Launch Operations Research Articles

Alexander G. Zakharov – the first directorof the RAS Library for Natural Sciences. On the occasion of his 100th anniversary

The article is dedicated to the memory of the first director of the Library of Natural Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences (before 1991, the USSR Academy of Sciences). The Library for Natural Sciences was established in 1973 on the basis of the Sector for Special Libraries (in charge of collection development of Moscow research institutes and of their union catalog maintenance). The Library for Natural Sciences was conceived as an information library center focused on science and research information support based on modern technologies. Alexander Grigorievich Zakharov, newly-retired military professional, Lieutenant General, headed the library. In the shortest time possible, Alexander Zakharov built the centralized library system headed by the Library for Natural Sciences and meeting the demands of the time. For many years the Library’s Centralized Library System has been the largest and most developed network; the Library has been the leader in library automation based on the newest computer and network technologies. The authors have been working for the Library for over 40 years, and over 30 years under the leadership of Alexander G. Zakharov. They review the main stages of Zakharov’s career: the Great Patriotic War (he went through the war from beginning to end), his service at cosmodrome of Baikonur (launch operations, including support of Yury Gagarin’s flight), his work in the Library for Natural Sciences.

Experimental design in complex model formulation for lightning prediction

Space launch operations at Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (KSC/CCSFS) are complicated by unique requirements for near-real time determination of risk from lightning. Weather sensor networks for lightning forecasting produce data that are noisy, high volume, and high frequency time series for which traditional forecasting methods are often ill-suited. Current approaches result in significant residual uncertainties and consequentially may result in forecasting operational policies that are excessively conservative or inefficient. This work first proposes a forecasting methodology using wavelet decomposition of chaotic weather sensor time series and semiparametric single-index models to mitigate the chaotic signal and any possible distributional misspecification. Then, a screening experiment with augmentations is used to demonstrate how to explore the complex factor space of model parameters, guiding decisions regarding model formulation and gaining insight for follow-on research. Results indicate a promising technique for operationally relevant lightning prediction from chaotic sensor measurements.

Boundary Layer Transit Flight Experiment: Mission Overview, Launch Vehicle and Payload Subsystems

The objective of the Boundary Layer Transition (BOLT) flight experiment is to investigate the hypersonic boundary-layer transition mechanisms on a low-curvature concave surface with a swept leading edge at Mach numbers between five and seven. This shall be achieved during a captive-carry flight experiment on an S31/Improved Orion sounding rocket. The BOLT project is coordinated by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and will be carried out in collaboration with the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory Aerospace Systems Directorate, the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, and a multiorganization team of researchers. DLR, German Aerospace Center’s Mobile Rocket Base (DLR MORABA) is responsible for the development of the required mission and flight profile, layout and adaption of the launch vehicle, as well as the provision of payload subsystems for attitude control, time synchronization, data telemetry, despin, and separation. DLR MORABA will complete ground testing, coordinates, and conducts launch operations; and it will support postflight analysis. This paper presents these contributions in detail.

Prokaryotic and Fungal Characterization of the Facilities Used to Assemble, Test, and Launch the OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft.

To characterize the ATLO (Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations) environment of the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, we analyzed 17 aluminum witness foils and two blanks for bacterial, archaeal, fungal, and arthropod DNA. Under NASA’s Planetary Protection guidelines, OSIRIS-REx is a Category II outbound, Category V unrestricted sample return mission. As a result, it has no bioburden restrictions. However, the mission does have strict organic contamination requirements to achieve its primary objective of returning pristine carbonaceous asteroid regolith to Earth. Its target, near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu, is likely to contain organic compounds that are biologically available. Therefore, it is useful to understand what organisms were present during ATLO as part of the larger contamination knowledge effort—even though it is unlikely that any of the organisms will survive the multi-year deep space journey. Even though these samples of opportunity were not collected or preserved for DNA analysis, we successfully amplified bacterial and archaeal DNA (16S rRNA gene) from 16 of the 17 witness foils containing as few as 7 ± 3 cells per sample. Fungal DNA (ITS1) was detected in 12 of the 17 witness foils. Despite observing arthropods in some of the ATLO facilities, arthropod DNA (COI gene) was not detected. We observed 1,009 bacterial and archaeal sOTUs (sub-operational taxonomic units, 100% unique) and 167 fungal sOTUs across all of our samples (25–84 sOTUs per sample). The most abundant bacterial sOTU belonged to the genus Bacillus. This sOTU was present in blanks and may represent contamination during sample handling or storage. The sample collected from inside the fairing just prior to launch contained several unique bacterial and fungal sOTUs that describe previously uncharacterized potential for contamination during the final phase of ATLO. Additionally, fungal richness (number of sOTUs) negatively correlates with the number of carbon-bearing particles detected on samples. The total number of fungal sequences positively correlates with total amino acid concentration. These results demonstrate that it is possible to use samples of opportunity to characterize the microbiology of low-biomass environments while also revealing the limitations imposed by sample collection and preservation methods not specifically designed with biology in mind.

A space tourism destination: environmental, geopolitical and tourism branding considerations for New Zealand as a ‘launch state’

Favourable media coverage and the New Zealand space agency’s focus on commercial opportunities, positioned within the Ministry of Business Innovation & Employment that is also responsible for tourism, provides a basis for a developing space tourism industry. There are many possible environmental, cultural, and geo-political consequences to being a space launch state with implications for tourism, sustainability, and tourism branding. The ‘100% PURE NEW ZEALAND’ tourism brand in use since 1999 has received on-going criticism from various sources in response to reports of wide-spread environmental degradation in New Zealand, dairy farm conversions causing nitrate run-off and contamination of waterways, and New Zealand’s comparatively high per-capita level of greenhouse gas emissions. The establishment of commercial space launch operations, and the ancillary industrial and service facilities required, opens a new dimension of environmental hazard for New Zealand that has not been considered in the space launch legislation, or any other existing legislation, for regulating the environmental impact of rocket powered high altitude and space vehicles. This paper will examine the environmental, cultural, geopolitical and regulatory issues for New Zealand as a space launch state, and the likely implications for sustainable tourism, tourism branding, and New Zealand as a space tourism destination.

Experimental Study on Coupled Motions of Mother Ship Launching and Recovering of Human-Occupied Vehicle in Regular Waves

The launching and recovery process of a human-occupied vehicle (HOV) faces more complex wave effects than other types of submersible operations. However, due to the nonlinearity between the HOV and its mother ship, difficulties occur in theoretically simulating their coupled motion and hydrodynamics. The coupled motion responses and the load under different regular wave conditions are investigated experimentally in this study. The optimized design of the experimental scheme simulated the launching and recovery process of the mother ship and HOV in regular waves. The attitude sensor performed synchronous real-time measurement of the coupled motion between the mother ship and HOV as well as obtained the load data on the coupled motion under different cable lengths. The results show that models in heading waves mainly lead to the vertical motion of the hoisting point. In beam waves, the transverse and vertical motions of the hoisting point occur in a certain frequency of waves. Under the heading and beam wave conditions, the longer the hoisting cable is, the greater the movement amplitude of the submersible is. Moreover, compared with the condition of the beam waves, the hoisting submersible has less influence on the mother ship under the condition of the heading waves. The findings provide theoretical support for the design optimization of the launching and recovery operation.

Miniaturized Solutions for CubeSat Servicing and Safety Requirements

Small spacecraft require systems to facilitate safe preflight and launch operations. These include access ports to test software, charge batteries, and monitor spacecraft health after assembly, as well as inhibits to prevent inadvertent operation during servicing, integration, transport, and launch. For CubeSats, the requirements for these features are primarily governed by the CubeSat Design Specification (CDS). The size, weight, and cost of existing, off-the-shelf access port, inhibit, and remove-before-flight implementations can be prohibitive for low-budget, miniaturized spacecraft. This article aims to reduce the size, weight, and cost of CDS-required servicing and safety features. This is achieved by integrating these features into a single system using off-the-shelf, consumer-scale electrical components, including a type-B universal serial bus (USB) mini connector and an FTDI USB to multiserial protocol integrated circuit.

Structural shock verification by numerical analysis of the EPD payload units on board Solar Orbiter spacecraft

Electronic components can be seriously damaged during the launch of spacecraft due to the intense shock loads, which are generated by the launch operations such as the separations of the launcher stages and the release of the spacecraft. A shock verification program should be carried out in the development phase of space instruments to guarantee that the parts most susceptible to shock damage, including electronic components, can withstand the severe shock environment. A new shock verification methodology is described in this paper, where the novelty is the utilization of the numerical simulations to verify the capability of space instruments to withstand the specified shock loads. The proposed procedure has been applied to the units of the Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) payload of the Solar Orbiter mission. The selected approach is not the usual method in the space systems for shock verification, where the preferred method is by testing. Therefore, this work represents one of the few documented cases where numerical simulations have achieved the demonstration of the shock capability of space structures without the need to perform a complete shock test campaign. The application of the numerical analyses for the shock verification of one of the EPD units is explained in detail, where the calculated responses such as maximum expected stresses, accelerations and relative displacements are compared to the allowable limits to demonstrate that this instrument and its sensitive electronic components can adequately support the intense shock loads during the launch phase.

Damping of piezoelectric space instruments: application to an active optics deformable mirror

This paper presents the shunt damping of a unimorph piezoelectric mirror intended to be used as an active secondary corrector in future space telescopes. We propose to take advantage of the actuation capability of the piezoelectric mirror, to increase its natural damping during the critical launch phase of the spacecraft. The piezoelectric actuators, intended to be used for active optics, are shunted on a passive resistive and inductive RL circuit during the launch operation. The proposed concept is verified numerically and experimentally on a piezoelectric deformable mirror prototype, developed on behalf of the European Space Agency. We show that the shunt damping significantly reduces the response of the most critical mode of the mirror (− 23 dB) as well as the stress in the mirror when subjected to a typical vibro-acoustic launch load. This reduces the risk of damaging the mirror during the delicate launch phase, without increasing the complexity of the design.

Studying the mutual interaction of hydraulic characteristics of water­distributing pipelines and their spraying devices in the coolers at energy units

This analytical study is based on the results from hydraulic tests of spray nozzles for the mixing (waterjet) steam condenser at a thermal power plant's turbo generator. The work was performed at the stage of launch operations at TPP. Such hydraulic tests were carried out by co-authors at the stage of launch operations at Razdan TPP (Armenia). The TPP is located in a mountainous region with a limited water supply; the plant's features include: dry cooling of circulating water in the radiator cooling towers; a steam condenser of mixing type.The main tasks of hydraulic tests were: to determine the actual throughput capacity, to find a flow rate coefficient for the nozzles of a steam condenser, as well as analyze their operation in a vacuum in the condenser.This study considered the nozzles that have two openings with a diameter of 13 mm and 15 mm for spraying cooling water within the steam space of the condenser.By exploring the hydraulic characteristics Q=f(H) of standard nozzles mounted at the end of a water-distributing pipeline, it was found that the diameter of the nozzle opening did not significantly affect the flow rate of water under the same water heads. Such a result is explained by that the pipeline's characteristic was obtained, rather than that of the spraying device.The further hydraulic study into the nozzles was performed at a special laboratory bench.The established factor of interrelation between the hydraulic characteristics of a water-distributing pipeline and the nozzles mounted onto it is important for performing similar studies.The throughput capacity of the nozzles, considering the presence of a vacuum in the steam condenser of a turbo generator will be larger than that under atmospheric conditions. However, in a closed system of water circulation, the overall water flow rate of nozzles will equal the supply of cooling water from pumps into a given system. Therefore, the supply of cooling water to a condenser will not change dramatically, while the water flow rate of a single nozzle will be inversely proportional to their number.In addition, we investigated a possibility to increase the feed of water to a condenser in order to improve energy performance. Our analysis reveals the impossibility of a substantial increase in the water supply to a condenser by increasing the diameters of spraying nozzles' openings. This does not substantially reduce the overall loss of water head and feed from circulating pumps to the steam cooling system in a turbine's condenser.

Human cartilage-bone-synovium microphysiological system to study ptoa pathogenesis and treatment on earth and in space

Purpose: Acute joint injuries from sports, exercise or accident-related trauma often progress to post-traumatic Osteoarthritis (PTOA), comprising ∼12% of all OA cases. Such joint injuries can cause mechanical damage to cartilage combined with an inflammatory response associated with the synovial lining of the joint capsule. Together, these events lead to cartilage and subchondral bone pathologies including cell death, tissue degradation, neoangiogenesis, osteophyte and cyst formation and synovial fibrosis. Astronauts on International Space Station-National Laboratory (ISS-NL) sustain a higher rate of exercise-related injuries, including those compromising joints, during their training and mission period. Acknowledging the urgent need to identify disease-modifying therapeutics to ameliorate degenerative evolution of OA/PTOA, we carried out this study to (1) simulate aspects of acute joint injury biology on earth and in space using a human Cartilage-Bone-Synovium coculture model (CBS-MPS), (2) to investigate the potential of dexamethasone (Dex) in reducing cell death and ECM degradation, and (3) to utilize a Multi-Use Variable-g Platform (MVP) to study PTOA-related pathogenesis and management on the ISS. Methods: Osteochondral plugs (3.5mm diameter and 5mm thick, including 1.5-2mm thick cartilage) harvested from condyles and trochlear grooves of cadaveric human distal femurs (n=8 knees, Collins grade 1/2, 64-82 yr) were co-cultured with 4-5mm diameter synovium explants harvested from synovial joint capsule of the same knees. All procedures were approved by the Rush University Medical Center Institutional Review Board and the Committee on the use of Humans as Experimental Subjects at MIT. PTOA-like mechanical trauma was simulated by subjecting the cartilage surface of the osteochondral plugs to a single injurious unconfined compression of 60% strain rate to a peak stress of 5MPa using an incubator-housed loading apparatus. The study design included the following groups: (1) Mechanical injury (INJ) - injured osteochondral plugs were cultured in presence of pro-inflammatory cytokines (including TNF-α, IL-6 and IL-8) that were released by synovial explants and quantified by multiplex-readout in situ, (2) Treatment group (INJ + DEX): 100nM Dex was added to the cocultures of injured osteochondral plugs and synovial tissues immediately after injury. A preliminary science validation test was performed to identify a suitable mechanism to adapt CBS cocultures to the custom experiment module and the MVP facility. Engineering validation testing was then carried out to build logistical protocols for the spaceflight including transport of cultures and simulation of tasks preceding launch operations. Results: The levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-α were upregulated in CBS cocultures. The combination of mechanical injury and increased release of inflammatory cytokines from synovial tissues caused extensive cell death and biochemical changes in both bone and cartilage. In the INJ group, cartilage tissue showed widespread cell death [Fig1 a], and subchondral bone showed increased cell death as well, indicated by numerous empty lacunae in the matrix. Biochemical analysis showed aggravated release of matrix component (including GAGs) into the medium, associated with cartilage degradation [Fig 1c]. Addition of Dex significantly reduced the injury-induced cell death [Fig 1b] and GAG loss by week 2 [Fig 1c]. For spaceflight preparation, tissue cards [Fig 1d] were optimized for long-term holding and maintenance of CBS co-cultures, which were placed into custom culture chambers [Fig 1e]. Multiple tests using this instrumentation were used to guide the design and operation of automated MVP facility [Fig 1f]. Investigation of disease biology and acute injury management is currently being tested in preparation for eventual spaceflight experiments in microgravity aboard ISS-NL. Conclusions: By providing a platform to study cartilage, bone and synovium together, our CBS MPS can potentially enable a more physiologically relevant understanding of tissue interactions that may lead to PTOA pathogenesis. This system can also be used to test the efficacy of therapeutics. In Space, this MPS will be used to explore the role of therapeutic agents to ameliorate cartilage degradation in microgravity to support astronaut health during long space missions.

Managing the risk of emergency situations caused by staff at thermal power plants

Optimization of power plant operation in start and stop modes is an important task aimed at increasing the reliability and efficiency of its operation. The purpose of development of the new organizational mechanism is reduction of losses connected with incorrect actions of personnel during launching and shutdown operations of Steam-Gas furnaces of thermal power stations. The work is done on the example of one of the power plants of a large generating company. Implementation has confirmed the high efficiency of innovation. Total cost of project implementation at one station is estimated at the rate of 1.4 million rubles and the economic effect of the pilot project implementation in two years was estimated at 5.6 million rubles. It is also noted that further research is required to perform economic calculations for clarification as to which one of the new methodological approaches should be developed in the future. Conclusion was made that, first, regulation and control of personnel actions at the workplace is actually the first example of the distribution of the well-known Kaizen system and its modifications to a new specific area – energy generation. Second, the presented development can be a technological platform for further increase of the level of automation of operation of steam-gas and steam-power plants in non-stationary modes, up to full digitalization of control operation of thermal power plants.

Cost estimating of commercial smallsat launch vehicles

Commercial launch service providers’ low-priced offerings have been a hotly debated topic. However, the strategies with which these firms reduce costs have seen little incorporation into the hardware Cost Estimating Methods (CEMs) and tools prevalent in the aerospace industry. This research changes this, by providing adaptations to agency-focused CEMs that befit a new commercial paradigm, with an emphasis on smallsat launch vehicles.A parametric model for estimating costs in an early phase of development was synthesized, with which it is possible to approximate the full life-cycle costs of small commercial liquid and solid propellant rockets, as well as their cost-based price per flight. Key elements included were reductions in cost achieved by commercial launch operators, by modeling reduced subcontractor management effort and profit retention experienced at lower subcontracting rates.Prices per flight of small commercial launch vehicles were approximated by combining a parametric cost estimating methodology used frequently in the context of space agencies such as ESA and NASA, called the T1 Equivalents method, with another parametric three-part estimate developed by Koelle for development, manufacture and operations phase costs. The first two phases were estimated through the T1 method, while the operations costs were modeled with TRANSCOST.Along with the newly developed methodologies, novel insights such as required launch rates have shone a light on small commercial launch systems’ cost feasibility in the age of public-private spaceflight partnerships.The model developed was able to approximate costs of development, manufacture and price per flight of three commercial rockets to within 20% of actual reported costs or prices. However, it is recommended the model is refined as more reference cost data, especially on a subsystem level, as well as pricing for these smaller rockets becomes available in the coming years.

InSight Mars Lander Robotics Instrument Deployment System

The InSight Mars Lander is equipped with an Instrument Deployment System (IDS) and science payload with accompanying auxiliary peripherals mounted on the Lander. The InSight science payload includes a seismometer (SEIS) and Wind and Thermal Shield (WTS), heat flow probe (Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package, HP3) and a precision tracking system (RISE) to measure the size and state of the core, mantle and crust of Mars. The InSight flight system is a close copy of the Mars Phoenix Lander and comprises a Lander, cruise stage, heatshield and backshell. The IDS comprises an Instrument Deployment Arm (IDA), scoop, five finger “claw” grapple, motor controller, arm-mounted Instrument Deployment Camera (IDC), lander-mounted Instrument Context Camera (ICC), and control software. IDS is responsible for the first precision robotic instrument placement and release of SEIS and HP3 on a planetary surface that will enable scientists to perform the first comprehensive surface-based geophysical investigation of Mars’ interior structure. This paper describes the design and operations of the Instrument Deployment Systems (IDS), a critical subsystem of the InSight Mars Lander necessary to achieve the primary scientific goals of the mission including robotic arm geology and physical properties (soil mechanics) investigations at the Landing site. In addition, we present test results of flight IDS Verification and Validation activities including thermal characterization and InSight 2017 Assembly, Test, and Launch Operations (ATLO), Deployment Scenario Test at Lockheed Martin, Denver, where all the flight payloads were successfully deployed with a balloon gravity offload fixture to compensate for Mars to Earth gravity.

Estimating the Impact of Shuttle Launches on Regional Economic Activity

The objective of this study was to quantify the impact of public investment in space programs on the regional economic activity in the areas host to the program launch operations. I implement an econometric strategy that takes the timing of the Shuttle program retirement as a natural experiment to investigate the role of public investment in space as a driver of regional economic activity. I rely on a technique known as the synthetic control method to estimate the counterfactual outcomes for the Space Coast. Comparing the observed outcomes with the estimated counterfactual outcomes provides evidence of large spillover effects of the Shuttle program in the economy of the Space Coast. My results suggest that discontinuing the Shuttle program made payroll in Brevard County on average $824 million lower than the counterfactual outcome for every year since the final Shuttle mission, for a cumulative reduction in payroll of $3.3 billion below potential by 2015. In percentage terms, payroll grew at an average annual rate of 1.88% where its counterfactual growth rate was 5.25%. Evidence on employment suggests employment growth of 0.43% annually relative to counterfactual employment growth of 1.6%, keeping the recovery from the Great Recession anemic. Together, these estimates provide strong evidence that public investment in space is a boon for economic activity. The implications for space policy with this evidence are clear: public investment in space generates large and significant regional economic activity that needs to be taken into account when considering the costs and benefits of the investment. Further implications of the evidence for regional planners and firm managers are discussed.

A Record Flight of the Hybrid Sounding Rocket HEROS 3

Hybrid rocket propulsion offers inherent safety during handling and launch operations at low cost. This makes it not only attractive for space tourism applications like SpaceShipTwo but also for sounding rockets and for educational activities with students. This has been successfully demonstrated by the HyEnD student project from the University of Stuttgart: On November 8th, 2016 at 10:30 a.m. the hybrid sounding rocket HEROS 3 was launched from the Esrange Space Center to an apogee altitude of 32,300 m (106,000 ft). This set a new altitude record for European student and amateur rocketry. Furthermore, this is a world altitude record for hybrid rockets built by students. It was successfully recovered with the drogue and main parachute being released. The rocket was powered by a 10 kN design thrust hybrid rocket engine with a paraffin-based fuel and Nitrous Oxide (N2O) as the oxidizer. The combustion efficiency was verified to be above 97% in ground tests. Liquid burn time in the flight was for 15 s with an additional combustion of gaseous N2O in the blow-down mode of about 10 s. The rocket was 7.5 m long with an empty mass of about 75 kg. The rocket structure was made completely from light-weight carbon fibre and glass fibre reinforced plastic.

Estimating the Impact of Discontinuing Shuttle Launches on Payroll and Employment in the Space Coast Using the Synthetic Control Method

The objective of this study is to quantify the impact of public investment in space programs on the regional economic activity in the areas host to the program launch operations. I implement an econometric strategy that takes the timing of the Shuttle program retirement as a natural experiment to investigate the role of public investment in space as a driver of regional economic activity. I rely on a technique known as the synthetic control method to estimate the counterfactual outcomes for the Space Coast. Comparing the observed outcomes with the estimated counterfactual outcomes provides evidence of large spillover effects of the Shuttle program in the economy of the Space Coast. My results suggest discontinuing the Shuttle program made payroll in Brevard County on average $824 million lower than the counterfactual outcome for every year since the final Shuttle mission, for a cumulative reduction in payroll of $3.3 billion below potential by 2015. In percentage terms, payroll grew at an average annual rate of 1.88% where its counterfactual growth rate was 5.25%. Evidence on employment suggests employment grow of 0.43% annually relative to counterfactual employment growth of 1.6%, keeping the recovery from the Great Recession anemic. Together, these estimates provide strong evidence that public investment in space is a boon for economic activity. The implications for space policy with this evidence are clear: public investment in space generates large and significant regional economic activity that needs to be taken into account when considering the costs and benefits of the investment. Further implications of the evidence for regional planners and firm managers are discussed.

Evaluation of In-Orbit Thermal Performance of X-Ray Astronomy Satellite “Hitomi”

This study presents the evaluation results of the thermal performance for Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s X-ray astronomy satellite (Hitomi) ASTRO-H mission. Hitomi was successfully launched on 17 February 2016. The thermal design of the spacecraft and scientific instruments was challenging because the high-energy resolution and the sensitivity needed to achieve the desired scientific objectives required small thermal distortion and a strict temperature range, in spite of large heat dissipation. Hitomi housed four telescopes and six detectors. Each detector had its own radiator and heat pipes for heat dissipation. The most essential mission instrument, the soft X-ray spectrometer, had four loop heat pipes to transfer heat from two sets of compressors and the cold heads of two-stage Stirling coolers. Six fans were mounted close to six cryocoolers for ground cooling in the fairing until just before launch. The heat pipes were operated properly in orbit. Two loop heat pipes for the cryocooler compressors continued operating from the time of launch, thereby maintaining cryocooler temperatures within the allowable temperature range. Comparing the thermal analysis results and flight data, the difference between the predicted and measured temperatures was less than 4°C for more than 95% of all measured temperatures. The thermal control system functioned properly in both launch operation and in orbit, and the thermal mathematical model simulated the actual thermal design of Hitomi.

イプシロンロケットの地上系の開発 : 自動・自律点検等による運用の革新( イプシロンロケットの開発 第5回)

イプシロンロケットの地上系の開発 : 自動・自律点検等による運用の革新( イプシロンロケットの開発 第5回)

Human factors in launch flight safety

When developing a new launcher, the main design driver is operational efficiency (i.e. performance, reliability and availability), and cost effectiveness, not safety. Moreover, launch operators focus mission design on successfully placing the payload in orbit and on cost effectiveness. Those conditions are insufficient by themselves to ensure flight safety and may direct design decisions toward solutions that are less safe. The safety challenge of rocket launches typically requires additional dedicated safety equipment on-board and ground facilities to monitor flight for potentially unsafe conditions and to terminate the flight before the rocket can threaten population centers or critical assets. Flight Safety Officers have the ultimate responsibility to terminate the flight of an errant launcher before it endangers people and properties, by sending a command from ground. Flight Safety Officers must assess the situation and take action to terminate flight in a very short time, therefore human factors considerations are fundamental for correct and timely performance of the job. After a general overview of launch safety principles and practices, the paper illustrates the application of human factors considerations for flight safety officers with a discussion of training at the European spaceport in French Guiana.