Water Recovery Testing
Among the lessons that came out of our Prospector 7D flight test at San Nicolas Island (SNI) in September 2006 was that we needed to refine our proposed ocean recovery operations to get final approval from the range. Consequently, during 2007 we conducted a series of incremental water recovery tests using surplus hardware. CSULB students played key roles in both planning and then implementing these simulations. Being located in Long Beach was definitely a plus - besides proximity to the ocean, the city also has extensive experience with maritime launch vehicle ops thanks to Sea Launch.
The first significant test in October took place in the Long Beach Marine Stadium. This effort verified that several CSULB students in wet suits could maneuver the mockup around. No attempt was made to extract the mockup onto a boat, but the students ended up being able to evaluate towing techniques, courtesy of support from the Long Beach Life Guard department.
The next test followed in November and extended operations out to Alamitos Bay and then Long Beach Harbor. This time the objectives focused on rendezvousing with and extracting the mockup while under calm open ocean conditions. The LB Life Guard department again supported the CSULB-led test by making available one of their patrol boat teams. Their involvement also helped minimize the obvious questions that we would have otherwise gotten from other government authorities.
These simulations indicate that recovering a future vehicle at sea is indeed a viable possibility for our team given good sea conditions and minimal damage to the vehicle. To further improve the probability of doing so we had planned to follow up with a deep water simulation utilizing the actual vessel that the Navy was going to provide for an upcoming SNI launch . However, that mission is now on hold, so such advanced testing will have to wait. In the mean time, we continue to encourage the CSULB students to come up with other ocean-based projects that can leverage the unique opportunities and working relationships with the City of LB that are now in place.
last updated: 28 March 2008