I just returned from the worlds largest solid fuel rocket motor test about an hour drive North of me in Utah. The rocket motor was the NASA ARES-1 DM-1 built and tested by ATK Space Systems. ATK Press Release
This is why science and engineering are cool and young people should be considering a future in science and engineering fields! We need another manned lunar mission. Support NASA, the ARES project, and future space exploration!
A few quick bits and pieces beyond the rocket test’s sheer power and performance while burning over a million pounds of solid rocket fuel in two minutes.
How did they keep the rocket horizontal for this static test? ATK 
had placed nearly a football field of concrete that the rocket motor assembly was mounted to. ATK and NASA had 650 sensors for monitoring and recording acoustical, pressure, and strain measurements. The initial results were successful and the data will be analyzed over the coming weeks to get detailed data to use in future motor design modifications and refinements.
There was a rattlesnake that survived being directly behind the motor test. The snake was located underneath some sand. The snake was not injured in any way despite the fact that some of the sand in the area turned to glass with exposure to the high temperatures generated by the rocket motor test. The ATK personnel certainly were surprised to find this lively little snake as they were moving sand after the test. I took a photo of the engineers looking at the snake, but due to the snake blending in with camouflage markings you can see the lucky little reptile.
NASA located a special video camera with a mirror setup behind the rocket motor, the camera survived only a few seconds after the motor ignition. The camera was on a small car sized concrete footing, and it is believed to be spotted half way up the mountain behind the test.
During the test I spotted a commercial passenger plane passing over the several thousand foot tall plume of smoke. I can only guess what the passengers were thinking as they passed over.
I did ask a purely fun question while speaking with one ATK employee. With such a powerful rocket motor fixed to the Earth, I inquired whether they had considered the rockets force to alter the Earths rotational speed and possibly altering time. 😉
NASA TV video of the rocket motor test:
NASA and ATK Successfully Test Ares First Stage Motor
Local television station Fox 13 video coverage of the test:
Rocket Test Successful in N. Utah
Local television station KSL:
ATK awaits Fla. test launch after successful test fire of Ares rocket
I was tweeting on Twitter live @mrcadman during the day when I could get a phone connection.
This was an absolutely amazing experience, one that I will never forget. I met with many people today including real rocket scientists and Space Shuttle astronauts. I have many more photos to post to my Flickrstream as well as future blog posts. The ATK and NASA employees were awesome and I cannot begin to thank them enough for allowing me the opportunity to attend this historical engineering event.
What an experience!
Cheers,
Shaan
That is awesome! I shudder to think what their carbon offset costs were for the project…
.-)
I am not sure but I asked and someone said this propellant was less carbon footprint than most large projects. I also heard although it was 20 million horspower a NASCAR race might be more of a carbon footprint than this test. Perhaps it is the propellant material that is the difference as opposed to petroleum emissions.
Seems like a lot of unnecessary pollution to me…
Better to test the rocket, than wing it on a future flight mission.
Much of today’s most powerful technology came from previous space programs and the race to the moon, not just the delicious Tang instant drink.
With so much money being thrown around in Washington NASA would be small change and well worth every penny. The return on investment is beneficial to everyone all around with engineering, science, technology, and space exploration.
We all need to look further than our own neighborhood or atmosphere for the future technology solutions and human advancement.
The plume of dust and smoke was huge. You could feel the motors power during the test. It was so amazing!
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I will have a front row seat in the media area when ATK performs a ground test of GEM 60 solid rocket motor on September 6th, 2012. Last time I was at this test site, I had front row for the ARES DM1 fixed motor test and see the amazing engineering bef…
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TITLE: What a Day, 3.6 Million Pounds of Thrust Was a Blast
BLOG NAME: Between the Lines
I just returned from the worlds largest solid fuel rocket motor test about an hour drive North of me in Utah. The rocket motor was the NASA ARES-1 DM-1 built and tested by ATK Space Systems.
Looks like it was a blast Shaan, did you snag some souvenirs from this? Maybe a piece of the glass, or something.
Donovan,
It was awesome. The ground was still to hot to touch or enter safely especially with all the CO2 from the quench and cool down. Maybe next time I get to ATK I can get a piece of the glass. I saw some from a prior rocket motor test and it was pretty cool.
Cheers,
Shaan
Shaan,
I live in Logan, not far to the east of Promontory Point. I noticed a huge plume of smoke above the Wellsville Mountains early in the afternoon and couldn’t place it! It looked like a volcano had blown in the Tremonton area. Then I discovered I missed the test, and though I was sad to miss it, the videos were still impressive. Did the ground shake as much as it appeared on video?
Wishing I Was There,
Mike H