Members of the University of New Orleans College of Engineering's National Center for Advanced Manufacturing (NCAM) recently received a Group Achievement Award for exemplary performance from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Materials and Processes Laboratory for an NCAM-led projected conducted in support of the NASA Constellation Program's Ares I Upper Stage Common Bulkhead.

The presentation was made by Wendell Colberg, deputy manager, Materials and Processes Laboratory, Engineering Directorate, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

The objective of the project was to develop and test the manufacturing processes that will be used to fabricate the Ares I Upper State Common Bulkhead. NCAM managed the Michoud phases of the project, including subcontracting with Lockheed Martin for additional technical support and working closely with the MSFC Upper Stage Common Bulkhead Team during planning and execution.

The common bulkhead is a partition that will separate two fuel tanks in the Ares I rocket. Ares I, part of NASA's Constellation Program, is an in-line, two-stage rocket designed to carry the Orion crew vehicle and astronauts to missions in space. The first flight test for the Ares I is called Ares I-X and is scheduled to launch on October 27.

The Michoud phase of the award-winning project was conducted last April when the Marshall common bulkhead team spent several days onsite at Michoud where machining and a verification test were performed on a CB Demonstration Article using NCAM's High-speed Machining Center. The NCAM team was instrumental in supporting the logistics of receiving the Demonstration Article at Michoud, scheduling the High-speed Machining Center, coordinating oven support, photography and video support and providing miscellaneous supplies.  

The High-speed Machining Center was used to accurately machine the core material to a specified curvature to facilitate bonding of the upper dome panel to the core. After machining, a Verifilm test was done to verify the accuracy of the machining and the fit of the core material to the upper dome panel. The imprint of the core on the cured Verifilm confirmed that the machined core material was in 100 percent contact with the upper dome panel.

To read more about the Ares I, visit www.nasa.gov/ares. To read about NCAM, visit www.ncamlp.org.