Sep 4 1985
From The Space Library
NASA announced that Lewis Research Center (LeRC) and Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) were pursuing a 10-year program scheduled for completion in 1991 to improve Space Shuttle engine performance, reduce operational costs, and develop advanced engine technology for future space travel.
Although the Space Shuttle propulsion system had performed well for a number of space missions, it incorporated state-of-the-art technology at the time of its development some 15 years before, so NASA believed the engine's operational life and performance levels could be improved. According to Stanley Marsik, LeRC's Space Shuttle main engine technology program manager, “The current engine represents the first generation of reusable engines. In a way, the first reusable space engine can be compared with the Model-T automobile. Now that we have experienced numerous flights with this engine, we have learned how to improve its life and performance. We now are working towards advancing the technologies necessary to support those improvements.” In the age of reusable Space Shuttle engines, demands would increase for higher performance with lighter weight components, resulting in higher operating pressures and temperatures and increased mechanical vibrations and fuel flow turbulence. The system also severely taxed engine components such as turbine blades, bearings, seals, fuel ducting, and combustion chambers.
Engineers were studying new high-temperature, high-strength metal alloys and other advanced materials such as new protective coatings and combustion processes. Researchers using advanced computer modeling techniques studied loads on turbine blades and fuel flow, and examined the use of hydrostatic ball bearings where a film of gas would separate the bearing from metal surfaces, resulting in no metal-to-metal contact.
Engineers were developing new methods of measuring wear and deterioration, so parts would be replaced only when necessary, and studying ways to monitor engine health by means of a series of computer-connected diagnostic sensors on the engine to signal deviations from normal performance and to facilitate more economical on-the-ground maintenance.
The two centers had formed ten disciplinary groups to work with some 130 different technology elements of engine design. Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell Internatl., engine manufacturer, and other NASA contractors and several universities were supporting the program. (NASA Release 85-122)
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