Natural Terrestrial Environment from Selected Field Data Measurements: Results and Applications for Launch Vehicle Development

Dale L Johnson,William W Vaughan

doi:10.5028/jatm.v9i1.636

Abstract

This paper is mainly a review presenting 3 unique NASA natural environment field projects. Included are some important natural environment technical results and applications that are applicable in the design, development and operations of launch vehicles as well as in advancing the atmospheric state-of-the-art. For the design, development, testing, launch and flight of various launch vehicles all natural terrestrial environments are considered, with normally wind being the main contributor or driver to the design of a launch vehicle.

Highlights

There are many natural environment (NE) empirical statistics, equations, and models that contribute to the development of inputs used by the various engineers, program/project managers, etc. in their planning and engineering studies
This paper focuses on NE data obtained by 3 unique field projects
This article presents a review of some key technical results derived from 3 unique NASA field measurement projects

Summary

INTRODUCTION

There are many natural environment (NE) empirical statistics, equations, and models that contribute to the development of inputs used by the various engineers, program/project managers, etc. in their planning and engineering studies. Since the JLI is a new index, representing low- and middle-level temperature and moisture, it will have to be tested further and possibly be adjusted, before it can quality as a lag/forecast index for only severe Great Plains storms This stability study indicates that these field program empirical data can be used for atmospheric disciplinary research in order to better understand the severe storm environment that can affect launch and space vehicle travel near or through it. Another NASA sponsored unique field project involved the high-resolution Jimsphere Wind Profile Measuring Program used to measure winds up to ~ 18 km altitude over short periods of time, mainly for KSC and Point Mugu, in California.

Findings

DISCUSSION

SUMMARY REMARKS