Activities at Wallops Flight Facility

GSFC/WallopsFlight Facility

1

49th Robert H. Goddard Memorial Symposium

March 30, 2011

Bill WrobelDirector, Wallops Flight Facility

Activities at Wallops Flight Facility


2

Wallops 6000 Acre CampusMain Base

Wallops Island


3

Wallops History

• Founded by NACA in 1945

• Over 16,000 rocket launches conducted over 65+ years

• Wallops’ first satellite, Explorer 9, launched 50 years ago on February 16, 1961


4

The Wallops Role

Manage & implement – frequent, – quick-response, – low-cost, – risk-tolerant

missions supporting NASA science & technology research

• Major mission elements– Suborbital & small orbital research carriers– Research Range operations– Carrier & operations technology development


5

Sounding Rockets

• 20+ missions flown annually

• 10 vehicle configurations

• 9 worldwide launch sites + mobile campaigns

• Supporting– Heliophysics– Astrophysics– Planetary physics– Technology development– Education


6

Exoplanet Finding using Sounding Rockets

• The Planet Imaging Concept Testbed Using Sounding Rocket (PICTURE) uses nulling interferometers.

• PICTURE will flight qualify several key technologies – Extremely light-weight mirror

– Visible nulling coronograph

– Deformable mirror

– 0.5 milli arc-sec pointing

• PICTURE is a collaboration between – Boston University

– Jet Propulsion Laboratory

– Goddard Space Flight Center

– Charles Stark Draper Laboratory


7

Scientific Balloons• ~14 missions annually

• Features– Balloon volumes up to 60M cubic ft.– Suspended loads up to 8000 lbs.– Float altitudes of up to 160K feet

• Balloon Classes– Conventional: 2-36 hour duration– Long Duration: 40+ days– Super Pressure: Up to 100 days

• Worldwide launch sites

• Support to– Astrophysics– Technology development– Education


8

The Balloon Program Legacy

• Over 4 decades, 30 spacecraft missions have been evolved from balloon missions

TRACER BOOMERANG

TIGER / ANITA

CREAMInFOCuS

FIREBall

AESOP

SunriseBLAST


9

New Balloon Technologies

• Super Pressure Balloons– Will provide mission durations of 60-100 days– Recent successful 14MCF test flight from

Antarctica, with 4000 lbs. payload

• Wallops Arc Second Pointer– Providing accuracies of 0.75 arcseconds– Test flight scheduled for Fall 2011– Proposed in recent NASA Explorer Mission of

Opportunity

• Future plans include trajectory control


10

Super Pressure Balloon Test Flight (1/2011)


11

Airborne Science

• Wallops P-3 currently in Greenland supporting Operation Ice Bridge

• Airborne Topographic LIDAR (ATM) provides precision ice-thickness maps, repeated on an annual basis

• More than 250 science flight hours planned


12

Unmanned Aerial Systems - Big & Small

• Wallops will serve as base of operations for NASA’s Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS-3)– Global Hawk flights studying formation of

severe storms– 5-year program beginning in Summer 2012

• Wallops UAS Technology Initiative– 3-year program to demonstrate capabilities

of small UAVs for Earth Science– Standardized instrument support interface

architecture– Miniaturized instrument (e.g., ATM)– Demos using L-3 Viking 300 UAS


13

Small Satellites

• Wallops developing proto-flight “6U” small sat design, based on Cubesat standard

• 6U spacecraft provides standardized architecture supporting multiple instrument concepts

• ~2/3 of volume available for instruments

• Initial unit & deployer will complete qualification testing by end of FY11


14

Supersonic Inflatable Aeroshell Demonstrator (SIAD)

• Office of Chief Technologist sponsoring program to demonstrate high-speed inflatable decelerator concept for planetary or Earth reentry– JPL-led project team

• Flight tests proposed between 2012-2014

• Wallops providing balloons, avionics, and operations support– High-speed parachute demos– High-altitude rocket accelerated reentry

tests


15

Supersonic Inflatable Aeroshell Demonstrator (SIAD)


16

ORS-1

• 1st operational spacecraft launch for DoD’s Operationally Responsive Space office– Provides quick-reaction satellites

supporting urgent military needs

• Electro-optical & infrared imaging spacecraft to be launched on a Minotaur 1

• Launch Date: May 2011?


17

Lunar Atmosphere Dust Experiment Explorer (LADEE)

• NASA Ames & Goddard built Lunar orbiting spacecraft. Instruments:– Neutral Mass Spectrometer (GSFC)– Ultra-Violet Spectrometer (ARC)– Dust Detector (LASP)– Lunar Laser Comm (Lincoln Labs)

• Wallops providing end-to-end launch service support– USAF-provided Minotaur V– Launch site I&T– Launch range services from WFF’s Pad 0B

• Highlights– 1st flight of Minotaur V– 1st NASA flight on USAF Minotaur vehicle– 1st planetary mission from WFF


18

Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Explorer (LADEE)


19

Taurus II

• Taurus II expands Wallops capabilities to medium-class ELVs

• Initial missions are 9 launches supporting NASA’s COTS & CRS programs for commercial resupply of the ISS• Future Science & non-NASA

missions expected

• >$100M in new launch infrastructure underway

• Initial flight in late 2011


20

Taurus II & ISS Resupply


21

Horizontal Integration Facility


22

Pad 0A Medium-Class ELV Launch Complex

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Activities at Wallops Flight Facility

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