The original Apollo design used physics to its advantage; its small size ensured that air flowed around the capsule smoothly, keeping vibration and temperature to a (relative) minimum. The larger Orion capsule breaks up the smooth air flows Apollo took advantage of, creating higher temperatures and more chaotic wind flows that are harder to map across the surface. Besides providing the facility, mapping temperature and speed across a surface is one of Cubrc's greatest abilities, said Randy Lillard of NASA in Houston. Using tiny camel hair brushes and microscopes, engineers at Cubrc can paint more than 1,000 heat sensors over three square inches to map temperature across very small increments to monitor heat differences. "I can get great data at very precise location and in a very small area," said Lillard. Three square inches might not seem like a lot, but the temperature and pressure over that tiny area can vary by entire orders of magnitude. On the leading edge of the space shuttle wing, for example, temperatures within half an inch can have huge variations. On average NASA runs about one Orion test a month there, said Lillard. The rest of the testing time is devoted mainly to other NASA and Department of Defense projects, like experimental scramjet engines and other plane designs. Related Links: |
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