NASA Perfects Pyrotechnics for Space Flight

By Kara L. Gray

July 14, 2006

When Neil Armstrong set foot on the lunar surface in 1969, he made more than a historic and enduring mark on the surface of the moon; he made a monumental impact on the collective imagination of the world. After nearly 40 years, NASA is preparing for another journey to the moon — and beyond — with a new class of explorers sure to strike a whole new generation with the same overwhelming sense of awe and wonderment.

In the volatile realm of space travel, pyrotechnics are both a necessary evil and a force to be reckoned with. An explosion on a monumental scale is essential during liftoff to achieve the extraordinary thrust required to break through and escape the earth’s gravity. However, any unexpected or unplanned pyrotechnics can be cataclysmic for the mission and its crew.

The Quest for Controlled Destruction

Few understand this pyro-proposition better than pyrotechnic engineer Christopher W. Brown at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Brown works with the team of engineers responsible for the design, testing and implementation of pyrotechnics for a variety of space exploration initiatives, including the Constellation Program, which will send human explorers back to the moon and onward to other unexplored parts of the solar system.

“Pyrotechnics is popular in aerospace when it comes to one-time actuation or separation,” Brown says. “One example is the frangible nut, which is used to separate the space shuttle from the external fuel tanks.”

The frangible nut, critical to the separation process, is designed to fracture when the command is given to activate explosive charges in order to achieve a clean and thorough separation of the external fuel tanks once their propellant is exhausted. The idea is to blow it apart when necessary, with as little collateral damage as possible.

“I call it controlled destruction,” Brown says. “There is a lot of shock and debris that need to be contained. It is a very tricky balance. We need to have the nut or the separation structure strong enough to hold the pieces together, but brittle and weak enough to fracture when commanded.”

The Test before the Test

In order to achieve the proper design of the components, determine the precise amount of combustion required without going overboard, and predict the behavior of the debris field to prevent incidental damage, NASA is using finite element analysis (FEA) software from MSC.Software in concert with visualization software by CEI, Inc. of Apex, NC. The goal is to produce 3D simulations of various test scenarios to ultimately design a means to control the end results.

Using MSC’s Dytran to model the various applications, NASA imports the results into CEI’s EnSight for post processing, where they are converted into graphical images and movies that can be shared with colleagues. Using this process, Brown’s team is able to simulate proposed design modifications and other variables to predict behavior under certain conditions before any “live” testing takes place. In the case of a shuttle launch, for example, the results can have life-altering implications.

“The simulations will give you an idea of what could happen,” Brown says. “We want to know as much about the possible outcomes before conducting a real test, to get a heads up on what to watch out for and what to avoid.”

In one such experiment, Brown and his team are working to perfect a newly designed back-up release mechanism for a new docking system to be put in place on the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. Orion is expected to fly its first mission to the International Space Station by 2014 and carry the next generation of astronauts to the moon by 2020. The mechanism works by using a charge to apply pressure at one side, which engages a piston release system that allows the bolt to slip out, with no metal fracture.

Modeling this procedure allows thorough testing of each and every component to achieve the flawless operation critical for space travel. Before any testing took place, Brown was able to identify some hang-ups in the parts, modify the design and rerun the simulations until it worked. In the end, the live testing was quite successful.

In the case of the frangible nut, the objective is that the explosive allows the nut to break apart correctly instead of blowing the energy in the wrong direction. With two boosters on each side of the nut (the second in place only for redundancy), Brown tests one booster at a time.

“In one design test, the nut was shaped differently and the booster just blew out the frangible section without having the energy directed to separate the nut,” Brown says. “That analysis enabled us to change the design for the actual application from what was originally designed.”

Powerful Combination Yields Powerful Results

The one-two punch of MSC and CEI’s avant-garde software allows NASA to achieve accurate results in an easily viewable format. EnSight is able to seamlessly and quickly import the Dytran files for post processing. They can be viewed as motion pictures or frame by frame for thorough analysis.

Annotations can be included in the resultant images and adjust color contours to emphasize certain results or variables and achieve the desired graphical image. This output is then used for collaboration among fellow engineers and the test area.

Included in the EnSight suite is CEI’s EnLiten, a free 3D viewer used for analyzing and manipulating complex visualization scenarios. It can capture the results and display them in motion and from any angle without needing to be reprocessed from scratch. And it can be viewed on any computer without installing any extra software.

“Using a 3-D viewer provides a quick way of viewing motion and rotation at any angle without having to start the post processing all over again,” Brown says. “It allows you to view the animation, not just like a video, but something that you can rotate and move around.”

For more information

MSC.Software’s Dytran overview: http://www.mscsoftware.com/products/dytran.cfm?Q=396&Z=287&Y=387

Human Space Flight: The Shuttle — External Tank Separation System: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/shutref/orbiter/sep/sepsystem.html

NASA Constellation Program: Orion Crew Vehicle: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/orion/index.html

MSC.Software signs agreement with CEI enhancing graphics visualization for SimXpert: http://www.ensight.com/msc.software-signs-agreement-with-cei-enhancing-graphics-visualization-for-sim.html

—–

Source: CEI Inc.

Subscribe to HPCwire's Weekly Update!

Be the most informed person in the room! Stay ahead of the tech trends with industry updates delivered to you every week!

MLPerf Inference 4.0 Results Showcase GenAI; Nvidia Still Dominates

March 28, 2024

There were no startling surprises in the latest MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results released yesterday. Two new workloads — Llama 2 and Stable Diffusion XL — were added to the benchmark suite as MLPerf continues Read more…

Q&A with Nvidia’s Chief of DGX Systems on the DGX-GB200 Rack-scale System

March 27, 2024

Pictures of Nvidia's new flagship mega-server, the DGX GB200, on the GTC show floor got favorable reactions on social media for the sheer amount of computing power it brings to artificial intelligence.  Nvidia's DGX Read more…

Call for Participation in Workshop on Potential NSF CISE Quantum Initiative

March 26, 2024

Editor’s Note: Next month there will be a workshop to discuss what a quantum initiative led by NSF’s Computer, Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate could entail. The details are posted below in a Ca Read more…

Waseda U. Researchers Reports New Quantum Algorithm for Speeding Optimization

March 25, 2024

Optimization problems cover a wide range of applications and are often cited as good candidates for quantum computing. However, the execution time for constrained combinatorial optimization applications on quantum device Read more…

NVLink: Faster Interconnects and Switches to Help Relieve Data Bottlenecks

March 25, 2024

Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture may have stolen the show this week at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. But an emerging bottleneck at the network layer threatens to make bigger and brawnier pro Read more…

Who is David Blackwell?

March 22, 2024

During GTC24, co-founder and president of NVIDIA Jensen Huang unveiled the Blackwell GPU. This GPU itself is heavily optimized for AI work, boasting 192GB of HBM3E memory as well as the the ability to train 1 trillion pa Read more…

MLPerf Inference 4.0 Results Showcase GenAI; Nvidia Still Dominates

March 28, 2024

There were no startling surprises in the latest MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results released yesterday. Two new workloads — Llama 2 and Stable Diffusion Read more…

Q&A with Nvidia’s Chief of DGX Systems on the DGX-GB200 Rack-scale System

March 27, 2024

Pictures of Nvidia's new flagship mega-server, the DGX GB200, on the GTC show floor got favorable reactions on social media for the sheer amount of computing po Read more…

NVLink: Faster Interconnects and Switches to Help Relieve Data Bottlenecks

March 25, 2024

Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture may have stolen the show this week at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. But an emerging bottleneck at Read more…

Who is David Blackwell?

March 22, 2024

During GTC24, co-founder and president of NVIDIA Jensen Huang unveiled the Blackwell GPU. This GPU itself is heavily optimized for AI work, boasting 192GB of HB Read more…

Nvidia Looks to Accelerate GenAI Adoption with NIM

March 19, 2024

Today at the GPU Technology Conference, Nvidia launched a new offering aimed at helping customers quickly deploy their generative AI applications in a secure, s Read more…

The Generative AI Future Is Now, Nvidia’s Huang Says

March 19, 2024

We are in the early days of a transformative shift in how business gets done thanks to the advent of generative AI, according to Nvidia CEO and cofounder Jensen Read more…

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, codenamed Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. Wh Read more…

Alibaba Shuts Down its Quantum Computing Effort

November 30, 2023

In case you missed it, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has shut down its quantum computing research effort. It’s not entirely clear what drove the change. Read more…

Nvidia H100: Are 550,000 GPUs Enough for This Year?

August 17, 2023

The GPU Squeeze continues to place a premium on Nvidia H100 GPUs. In a recent Financial Times article, Nvidia reports that it expects to ship 550,000 of its lat Read more…

Shutterstock 1285747942

AMD’s Horsepower-packed MI300X GPU Beats Nvidia’s Upcoming H200

December 7, 2023

AMD and Nvidia are locked in an AI performance battle – much like the gaming GPU performance clash the companies have waged for decades. AMD has claimed it Read more…

DoD Takes a Long View of Quantum Computing

December 19, 2023

Given the large sums tied to expensive weapon systems – think $100-million-plus per F-35 fighter – it’s easy to forget the U.S. Department of Defense is a Read more…

Synopsys Eats Ansys: Does HPC Get Indigestion?

February 8, 2024

Recently, it was announced that Synopsys is buying HPC tool developer Ansys. Started in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1970 as Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. (SASI) by John Swanson (and eventually renamed), Ansys serves the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering)/multiphysics engineering simulation market. Read more…

Choosing the Right GPU for LLM Inference and Training

December 11, 2023

Accelerating the training and inference processes of deep learning models is crucial for unleashing their true potential and NVIDIA GPUs have emerged as a game- Read more…

Intel’s Server and PC Chip Development Will Blur After 2025

January 15, 2024

Intel's dealing with much more than chip rivals breathing down its neck; it is simultaneously integrating a bevy of new technologies such as chiplets, artificia Read more…

Baidu Exits Quantum, Closely Following Alibaba’s Earlier Move

January 5, 2024

Reuters reported this week that Baidu, China’s giant e-commerce and services provider, is exiting the quantum computing development arena. Reuters reported � Read more…

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

Comparing NVIDIA A100 and NVIDIA L40S: Which GPU is Ideal for AI and Graphics-Intensive Workloads?

October 30, 2023

With long lead times for the NVIDIA H100 and A100 GPUs, many organizations are looking at the new NVIDIA L40S GPU, which it’s a new GPU optimized for AI and g Read more…

Shutterstock 1179408610

Google Addresses the Mysteries of Its Hypercomputer 

December 28, 2023

When Google launched its Hypercomputer earlier this month (December 2023), the first reaction was, "Say what?" It turns out that the Hypercomputer is Google's t Read more…

AMD MI3000A

How AMD May Get Across the CUDA Moat

October 5, 2023

When discussing GenAI, the term "GPU" almost always enters the conversation and the topic often moves toward performance and access. Interestingly, the word "GPU" is assumed to mean "Nvidia" products. (As an aside, the popular Nvidia hardware used in GenAI are not technically... Read more…

Shutterstock 1606064203

Meta’s Zuckerberg Puts Its AI Future in the Hands of 600,000 GPUs

January 25, 2024

In under two minutes, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, laid out the company's AI plans, which included a plan to build an artificial intelligence system with the eq Read more…

Google Introduces ‘Hypercomputer’ to Its AI Infrastructure

December 11, 2023

Google ran out of monikers to describe its new AI system released on December 7. Supercomputer perhaps wasn't an apt description, so it settled on Hypercomputer Read more…

China Is All In on a RISC-V Future

January 8, 2024

The state of RISC-V in China was discussed in a recent report released by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The report, entitled "E Read more…

Intel Won’t Have a Xeon Max Chip with New Emerald Rapids CPU

December 14, 2023

As expected, Intel officially announced its 5th generation Xeon server chips codenamed Emerald Rapids at an event in New York City, where the focus was really o Read more…

IBM Quantum Summit: Two New QPUs, Upgraded Qiskit, 10-year Roadmap and More

December 4, 2023

IBM kicks off its annual Quantum Summit today and will announce a broad range of advances including its much-anticipated 1121-qubit Condor QPU, a smaller 133-qu Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire