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== Mercury Boilerplates ==
== Mercury Boilerplates ==
Mercury Boilerplates were manufactured "in-house" by [[Langley AFB]] technicians prior to [[McDonnell Aircraft]] Company builing the [[Mercury spacecraft]]. The boilerplate capsules were designed and used to test spacecraft recovery systems, and escape tower and [[rocket motor]]s. Formal tests were done on test pad at Langley and at [[Wallops Island]] using the [[Little Joe]] rockets.<ref>[http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/BROWSE/mercury_program.html NASA Mercury History] Sections #44 and #47 </ref> <ref>[http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2000-003008.html Little Joe Rockets with Boilerplates]</ref>
Mercury Boilerplates were manufactured "in-house" by [[Langley AFB]] technicians prior to [[McDonnell Aircraft]] Company builing the [[Mercury spacecraft]]. The boilerplate capsules were designed and used to test spacecraft recovery systems, and escape tower and [[rocket motor]]s. Formal tests were done on test pad at Langley and at [[Wallops Island]] using the [[Little Joe]] rockets.<ref>[http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/BROWSE/mercury_program.html NASA Mercury History] Sections #44 and #47 </ref> <ref>[http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2000-001731.html Mercury Project Boilerplates] and [http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/ABSTRACTS/GPN-2000-003008.html Little Joe Rockets with Boilerplates]</ref>


A summary of Mercury Boilerplates can be found at [http://aesp.nasa.okstate.edu/fieldguide/pages/mercury/index.html A Field Guide to American Spacecraft].
A summary of Mercury Boilerplates can be found at [http://aesp.nasa.okstate.edu/fieldguide/pages/mercury/index.html A Field Guide to American Spacecraft].

Revision as of 16:27, 22 October 2007

Boilerplate version of Gemini spacecraft on display at Air Force Space and Missile Museum, Cape Canaveral, Florida October 15, 2004.

The term Boilerplate in rocketry refers to a non-functional craft, system, or payload which is used to test various configurations and basic size, load, and handling characteristics. During these tests, procedures are developed in mating boilerplates to rocket boosters along with emergency access and egress, maintenance support activities, and various transportation processes. It is far less expensive to build multiple full scale spacecraft and test individual components, while detailed contracts for the final project are being negotiated. It is cost-prohibited to develop the full system (design, test, redesign, and launch) to test all the unknown aspects of cutting edge aerospace projects.

Boilerplate spacecraft are most commonly used to test manned spacecraft, for example, in the early 1960s, NASA performed many tests of boilerplates. Such boilerplates were made for Apollo spacecraft atop Saturn I rockets, Gemini spacecraft atop Titan II rockets, and Mercury spacecraft atop Big Joe 1 rockets. Future space travel to destinations in our solar system will include boilerplate Orion spacecraft atop Ares boosters.

Mercury Boilerplates

Mercury Boilerplates were manufactured "in-house" by Langley AFB technicians prior to McDonnell Aircraft Company builing the Mercury spacecraft. The boilerplate capsules were designed and used to test spacecraft recovery systems, and escape tower and rocket motors. Formal tests were done on test pad at Langley and at Wallops Island using the Little Joe rockets.[1] [2]

A summary of Mercury Boilerplates can be found at A Field Guide to American Spacecraft.

Noteable Events

Section sources.[3] [4]

  • 1959 July 22 - First successful pad abort flight test with a functional escape tower attached to a Mercury Boilerplate.
  • 1959 July 28 - A Mercury Boilerplate with instruments to measure sound pressure levels and vibrations from the Little Joe test rocket and Grand Central abort rocket/escape tower.
  • 1959 September 9 - A Big Joe Atlas boilerplate Mercury (BJ-1) was successfully launched and flown from Cape Canaveral. This test flight were to determine the performance of the heat shield (greater than 100,000 deg F) and heat transfer to the boilerplate, observe flight dynamics of boilerplate during reentry into the South Atlantic, to perform and evaluate capsule floation and recovery system procedures; and to evaluate the entire capsule and rocket characters and system controls.[5]

Photos

  • Mercury pad test.
    Mercury pad test.
  • Mercury parachute test.
    Mercury parachute test.
  • Mercury floation test.
    Mercury floation test.


Gemini Boilerplates

Gemini Boilerplate 3A had functional doors and had muli-uses for testing water-tightness, flotation collars, and egress procedures.

Photos

Apollo Boilerplates (BPs)

NASA created a variety of Apollo BPs. A list of them can be found in Apollo Section of A Field Guide to American Spacecraft.

Lauch Escape System Tests (LES)

Apollo Boilerplate BPs were used in the Launch Escape System (LES) for tests of the jetison tower rockets and procedures:

  • BP-6 with Pad Abort Test-1 - LES pad abort test from launch pad; with photo.
  • BP-23A with Pad Abort Test-2 - LES pad abort test of near Block-I CM; with photo.
  • BP-23 with Mission A-002 Test Flight -- LES test of canards, Oct.29-Nov.5, 1964.[6]
File:Solarapex DSC06159.JPG
BP-29 at Barringer Crater (used for flotation tests)

Other BPs

BP-1101A

This McDonnell Boilerplate is now on loan to the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum[7], Denver, Colorado, from the Smithsonian. BP-1101A has an external painted marking of AP.5. Examination of the interior in 2006 revealed large heavy steel ingots.[8] After further research, a new paint scheme was applied in June 2007.

BP-1101A was used in numerous tests to develop spacecraft recovery equipment and procedures. Specifically, 1101A tested the air bags as part of the "up-righting" procedure when the Apollo lands upside down in the water. The sequence of the bags inflating caused the capsule to roll and up-right itself. [9]

BP-1220/1228 Series

Section source.[10]

The purpose of this series design was to simulate various external physical characteristics and it’s weight of the Apollo command module. These prototypes were in the 9000 lbs range for both laboratory water tanks and ocean tests. These experiments tested floatation collars, collar installations, and buoyancy characteristics. NASA had the Navy test their recovery personnel to train for ocean collar installation and shipboard retrieval procedures. These boilerplates rarely had internal equipment. See BP-1228 Photo.

Orion Boilerplate

Section source.[11]

NASA’s future space flights to the Moon are being planned for 2015. These flights will be based upon the Orion spacecraft and its Ares booster. The Shuttles are planned to be retired in 2010. The Orion boilerplates will be used between 2008 and 2014 using the Ares I booster and the heavy-lift launches Ares V, both of which are slated to launch initially from NASA’s Pad 39B site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The construction of the first Orion Boilerplate, will be a basic mockup prototype to test the assembling sequences and launch procedures at NASA’s Langley Research Center while Lockheed aerospace engineers assemble the first rocket motors for the spacecraft’s escape tower. The first boilerplate will go to Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, California, for integration of Lockheed's avionics and NASA's developmental flight instrumentation[12] prior to shipment to New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range for the first Orion pad abort test (PA-1) in September, 2008. PA-1 is the first of the six test events in Orion Abort Flight Test subproject. Lockheed Martin Corp. was awarded the contract to build Orion on Aug. 31, 2006

Other boilerplates will be used to test thermal, electromagnetic, audio, mechanical vibration conditions and research studies. These tests for the Orion spacecraft will be done at Plum Brook Station in the agency’s Ohio-based Glenn Research Center. The first boilerplate Orions will launched/tested as early as 2008.[13][14]

The Orion-Ares configuration is known as a part of NASA’s Project Constellation. This project’s plan is to send humans to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations in the solar system. Its base components will consist of the Launch Abort System the Crew Module, the Service Module, and the Spacecraft Adapter.

Further information: Orion (spacecraft) § Testing

References

  1. ^ NASA Mercury History Sections #44 and #47
  2. ^ Mercury Project Boilerplates and Little Joe Rockets with Boilerplates
  3. ^ Mercury Boilerplate Tests
  4. ^ NASA History Archives
  5. ^ NASA History Chronology
  6. ^ a b c d NASA History Apollo
  7. ^ Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum Official Site
  8. ^ Lance Barber, Curator of Military Aircraft, Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum, Denver, CO.
  9. ^ Charles A. Biggs, Sr., Chief, Special Activities Section, Special Event Office, Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, letter dated July 1, 1975. Files of Wings Museum, Denver, CO.
  10. ^ Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum BP-1228 Photo.
  11. ^ NASA's Project Constellaton Official Site
  12. ^ "NASA Centers in California: Keys to the Future" (PDF). California Space Authority.
  13. ^ "Environmental Assessment for NASA Launch Abort System (LAS) Test Activities at the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range, NM FINAL" (PDF). NASA.
  14. ^ A Spiral Stairway to the Moon and Beyond

See also

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