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Team Completes Assembly of X-38 Fuselage Banner year for blood drives, Page 5 SPACE CENTER February 12, 1999 Roundup VOL. 38, NO. 2 L YNDON B. JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, HOUSTON, TEXAS JSC photo S98-20489 by Mark Sowa Team completes assembly of X-38 fuselage he fuselage of one of the X-38 verification team. Chris Madden and machinist Joe Ruiz, and Quality The X-38 Structure emergency. A vehicles, a spacecraft called Ken Wong were the team leads for Assurance support Shane Miller Design and synopsis of the V-201, has been constructed. the design of the overall structure. have been assembling the vehicle Manufacturing Team Request for T has completed V-201 will be the first spacecraft As the designs of the parts were structure for the past 18 months. assembly of the Proposals for ever built at the Johnson Space completed, Dave Young took the Frank Jenson and Kevin Rau have fuselage of a full- the operational Center. The spacecraft is a full- lead in manufacturing and used a state-of-the-art laser scale prototype of CRV was the Crew Return scale prototype of the Crew Return assembly. Larry Zielke oversaw the tracking system to inspect, Vehicle for the released in Vehicle (CRV), which will serve as manufacturing and procurement of position, and align the structure International Space December. A the permanently attached lifeboat the structural components. Steve during assembly. Station. draft RFP is or ambulance for the space station. Peterschmidt and Dave Wade V-201 is currently scheduled for scheduled for An integrated team of JSC designed the assembly plans and a full CRV mission (on orbit to release in engineers, Lockheed support the fixtures that hold the structure landing) space flight test on board February, with contractors, and European Space together during assembly. the space shuttle in late 2000. The a goal of contract award for the first Agency engineers from seven Dan Petersen engineered and led interior volume of the spacecraft is part of the CRV development by different countries designed the the aft end assembly. 420 cubic feet, larger than any October 1, 1999. fuselage at JSC. The lead design As the components for the other human spacecraft other than The flights of the X-38 atmos- engineers were Wayne Jermstad for fuselage arrived, the assembly the orbiter, Skylab, Mir and the pheric flight test vehicles, V-131 the cabin, Tony Dao for the aft end, team, led by Keith Day and Mike International Space Station. and V-132, are scheduled for Chris Lupo for the fins, and Tammy Adkins, assembled them into a The operational CRV will be able February 5 and 26, respectively, at Long for the skin panels. Karen vehicle. Technicians Dave Kroen, to carry all seven astronauts from the the Dryden Flight Research Facility Edelstein led the structural Scott Lee, and Fred Winter, space station in the event of an in California. ■ TransHab Space walks Got the achieves key highlight STS-88 squeeze… milestone. mission. call the 33333’s. Page 2 Page 3 Page 6 2 February 12, 1999 SPACE CENTER Roundup TransHab passes critical test SC’s Engineering Directorate successfully demonstrated the deployment and inflation of an Hatch doors inflatable spacecraft known as TransHab by testing the full- Level 4 scale TransHab test article on Pressurized JDecember 21, 1998, in JSC’s Space Tunnel Simulation Chamber A. The December test was the final in a Inflatable series of tests conducted in 1998 to shell demonstrate the feasibility of an inflatable structure. Two earlier units were hydrostatically tested at JSC’s Neutral Soft Buoyancy Laboratory, demonstrating the structural integrity of the fabric structure to stowage a safety factor of four atmospheres (no array aluminum space module has done this). This is the first time tests of this kind have been Central Level 3 conducted, and this activity has generated structural Crew Health interest from around the world. core Care Area The project began in the spring of 1997 when Leonard Nicholson, director of the Engineering Directorate, challenged engineers to find a way to develop a lighter, Inflatable Level 2 cheaper spacecraft for manned missions to outfitting Crew Quarters Mars. Initially, a small group, led by Dr. compression and Mechanical William C. Schneider, developed the ring Room TransHab concept with something added to it – a proposal to the agency for JSC to build a full-scale unit and demonstrate the feasibility of the technology. Once TransHab was turned into a project, the Level 1 TransHab team, led by JSC engineer Donna Galley/ Fender, was formed. This group was Wardroom Area ultimately challenged to design and build a full-scale structural test article to demonstrate the ability to manufacture, assemble, package, and deploy the inflatable module in a space simulation chamber, in addition to verifying the overall structural capability of the inflatable Integrated concept, all in water tank 1998. The resulting 3-stories-tall 20 inch window (2) inflatable module concept, TransHab, offers significant advantages as a general purpose Internal configuration of International Space Station TransHab habitation module. It has been proposed to three times larger than a standard ISS crew and a shuttle changeover crew the International module and would double the simultaneously. Space Station entire ISS stowage capacity. The This hybrid inflatable and central core program as a 3-level module would give astro- structure is light and compact enough to be replacement for nauts a homelike environment for launched by the shuttle. The TransHab is the current long-duration missions, including collapsed and secured by a restraint baseline system in a 14-foot habitation diameter package for module. “The launch in the shuttle TransHab payload bay. When on project is a orbit, the packaged perfect example TransHab module would of the kind of then be removed from the technical shuttle payload bay, innovation it docked to an element will take to make JSC photo S99-00157 by Robert Markowitz (like space station) and A full-scale TransHab undergoes vacuum testing exploration affordable and real,” said in JSC’s Space Simulation Chamber A. deployed by releasing the Nicholson. “Furthermore, consideration of restraint. Once released, TransHab for ISS application represents the the TransHab would be kind of vision across programs that is also a inflated to its operational key element of enabling exploration, plus it The one-foot-thick TransHab meteoroid pressure, resulting in a will make the space station a more and orbital debris protection shield is 27-foot diameter module. productive place to live and work. The skill, capable of protecting against larger debris Then the subsystems energy, and dedication demonstrated by the than standard hypervelocity shield concepts. stored on structural team that has brought the TransHab design The TransHab team has successfully shelves in the central core so far in such a short period of time tells me demonstrated the protection provided by the will be repositioned to that our people are indeed ready to make MOD shield with particles up to 1.7 cm the appropriate internal new things happen.” diameter at speeds of 7 km/s (15,000 mph). JSC photo S98-14600 configuration. The general structural configuration of The 11-foot diameter central core, Donna Fender, program manager, JSC TransHab The TransHab team is TransHab consists of an outer multi-layer running the full length of the module’s Project Office, holds a piece of the Kevlar material used currently working with to build the module. inflatable shell (over a foot thick) and a interior, houses the crew quarters. The ISS to provide technical hard central structural core. The multi- crew quarters are surrounded by a water and management data layer shell consists of a redundant bladder jacket (known as the storm shelter) six private crew quarters, a medical needed for the habitation module design assembly, a woven Kevlar restraint affording the crew additional protection health and exercise area, hygiene facility, selection decision. The decision is assembly, a meteoroid and orbital debris during solar particle events. At 27 feet in storage, galley, and wardroom equipped expected to occur in the February/March protection shield, and a multi-layer diameter and 35 feet in length, with a table capable of seating up to 12 time frame. ■ thermal insulation blanket. TransHab’s dimensions make its volume persons, easily accommodating an entire SPACE CENTER Roundup February 12, 1999 3 Ripped STS-88 space walks product of team effort from the hree planned extravehicular activi- Astronaut Jerry Ross, ties and one contingency excursion STS-88 mission spe- were successfully conducted dur- cialist, is pictured dur- ROUNDUP ing one of three space ing STS-88 to begin assembly of walks which were con- the International Space Station. ducted on the 11-day Ripped straight from the pages of T mission. Astronaut Jim The momentous effort that went into prepar- old Space News Roundups, here’s ing for these space walks included many Newman, mission spe- what happened at JSC on this date: JSC organizations, NASA and the contrac- cialist, recorded this image. Newman can be tor community as well as collaboration seen reflected in Ross’ across two countries. helmet visor. The solar 1974 The Mission Operations Directorate, the array panel for the Russian-built Zarya he Skylab 4 crew is home Space Station Program Office, the EVA Project Office and the Crew and Thermal module can be seen again after successfully along the right edge. T Systems Division in the Engineering Direc- completing man’s longest jour- torate were some of the principal organiza- ney into space – 84 days, 1 hour and tions involved in planning the required 16 minutes. space walks, training the crews, building the William C. Schneider, Skylab mockups and the spacesuits for the training program director, stated that because sessions in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab, and compiling, building and checking all neces- of the hard work of a great number of sary tools.
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