Young Guns: Local man plays key role in US space program

TULLAHOMA – When NASA retired the space shuttle program in 2011, the U.S. had no space craft ready to replace the crafts that were first used in 1981.

But thanks to testing coordinated by Nathan Payne, Aerospace Testing Alliance project engineer, at Arnold Engineering Development Complex in Tullahoma, the Orion spacecraft is almost ready for its first trip into space.

"Growing up I would have never believed that I would get to work with people from NASA or who are working with NASA to help the space program out," said Payne of Murfreesboro. "It is why I studied what I did in college and why I emphasized in propulsion for my master's degree, but to work toward something and actually get to do it is a real blessing."

Along with Payne, a team of engineers, technicians and machinists at AEDC conducted tests in the 16-foot transonic wind tunnel in support of NASA's Exploration Flight Test-1, the first planned, flight test of the Orion Multi-Purpose Vehicle without a crew.

Exploration Flight Test-1 will take Orion to an altitude of approximately 3,600 miles above the Earth's surface, more than 15 times farther than the International Space Station's orbital position. The test flight is likely to take place in December.

"The 'Orion' Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle is a beyond-low-earth-orbit manned spacecraft that is being built by Lockheed Martin for NASA," Schoonmaker said. "With the retirement of the space shuttles, Orion will provide the U.S. with manned access to space."

A United Launch Alliance team, led by Mike Schoonmaker and assisted by Payne's ATA team, gathered wind tunnel data in the testing of a prototype spacecraft to help continue NASA's mission to go where few have gone before.

While engineers in Florida have finished building the Orion crew module and attached it to its rocket, Payne and his crew in Tullahoma conducted wind tunnel tests on a scale prototype to make sure it can withstand the pressures of space travel.

Payne said he worked with the ULA to develop "a wind tunnel test that would get them the acoustic data they needed to ensure structural soundness."

The data collected is actually the sound of vibrations caused by wind passing over the surface of a scale model of the rocket, he explained.

"This data is taken and converted into forcing functions to determine dynamic load, bending forces or to see if something is going to 'rattle' off during the initial stages of the rocket's flight," he said.

Payne said ULA brought the Orion model to Tullahoma because of the types of tests that can be performed there and the size of the wind tunnel.

The actual Orion module measures 322 feet in length. Payne and the other engineers in Tullahoma were able to fit a 20-foot-long scale model in the AEDC wind tunnel, he said.

"The larger the model you can build the better the data you take will be," Payne explained, adding AEDC was chosen because of a previous relationship with ULA.

Not only has AEDC conducted flight testing of the Orion spacecraft, a team used the facility in early 2007 during a NASA-sponsored aerothermal testing on a scale model. The primary objective of that Orion testing was to obtain heating data over the model's surface.

That same year NASA engineers teamed up with their counterparts at AEDC to test possible materials for materials Orion's heat shield.

The wind tunnel tests on the Orion crew module were the final piece to the completing the spacecraft. The testing of the other pieces were finished earlier this year.

Now the tests are finished, the spacecraft is currently being prepared for flight by crews from NASA, Lockheed Martin and ULA at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Though there will not be a crew on board during the December flight test, in the future the module will be used to transport astronauts safely to and from space. Many of Orion's critical safety systems will be evaluated on this mission.

Payne said he will be on the edge of his seat during the December flight, calling it "a little nerve-racking."

"When NASA launched the ARES rocket, I held my breath," he said about a previous project he worked on.

Payne said he has worked on projects for ATA at AEDC that has protected soldiers and the United States and even expanded engineering knowledge.

"All that said, nothing brings out the engineer, or little boy, or the pure explorer, like working on a test for the space program. I don't know if that is pride or just what, but it's what I like the most," he said.

Contact Michelle Willard at 615-278-5164 or mwillard@dnj.com. Follow her on Twitter @MichWillard.

FYI …

Aerospace Testing Alliance provides operations, maintenance, information management and support services at the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Complex in Tullahoma. ATA employees at AEDC comprise 90 percent of AEDC's work.