Bldg N231, N234, N234A, and N238 - Ames Arc Jet Complex
USA /
California /
Mountain View /
McCord Avenue, N234
World
/ USA
/ California
/ Mountain View
World / United States / California
NASA
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NASA Ames Arc Jet Complex, established in the 60's, for testing of thermal protection materials, heat shields, for both human and robotic space craft that must enter an atmosphere (Earth, Mars or moons).
The Ames Arc Jet Complex has a rich heritage of over 40 years in Thermal Protection System (TPS) development for every NASA Space Transportation and Planetary program, including Apollo, Space Shuttle, Viking, Pioneer-Venus, Galileo, NASP, Mars Pathfinder, Stardust, Mars Exploration Rovers, X-33, X-34, SHARP-B1 and B2, X-37, Phoenix, Mars Science Laboratory, and Orion. This TPS history includes a long heritage in the development of the arc jet facilities. The Ames arc jets are designed to produce hypersonic test conditions representative of the high velocity, high altitude portions of an entry trajectory. These are used to simulate the aerothermal heating and forces that develop on the heat shields, leading edges, and other areas of the spacecraft requiring thermal protection during hypervelocity passage through planetary atmospheres. TPS samples run in the arc jets from a few minutes to over an hour, from one exposure to multiple exposures of the same sample, in order to understand and improve the TPS response to a hypersonic flow aerothermal environment. The Ames Arc Jet Complex is a key enabler for customers involved in TPS design, development, test, and evaluation. Arc jet data is critical for validating TPS thermal models, heat shield design, instrumentation, and repair techniques, and for supporting flight qualification and sustaining engineering requirements.
The Ames Arc Jet Complex has a rich heritage of over 40 years in Thermal Protection System (TPS) development for every NASA Space Transportation and Planetary program, including Apollo, Space Shuttle, Viking, Pioneer-Venus, Galileo, NASP, Mars Pathfinder, Stardust, Mars Exploration Rovers, X-33, X-34, SHARP-B1 and B2, X-37, Phoenix, Mars Science Laboratory, and Orion. This TPS history includes a long heritage in the development of the arc jet facilities. The Ames arc jets are designed to produce hypersonic test conditions representative of the high velocity, high altitude portions of an entry trajectory. These are used to simulate the aerothermal heating and forces that develop on the heat shields, leading edges, and other areas of the spacecraft requiring thermal protection during hypervelocity passage through planetary atmospheres. TPS samples run in the arc jets from a few minutes to over an hour, from one exposure to multiple exposures of the same sample, in order to understand and improve the TPS response to a hypersonic flow aerothermal environment. The Ames Arc Jet Complex is a key enabler for customers involved in TPS design, development, test, and evaluation. Arc jet data is critical for validating TPS thermal models, heat shield design, instrumentation, and repair techniques, and for supporting flight qualification and sustaining engineering requirements.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ames_Research_Center#Arc_Jet_Complex
Nearby cities:
Coordinates: 37°25'5"N 122°3'34"W
- NASA Ames Research Center 1.5 km
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- Johnson Space Center (NASA) 2639 km
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- Santiago Villa 1.1 km
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- North Whisman 1.8 km
- Rex Manor Neighborhood 2.7 km
- Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct 4.8 km
- Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge 8.6 km
- Hetch Hetchy Pipeline 10 km
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