compositecase

Engineers at Nasa have conducted a test on advanced composite materials that could be used to produce powerful future rocket boosters.

The test comes alongside Nasa’s Space Launch System (SLS) development, and is part of the agency’s efforts to study the capabilities of composite materials to survive the immense strains during a flight.

The study will allow Nasa to develop composite case design, which could be stronger, lighter and more affordable over traditional steel cases, as well as provide increased payload performance.

As part of the burst test, a 25ft-long booster structure made of composite materials was subjected to 3,000lb per square inch pressure, to evaluate its capability with the existing metallic booster.

"The test comes alongside Nasa’s Space Launch System (SLS) development, and is part of the agency’s efforts to study the capabilities of composite materials to survive the immense strains during a flight."

Nasa SLS spacecraft / payload integration and evolution spokesperson Angie Jackman said: "When composites fail, it’s the glue or the resin that fails first, not the fibre that fails."

Orbital ATK, which managed the test, provided solid rocket boosters on the space shuttle.

The company was selected to provide boosters for the first flights of SLS.

First configuration of the SLS vehicle will be configured with a 77t lift capacity, to carry uncrewed Orion spacecraft beyond low-earth orbit.

The final two-stage configuration with a lift capability of 143t will be able to perform missions even farther into our solar system.

Image: During the test, a 25ft-long booster structure made of composite materials was subjected to 3,000lb per square inch pressure. Photo: courtesy of Orbital ATK / Nasa.