Centaur G/G Prime High Energy Upper Stage

[T.Neo]

ATK? I am pretty sure the US company that got their hands on the NK-33/43 was Aerojet (and they are now apparently called the AJ26-58/AJ26-59, after modifications performed in the US).

I know this is going off topic, but... does anyone have any information pertaining to the NK-33/AJ-26? Particularly in the area of supposed reusability (that the Kistler rocket would have depended on).

 

[MaverickSawyer]

ATK and Rocketdyne are the mortal enemies of Aerojet, who are the rebuilders of the NK-33/AJ-26. I don't know how reusable they are, since they were designed for the N-1 in a previous version.

 

[DaveS]

Just found another option to get the document if MaverickSawyer is willing to do it: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/FOIA/request.html

I have checked which records are exempt from FOIA requests, and the document do not fit any exemption criteria.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Great. What are you looking for?

 

[DaveS]

Great. What are you looking for?

Just the document discussed earlier: "Centaur G Prime Technical Description".

---------- Post added 11-18-11 at 02:29 AM ---------- Previous post was 11-17-11 at 08:42 PM ----------

Great. What are you looking for?

Thanks for giving this a shot. This is really the last option until someone at GRC decides to make it available through NTRS(who knows if that will ever happen?).

 

[MaverickSawyer]

:blink: I haven't gotten it yet! If you can find a publication number, official title, etc., that would be immensly helpful. I als need to have an official-sounding reason for wanting it, one that I can use in the US. I am open to suggestions... Leave me a message or PM me with them.

 

[DaveS]

:blink: I haven't gotten it yet! If you can find a publication number, official title, etc., that would be immensly helpful. I als need to have an official-sounding reason for wanting it, one that I can use in the US. I am open to suggestions... Leave me a message or PM me with them.

The title is Centaur G Prime Technical Description. Don't have a publication number unfortunately.

Try this for the reason. It's the one I used in Round 1 which hit a dead-end thanks to export control laws:

I'm involved with a project that aims to simulate the Shuttle and its various upper stages including the Centaur and we are in need of technical documents that explains the various systems of the Centaur G/G Prime in detail. This also includes the the carrier structure called the Centaur Integrated Support System.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Great! I'll get on that tomorrow morning, homework permitting. Otherwise, it's going to be around midday.
BTW, I'm GMT-8...

 

[Urwumpe]

DaveS: Can this file give you any help?

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740023234_1974023234.pdf

It isn't exactly about the Centaur-G, but about a very similar project, the RLTC.

(Especially look at page 69 - RLTC deployment adapter.)

 

[DaveS]

DaveS: Can this file give you any help?

http://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19740023234_1974023234.pdf

It isn't exactly about the Centaur-G, but about a very similar project, the RLTC.

(Especially look at page 69 - RLTC deployment adapter.)

The Reusable Centaur Study is what resulted in the Centaur G Prime/G. Although this document dating back to 1973, it seems to be pretty accurate even for the later Centaur G Prime.

 

[Urwumpe]

The Reusable Centaur Study is what resulted in the Centaur G Prime/G. Although this document dating back to 1973, it seems to be pretty accurate even for the later Centaur G Prime.

There are some optimizations that occurred later, but generally, I feel like I recognize some of the stuff of the RLTC in the Centaur G Prime.

 

[DaveS]

There are some optimizations that occurred later, but generally, I feel like I recognize some of the stuff of the RLTC in the Centaur G Prime.

I checked out the page and it is not correct with the actual designed CISS fluid interfaces. It shows the various pipes entering the orbiter aft while only the LOX fill/drain pipe did that. The rest went through the Payload Umbilical wells on the sides of the orbiter midbody.

 

[Urwumpe]

I checked out the page and it is not correct with the actual designed CISS fluid interfaces. It shows the various pipes entering the orbiter aft while only the LOX fill/drain pipe did that. The rest went through the Payload Umbilical wells on the sides of the orbiter midbody.

They also placed the LH2 vent into the rudder there.

 

[DaveS]

They also placed the LH2 vent into the rudder there.

Well, that was actually a considered design change as there was concerns that the hot APU exhaust could ignite the GH2 as it was vented.

 

[DaveS]

Finally got the Centaur G Prime Technical Description document! Going through it now.

---------- Post added at 06:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:11 PM ----------

At the first glance, there's no images of the Standard Switch Panel(SSP) that would have been used to control the Centaur/CISS. Plenty of other stuff though, like a ton of data on the Centaur G Prime avionics.

 

[Urwumpe]

Finally got the Centaur G Prime Technical Description document! Going through it now.

---------- Post added at 06:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:11 PM ----------

At the first glance, there's no images of the Standard Switch Panel(SSP) that would have been used to control the Centaur/CISS. Plenty of other stuff though, like a ton of data on the Centaur G Prime avionics.

You don't feel like you have a table of payload interrogator codes for the Centaur-G there, do you? :tiphat:

 

[DaveS]

You don't feel like you have a table of payload interrogator codes for the Centaur-G there, do you? :tiphat:

Not sure. Could be buried somewhere in the avionics/telemetry data.

---------- Post added at 07:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:31 PM ----------

Here's the document: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24122088/Centaur G-Prime Technical Description.PDF

 

[DaveS]

So has anyone gotten any useful from the document? Other than some minor meshing things, everything looks good on my end.

 

[Urwumpe]

So has anyone gotten any useful from the document? Other than some minor meshing things, everything looks good on my end.

Not that much, except the flight software structure being pretty interesting since it permits to draw conclusions about the software processes.

 

[DaveS]

Recently I have been working on a new Centaur G Prime mesh. Now everything is very accurate. I'll hold the check-in of it until we're done reconfiguring the orbiter mesh. The only thing that is left undone is the LOX ducts to the main engines and the GOX vent line. What you see in the screenshots below is the naked delivery configuration without the TPS radiation shields installed. This was apparently done in the VPF at KSC.