition computers, the team collected a mass of data that will ultimately find its way into a digital, structural model of the SLS. From that model, NASA engineers will be able to assess whether the current design for the SLS has been honed enough to slip the surly bonds of Earth.

In the coming years, the SLS will be subject to a number of other trials including several more wind tunnel tests. If each test meets NASA’s exacting design criteria, the SLS could begin taking humans, robots and supplies needed to explore Mars and beyond sometime in the early 2030s.