Repairs and upgrades await SLS mobile launcher before crewed lunar mission
在执行载人登月任务之前，SLS移动发射器将进行维修和升级
The mobile launch platform for NASA’s Space Launch System moon rocket rolled back into the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center Friday for inspections and repairs after liftoff of the Artemis 1 moon mission last month, setting the stage for upgrades to the 380-foot-tall structure before the first crewed Artemis moon flight scheduled for 2024.
美国国家航空航天局（NASA）太空发射系统（Space launch System）月球火箭的移动发射平台于上个月发射阿尔忒弥斯1号（Artemis 1）月球任务后，于周五返回肯尼迪航天中心（Kennedy Space Center）的运载器装配大楼进行检查和维修，为在2024年首次载人阿尔忒弥s月球飞行之前升级380英尺高的结构奠定了基础。
NASA’s Artemis 2 mission will carry three U.S. astronauts and one Canadian on a loop around the back side of the moon, a 10-day test-flight that will send humans farther from Earth than ever before. Additional Artemis mission later in the 2020s will target landings on the moon’s surface and build an outpost called the Gateway in lunar orbit.
美国航天局的阿耳特弥斯2号任务将搭载三名美国宇航员和一名加拿大宇航员围绕月球背面飞行，为期10天的测试飞行将使人类比以往任何时候都离地球更远。2020年代晚些时候，阿尔忒弥斯号的另一项任务将瞄准月球表面的着陆，并在月球轨道上建造一个名为“门户”的前哨基地。
The Artemis 1 test flight launched Nov. 16 from pad 39B at Kennedy Space Center, sending NASA’s unpiloted Orion crew capsule on a path toward the moon aboard the first SLS moon rocket, a giant 322-foot-tall (98-meter) vehicle developed to propel astronauts into deep space. The Orion spacecraft reached the moon Nov. 21 and entered a distant orbit, then whipped by the moon again Dec. 5 to head for splashdown Sunday in the Pacific Ocean.
阿尔忒弥斯1号于11月16日在肯尼迪航天中心39B发射台发射升空，将NASA无人驾驶的猎户座宇航员舱送上第一枚SLS月球火箭，这是一款322英尺高（98米）的巨型运载火箭，旨在将宇航员推进深空。猎户座飞船于11月21日抵达月球并进入遥远的轨道，然后于12月5日再次被月球撞击，于周日在太平洋上溅落。
While the Artemis 1 mission has, so far, been a big success for NASA, ground crews at Kennedy are already starting preparations for Artemis 2.
尽管迄今为止，阿尔忒弥斯1号任务对美国宇航局来说取得了巨大成功，但肯尼迪的地面人员已经开始为阿尔忒弥s 2号做准备。
Inspections of the SLS Mobile Launcher after liftoff of Artemis 1 last month showed relatively minor damage to the platform and its tower, which stands some 380 feet (115 meters) off the ground. Most of the damage was predicted, but teams discovered the blast of the rocket’s 8.8 million pounds of thrust blew the doors off elevators that run up and down the structure. That wasn’t expected, and caused it to take somewhat longer for technicians to complete their initial evaluation of the Mobile Launcher’s condition after the Nov. 16 blastoff.
上个月阿尔忒弥斯1号升空后，对SLS移动发射器的检查显示，平台及其塔的损坏相对较小，塔离地面约380英尺（115米）。大部分损失都是预测的，但研究小组发现，火箭880万磅的推力爆炸，炸毁了升降电梯的门。这是意料之中的，并导致技术人员在11月16日发射后需要更长时间才能完成对移动发射器状况的初步评估。
Mike Sarafin, NASA’s Artemis 1 mission manager, said in a press conference that the steel structure of the Mobile Launcher weathered the rocket’s fury well. There was some expected damage to “soft goods” — like seals, gaskets, and hoses — on the umbilical arms that disconnected from the rocket at liftoff. But the umbilical arms themselves also held up during the launch.
NASA的阿尔忒弥斯1号任务经理迈克·萨拉芬（Mike Sarafin）在新闻发布会上表示，移动发射器的钢结构很好地抵御了火箭的狂怒。升空时与火箭断开的脐带臂上的“软物品”，如密封件、垫圈和软管，预计会受到一些损坏。但在发射过程中，脐带臂本身也保持着。
“We did anticipate some amount of damage, and they are finding some amount of damage,” Sarafin said.
Sarafin说：“我们确实预料到了一定程度的损失，他们正在发现一定程度的损害。”。
Vast volumes of water flowed onto the deck of the Mobile Launcher platform during engine ignition and liftoff, dampening the sound energy and overpressure as the rocket’s powerful solid rocket boosters fired off to send the vehicle off of the pad.
在发动机点火和发射过程中，大量的水流到了移动发射器平台的甲板上，在火箭强大的固体火箭助推器发射将车辆从发射台上发射时，减弱了声能和超压。
With inspections complete at the pad, ground teams at Kennedy moved the diesel-powered crawler-transporter underneath the Mobile Launcher earlier this week and began moving it off of pad 39B Thursday morning for the 4.2-mile (6.8-kilometer) journey to the Vehicle Assembly Building, where crews stacked the SLS moon rocket before the Artemis 1 launch.
随着对发射台的检查完成，本周早些时候，肯尼迪的地面团队将柴油动力履带式运输车移到了移动发射器下方，并于周四上午开始将其从39B发射台移开，前往车辆装配楼，进行4.2英里（6.8公里）的旅程，在那里，工作人员在阿尔忒弥斯1号发射前将SLS月球火箭堆放在一起。
The crawler parked outside the doors of the VAB on Thursday afternoon, then rolled into High Bay 3 inside the cavernous hangar Friday.
星期四下午，这辆履带车停在VAB的门外，然后星期五驶进了海绵体的机库内的High Bay 3。
Contractor teams inside the VAB will spend a few weeks inspecting and repairing damage to the Mobile Launcher, then the crawler will move the structure to a park site north of the assembly building in January to start upgrades needed for Artemis 2.
VAB内的承包商团队将花费数周时间检查和修复移动发射器的损坏，然后履带将于1月将该结构移动到装配大楼以北的一个公园场地，开始Artemis 2所需的升级。
One of the most signifiant upgrades will be the addition of an egress system that would whisk astronauts away from the launch pad in pre-launch emergency. Technicians will install pre-fabricated platforms some 300 feet up the Mobile Launcher tower. The platforms will support four baskets designed to slide down cables to reach ground level at the pad perimeter.
最重要的升级之一将是增加一个出口系统，在发射前的紧急情况下，该系统可将宇航员从发射台带走。技术人员将在移动发射塔上方约300英尺处安装预制平台。平台将支撑四个篮筐，这些篮筐设计用于向下滑动电缆，以到达衬垫周边的地面。
The emergency egress system for the Artemis launches is similar to the slidewire baskets used on the space shuttle program. SpaceX also has a similar egress system at pad 39A for astronaut launches on the Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft, and United Launch Alliance has a zipline-like system to quickly get astronauts off the pad during launches of Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule.
阿尔忒弥斯号发射的紧急出口系统类似于航天飞机项目中使用的滑动式吊篮。SpaceX在39A发射台也有一个类似的出口系统，用于猎鹰9号火箭和Crew Dragon飞船上的宇航员发射，联合发射联盟有一个像拉链一样的系统，可以在波音公司的Starliner太空舱发射过程中快速将宇航员从发射台上取下。
“One of the big things we’re doing from a ground systems standpoint is we’re adding crew emergency egress on the Mobile Launcher,” said Jeremy Parsons, deputy manager of NASA’s exploration ground systems program at Kennedy. “At the park site, what we’re going to do is we’re adding a series of a platform for emergency egress,” Parsons said.
“从地面系统的角度来看，我们正在做的一件大事是在移动发射器上增加乘员紧急出口，”肯尼迪航天局探测地面系统项目副经理杰里米·帕森斯说。帕森斯说：“在公园现场，我们要做的是增加一系列紧急出口平台。”。
“We already have all the major items fabricated, and we’re waiting on the Mobile Launcher to show up to begin work,” Parsons said. “So we’re feeling pretty good there.”
帕森斯说：“我们已经制作好了所有主要部件，我们正在等待移动发射器的出现，开始工作。”。“所以我们在那里感觉很好。”
The cables that connect the Mobile Launcher’s egress platforms to the ground will be lifted onto the tower after it arrives at the launch pad, then hoists will raise the four slidewire baskets onto the tower in the run-up to launch day.
将移动发射器出口平台连接到地面的电缆将在其到达发射台后被提升到塔架上，然后起重机将在发射日之前将四个滑动式吊篮提升到塔架。
Another modification to the Mobile Launcher involves a change to the sound suppression and ignition overpressure water system. Technicians put in new water nozzles to change how the water flows onto the launch platform.
对移动发射器的另一个修改涉及对声音抑制和点火超压水系统的更改。技术人员安装了新的水喷嘴，以改变水如何流向发射平台。
After teams finish work at the park site, the crawler will move the 11 million-pound Mobile Launcher back to pad 39B for verification and validation testing of the new emergency egress system and the new sound suppression water nozzles. The activities at the pad, scheduled for later in 2023, will include the hoisting of the slidewire cables and baskets onto the Mobile Launcher tower, and sound suppression water flow tests.
团队在公园现场完成工作后，履带将1100万磅重的移动发射器移回39B平台，以对新的紧急出口系统和新的消音水喷嘴进行验证和验证测试。计划于2023年晚些时候在发射台进行的活动将包括将滑轨电缆和吊篮吊到移动发射塔上，以及声音抑制水流测试。
When the Mobile Launcher is back at pad 39B, ground teams will also run tests with a new 1.4 million-gallon liquid hydrogen storage tank at the seaside launch complex. The new liquid hydrogen tank adds to the fuel storage capacity at the pad to enable more launch opportunities for the Artemis 2 mission and future Artemis flights.
当移动发射器返回39B发射台时，地面团队还将在海滨发射场使用一个140万加仑的新液氢储罐进行测试。新的液氢罐增加了发射台的燃料储存能力，为阿尔忒弥斯2号任务和未来的阿尔忒弥s飞行提供了更多的发射机会。
The space shuttle-era liquid hydrogen tank at the pad only contained enough fuel to support one SLS launch attempt. Tanker trucks needed to replenish the hydrogen tank after each fueling of the rocket, meaning Artemis 1 launch attempts had to be at least two days apart.
位于发射台的航天飞机时代的液氢罐只含有足够的燃料来支持一次SLS发射尝试。每次给火箭加油后，罐车都需要补充氢罐，这意味着阿尔忒弥斯1号的发射尝试至少要间隔两天。
“We built a new hydrogen sphere that’s got over 1.4 million gallons,” Parsons said. “That will allow us to get more back-to-back launch attempts, which is a huge capability when we’ve got smaller (launch) windows and things like that.”
“我们建造了一个超过140万加仑的新氢球。”帕森斯说。“这将使我们能够获得更多的背对背发射尝试，当我们拥有更小的（发射）窗口等时，这是一项巨大的能力。”
During an SLS countdown, super-cold liquid hydrogen flows from the ground storage tank through cross-country transfer lines and through the base of the Mobile Launcher, then into the core stage tank through a tail service mast umbilical. NASA found the hydrogen umbilical connection was leaky during the Artemis 1 launch campaign, but the launch team adjusted the loading procedure to reduce pressure on the umbilical seal. The changes eliminated any unsafe hydrogen leaks during the Artemis 1 launch countdown Nov. 16.
在SLS倒计时期间，超冷液态氢从地面储罐通过越野传输线和移动发射器底座流出，然后通过尾部维修桅杆脐带进入核心级储罐。美国宇航局发现，在阿尔忒弥斯1号发射活动期间，氢脐带连接泄漏，但发射团队调整了装载程序，以减少脐带密封的压力。这些变化消除了11月16日阿尔忒弥斯1号发射倒计时期间任何不安全的氢气泄漏。
Validation testing with the new liquid hydrogen storage tank and the Mobile Launcher will help engineers “make sure we’re getting the right pressures, flow rates, no issues with manifolding, and things along those lines,” Parsons said.
帕森斯说，使用新的液氢储罐和移动发射器进行的验证测试将帮助工程师“确保我们获得正确的压力、流速、歧管没有问题以及这些方面的问题”。
“And then really a big piece of it will be testing our emergency egress system, making sure we’re hitting all of the expected loads onto that system, and then really kind of figuring out also how long that takes to set up, so we can plan our pad flows appropriately,” Parsons said.
帕森斯说：“然后，我们将测试我们的紧急出口系统，确保我们达到了该系统的所有预期负载，然后真正弄清楚设置所需的时间，这样我们就可以适当地规划我们的垫流。”。
There also be swing tests of the crew access arm on the Mobile Launcher to ensure it can move at faster speeds, which could be required in the event of a launch pad emergency with astronauts on the Orion crew capsule. The crew access arm is the walkway that astronauts and ground teams use to board the Orion spacecraft.
此外，还对移动发射器上的乘员通道臂进行了摇摆测试，以确保其能够以更快的速度移动，这可能是在猎户座乘员舱上的宇航员出现发射台紧急情况时需要的。乘员通道臂是宇航员和地面团队用来登上猎户座飞船的通道。
Then the Mobile Launcher will roll back to the Vehicle Assembly Building for more verification and validating tests before stacking of the Space Launch System for Artemis 2 gets underway.
然后，在阿尔忒弥斯2号航天发射系统的堆叠开始之前，移动发射器将返回到车辆装配大楼进行更多的验证和验证测试。
Assembly the SLS moon rocket will begin with stacking of the two solid rocket boosters. The five pre-fueled segments of each booster will be delivered to Kennedy next year on railcars from Northrop Grumman’s booster factory in Utah.
SLS月球火箭的组装将从堆叠两个固体火箭助推器开始。每台助推器的五个预加燃料的部分将于明年从诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司位于犹他州的助推器工厂通过轨道车交付给肯尼迪。
Then the core stage will be positioned between the boosters. Boeing, the SLS core stage contractor, is finishing work on the Artemis 2 core stage at a factory in New Orleans before shipping the rocket to the Florida launch base. An upper stage and Orion crew capsule will be lifted on top of the core stage to finish the build-up of the Artemis 2 moon rocket before its launch set for 2024.
然后将核心级放置在助推器之间。SLS核心级承包商波音公司正在新奥尔良的一家工厂完成Artemis 2核心级的工作，然后将火箭运往佛罗里达发射基地。在2024年发射之前，将在核心级的顶部升起一个上层和猎户座乘员舱，以完成阿尔忒弥斯2号月球火箭的建造。
The Artemis 2 mission will use the same version of the Space Launch System, called Block 1, as Artemis 1. The Artemis 3 mission, scheduled for no earlier than 2025, will mark the first lunar landing of the Artemis moon program, and will be the final flight of the SLS Block 1 rocket configuration.
阿尔忒弥斯2号任务将使用与阿尔忒弥s 1号相同版本的太空发射系统，称为Block 1。阿尔忒弥斯3号任务计划不早于2025年，将标志着阿尔忒弥斯登月计划的首次登月，并将是SLS Block 1火箭配置的最后一次飞行。
NASA and Boeing are developing a larger four-engine Exploration Upper Stage to replace the single-engine upper stage used on the SLS Block 1 rocket. The new Space Launch System configuration, called Block 1B, is taller and will need a new Mobile Launcher for the Artemis 4 mission.
美国国家航空航天局和波音公司正在开发一种更大的四引擎探索上段，以取代SLS Block 1火箭上使用的单引擎上段。新的太空发射系统配置，称为Block 1B，更高，将需要一个新的移动发射器来执行阿尔忒弥斯4号任务。
Bechtel won a NASA contract to build the new Mobile Launcher, called ML-2, in 2019, but the project has suffered delays and cost overruns. A report by NASA’s inspector general in June blamed Bechtel for most of the problems with the ML-2 project. The inspector general reported Bechtel underestimated the overall scope and complexity of designing and building ML-2.
贝希特尔于2019年赢得了美国国家航空航天局（NASA）的一份建造新型移动发射器ML-2的合同，但该项目遭到了延误和成本超支。美国国家航空航天局监察长6月的一份报告将ML-2项目的大部分问题归咎于柏克德。督察长报告称，柏克德低估了ML-2设计和建造的总体范围和复杂性。
In a Senate hearing in May, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said Bechtel underbid on the ML-2 contract. Instead of costing $383 million, as originally projected, Bechtel estimates ML-2 is now expected to run $960 million before its completion in late 2025, according to NASA’s inspector general. But independent reviewers have concluded ML-2 could cost nearly $1.5 billion and may not be ready until late 2027.
在5月的参议院听证会上，美国宇航局局长比尔·纳尔逊（Bill Nelson）表示，贝希特尔在ML-2合同上出价过低。根据美国国家航空航天局（NASA）监察长的说法，贝希特尔估计，ML-2在2025年底完工之前，预计将耗资9.6亿美元，而不是最初预计的3.83亿美元。但独立评审人员得出结论，ML-2可能耗资近15亿美元，可能要到2027年底才能投入使用。
Parsons said the readiness of ML-2, and not the development of the new upper stage, is currently in the critical path for the Artemis 4 launch. He said Bechtel is completing the design of the new Mobile Launcher, with steel fabrication due to begin in 2023.
帕森斯表示，ML-2的准备就绪，而不是新的上层的开发，目前正处于阿尔忒弥斯4号发射的关键阶段。他表示，柏克德正在完成新移动发射器的设计，钢制造将于2023年开始。
“In terms of when we deliver (ML-2), we’re post-2025 right now,” he said. “Right now Mobile Launcher 2 is the critical path for Artemis 4. That’s something that we’re working the schedule very intensively on, adding shifts, looking at what we can compress, and things along those lines.”
“就我们交付（ML-2）的时间而言，我们现在是2025年后，”他说。“目前，移动发射器2是阿尔忒弥斯4的关键路径。这是我们正在紧锣密鼓地制定计划的一部分，增加班次，看看我们可以压缩什么，以及这些方面的事情。”
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