Filament Wound Solid Rocket Motors Experimental Analyses and Their Impact on Payload Environment

Paper number

IAC-09.D2.6.1

Author

Mr. Marco Castelli, European Space Agency/ESRIN, Italy

Coauthor

Mr. Daniele Barbagallo, European Space Agency (ESA), Italy

Year

2009

Abstract

Payload sector continuous evolutions, due to technology improvements and spacecraft new solutions implementations, lead to a consequent launchers sector adaptation and challenge, aiming at offering the most comfortable launch condition to the payload. Obviously, spacecrafts comfort is seen as a particular effort to be more attractive in the frame of launcher market.
In this context, evolution of European launchers fleet is keen on this aspect, especially concerning VEGA small launcher project: introduction of many new technology solutions, of which filament winding use for realization of solid rocket motors is the principal one, is giving an important asset on payloads comfort improvement.
Being VEGA launcher project in its ground qualification loop, in completion also through subsystems qualification static tests (firing tests, separation tests, etc.), specific new methodologies and activities has been set up, aiming at evaluating effective improvements at payload level: in particular, taking advantage of many firing tests campaigns held in past years, a dedicated exploitation activity on experimental data has been performed, focusing on structural dynamic aspects; data correlation, energetic contents quantifications and single phenomena effective influence evaluation at system level have been main drivers for the methodology development and practical realization.
This paper, hence, resumes and makes an overview of results coming from these analyses on VEGA solid rocket motors, P80 FW, Zefiro 23 and Zefiro 9, highlighting differences and communalities of filament wound motors behaviour during burning phases that lead to different dynamic environment for launcher payloads and possible future improvements.

Abstract document

IAC-09.D2.6.1.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-09.D2.6.1.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.