This paper presents the process used by the Marshall Space Flight Center Natural Environments Branch (EV44) to quality control (OC) data from the Kennedy Space Center's 50-MHz Doppler radar wind profiler (DRWP) for use in vehicle wind loads and steering commands. The database has been built to mitigate limitations of using the currently archived databases from weather balloons. The DRWP database contains wind measurements from approximately 2.7-to 18.6-km altitude at roughly 5-min intervals for the August 1997-December 2009 period of record, and the extensive OC process was designed to remove spurious data from various forms of atmospheric and nonatmospheric artifacts. The OC process is largely based on DRWP literature, but two new algorithms have been developed to remove data contaminated by convection and excessive first-guess propagations from the median ñlter/first-guess algorithm. In addition to describing the automated and manual OC process in detail, this paper describes the extent of the data retained. Roughly 58% of all possible wind observations exist in the database, with approximately 100 times as many complete profile sets existing relative to the EV44 balloon databases. This increased sample of near-continuous wind profile measurements may help increase launch availability by reducing the uncertainty of wind changes during launch countdown.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is developing new capabilities for human and scientific exploration beyond Earth orbit. Natural environments information is an important asset for NASA's development of the next generation space transportation system as part of the Exploration Systems Development (ESD) Programs, which includes the Space Launch System (SLS) and Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) Programs. Natural terrestrial environment conditions -such as wind, lightning and sea states -can affect vehicle safety and performance during multiple mission phases ranging from pre-launch ground processing to landing and recovery operations, including all potential abort scenarios. Space vehicles are particularly sensitive to these environments during the launch/ascent and the entry/landing phases of mission operations. The Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Natural Environments Branch provides engineering design support for NASA space vehicle projects and programs by providing design engineers and mission planners with natural environments definitions as well as performing custom analyses to help characterize the impacts the natural environment may have on vehicle performance. One such analysis involves assessing the impact of natural environments to operational availability. Climatological time series of operational surface weather observations are used to calculate probabilities of meeting/exceeding various sets of hypothetical vehicle-specific parametric constraint thresholds. Outputs are tabulated by month and hour of day to show both seasonal and diurnal variation. This paper will discuss how climate analyses are performed by the MSFC Natural Environments Branch to support the ESD Launch Availability (LA) Technical Performance Measure (TPM), the SLS Launch Availability due to Natural Environments TPM, and several MPCV (Orion) launch and landing availability analyses -including the 2014 Orion Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) mission.1 Flight Vehicle Atmospheric Environments, Natural Environments Branch, NASA/MSFC EV44, Member. 2 Sr. Physics Engineer II, Natural Environments Branch, NASA/MSFC EV44, Non-Member. 3 Natural Environments Engineer, Natural Environments Branch, NASA/MSFC EV44, Non-Member. 4 Flight Vehicle Atmospheric Environments, Natural Environments Branch, NASA/MSFC EV44, Non-Member.
Members of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) desi gn and operation communities rely on meteorological information collected at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), located near Cape Canaveral, Florida, to correctly apply the ambient environment to various tasks. The Natural Enviromrents Branch / EV44. located at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, is responsible for providing its NASA customers with meteorological data using various climatological data sources including balloons, surface stations, aircraft, hindcast models, and meteorological towers. Of the many data sources available within the KSC region, meteorological towers are preferred for near-surface applications because they record data at regular, frequent intervals over an extensive period of record (POR) at a single location. This paper discusses the uses of data measured at Launch Complex 39B (Pad 39B) and Tower 313 for the 1995-2007 POR, and how the data is being applied to various engineering decisions for the new Constellation Program Ares and Orion space vehicles.Performing comparisons between multiple data sources shows the sensitivity of usin g meteorological data from a particular source to answer a given engineering question. Comparisons between meteorological variables from Tower 313 and the 10 meter tower at the Shuttle Landing Facility show the consequences of using data from different sources for a given engineering application. Concurrent mean and peak wind speeds, temperature; and dew point from both data sources at similar measurement altitudes were compared. The differences between these variables from the different data sources show that the instrument locations and measurement heights can have a significant impact on the environmental inputs of a given engineering analysis. The end result of the engineering analysis is thus also affected at a significance which depends on its sensitivity to the meteorological parameter. V In addition; sample results of statistical analyses using tower data are presented relating to the Orion capsule after a pad abort as well as situations when the Ares and Orion integrated stack is being transported to and remaining on the pad. Monthly landing availabilities from Tower 313 show how often an operation sensitive to given wind speed thresholds, such as an Orion landing after a pad abort, could be implemented. Generally, availabilities are better (worse) during the slunmer (winter) months, but individual availabilities vary depending on the month and wind speed threshold chosen. Wind speeds at given percentiles from Tower 313 are presented based on given months, altitudes, and wind directions; and show that the highest winds occur generally from a northerly direction during the autLmm and winter months. Tropical systems can also influence the wind data at extreme percentiles. Temperature versus relative humidity scatter plots from Pad 39B can be constructed to assist in vehicle purge analyses, which are sensitive to various temperature and humidity combinations. The anal...
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