Ares I design for operability

As part of the Constellation Program, engineers at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama are working to design and build the Ares I, the first of two large launch vehicles to return humans to the Moon and beyond. A deliberate effort was made to ensure a high level of operability in order to significantly increase safety and availability as well as reduce recurring costs of this new launch vehicle. It was the Ares Project´s goal to instill operability as part of the requirements development, design and operations of the vehicle. To support this intent, the Constellation Program defined NASA Needs, Goals, and Objectives (NGO) encapsulating project direction to optimize the vehicle design for efficiencies in production, operations, testing and maintenance. The NGOs provided the framework for “Operability” requirements and design guidance for operable influences regarding the vehicle. This paper documents the past and current design phases and the supporting processes, tools, and methodology for designing operability into the Ares I Launch Vehicle. The content addresses the key operability requirements, system readiness activities, international launch vehicle benchmarking activities, operability assessments, and lessons learned. We discuss the interrelationships within the Ares I Project organization as well interdependencies with the Constellation Program. Based on lessons learned, the last section of this paper will describe proposed organizational and process improvements, and tool enhancements for future projects/programs.