DARPA releases cause of hypersonic glider anomaly

LOS ANGELES (AP) — An unmanned hypersonic glider likely aborted its 13,000 mph flight over the Pacific Ocean last summer because unexpectedly large sections of its skin peeled off, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said Friday.

The Hypersonic Technology Vehicle-2, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., atop a rocket and released on Aug. 11, 2011, was part of research aimed at developing super-fast global strike capability for the Department of Defense.

The vehicle demonstrated stable aerodynamically controlled flight at speeds up to 20 times the speed of sound, or Mach 20, for three minutes before a series of upsets caused its autonomous flight safety system to bring it down in the ocean, DARPA said in a statement.

A gradual wearing away of the vehicle's skin was expected because of extremely high temperatures, but an independent engineering review board concluded that the most probable cause was "unexpected aeroshell degradation, creating multiple upsets of increasing severity that ultimately activated the Flight Safety System," the statement said.

Initial shockwaves created by the gaps in the skin were more than 100 times what the vehicle was designed to withstand, but it was still able to recover and return to controlled flight, said Kaigham J. Gabriel, DARPA's acting director.

Eventually the upsets grew beyond its ability to recover.

The 2011 flight was the second time an HTV-2 was launched. The first flight, in April 2010, also ended prematurely.

Data from that flight was used to correct aerodynamic design models for the second test, resulting in controlled flight, and now data from the latest flight will be used to adjust assumptions about thermal modeling, Air Force Maj. Chris Schulz, the DARPA program manager, said in the statement.

"The result of these findings is a profound advancement in understanding the areas we need to focus on to advance aerothermal structures for future hypersonic vehicles. Only actual flight data could have revealed this to us," he said.

Most specific details of the program are secret. DARPA has released artist renderings showing a craft that looks something like the tip of a spear. After the 2011 flight the agency released handheld video, taken aboard a monitoring ship, that showed a dot streaking across the sky.

The HTV-2 would have splashed down in the ocean regardless of the anomaly. The vehicles are intended to be used once and are not recovered.

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Superfast Military Aircraft Crashed in Pacific Ocean, DARPA Says (SPACE.com)

This story was updated at 5:42 p.m. ET.

An unmanned military plane billed as the "fastest aircraft ever built" crashed into the Pacific Ocean today (Aug. 11) after a malfunction caused it to stop sending signals while flying at more than 20 times the speed of sound, military officials said.

The flying prototype, called the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 (HTV-2), plunged into the ocean after shifting into a mode that allows it to fly Mach 20, or about 13,000 mph, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which oversaw the test flight.

The rocket-launched vehicle is part of an advanced weapons program, called Conventional Prompt Global Strike, which is working to develop systems of reaching an enemy target anywhere in the world within one hour. It blasted off from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 7:45 a.m. PDT (1445 GMT). [Photos: DARPA Hypersonic Glider's Mach 20 Test]

"More than nine minutes of data was collected before an anomaly caused loss of signal," DARPA officials explained in a statement. "Initial indications are that the aircraft impacted the Pacific Ocean along the planned flight path."

The update means that today's Falcon HTV-2 test flight, the second performed by DARPA, lasted longer than the project's first flight in April 2010. That first flight lasted nine minutes and ended when an earlier hypersonic vehicle detected an anomaly and also crashed itself into the ocean.

"Here's what we know," said Air Force Maj. Chris Schulz, DARPA HTV-2 program manager, in a statement. "We know how to boost the aircraft to near space. We know how to insert the aircraft into atmospheric hypersonic flight." [10 Military Aircraft that Never Made it Past the Test Phase]

DARPA officials said that according to telemetry from today's HTV-2 flight, the hypersonic vehicle separated from its Minotaur 4 rocket booster as planned, then shifted into the proper configuration for Mach 20 flight — a major feat.

What happens next, though, is a mystery.

"We do not yet know how to achieve the desired control during the aerodynamic phase of flight," Schulz said. "It's vexing; I'm confident there is a solution. We have to find it."

The Falcon HTV-2 aircraft is a wedge-shaped plane equipped with thrusters and aerosurfaces designed to provide control during hypersonic flight. It is built to withstand extreme heating since the flying at Mach 20 can subject it to temperatures of up to 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit, according to DARPA officials, who called it the fastest flying vehicle ever constructed.

"To address these obstacles, DARPA has assembled a team of experts that will analyze the flight data collected during today's test flight, expanding our technical understanding of this incredibly harsh flight regime," Schulz said. "As today's flight indicates, high-Mach flight in the atmosphere is virtually uncharted territory."

To reach hypersonic speeds, the HTV-2 launched into suborbital space atop a Minotaur rocket. The vehicle then popped free of the booster and re-entered Earth's atmosphere.

During today's test flight, DARPA scientists expected the HTV-2 aircraft to use small rocket thrusters to control its re-entry, then pitch itself up to increase altitude and control. After that, the vehicle was expected to enter a long glide phase in order to perform a set of preprogrammed maneuvering tests while flying at about 13,000 mph.

Once those tests were complete, the vehicle was expected to crash itself into the ocean to end the mission. But during the actual flight, ground stations lost contact with the HTV-2 vehicle earlier than planned.

An engineering review board to analyze that data in order to help shape future global strike programs, DARPA officials said.

You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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DARPA Lays Out Tech for 100-Year Starship Program (SPACE.com)

Jeremy Hsu, InnovationNewsDaily Senior Writer
Space.com Jeremy Hsu, Innovationnewsdaily Senior Writer
space.com – Thu Jun 16, 11:44 pm ET

A Pentagon effort to enable a human journey to the stars within 100 years aims to enlist the brainpower of science fiction writers, ethicists and researchers. This new call for ideas covers innovations such as faster than light travel and life-sustaining technologies as well as questions about who gets chosen for the starship crew and what happens if alien life turns up at the end of the journey.

This latest step for the $1 million 100-Year Starship Study would lead up to a space technology conference scheduled to take place in Orlando, Fla., from Sept. 30 through Oct. 2. The new call for papers differs from a past request for proposals about setting up the organization that would lead the charge into the future of interstellar travel.

But the joint project between the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NASA still represents the earliest stages for considering how to create a starship. The required technologies may seem as distant now as the technologies needed to send humans to the moon seemed back in 1865, when science fiction writer Jules Verne wrote the book "From the Earth to the Moon." [10 Sci-Fi Predictions That Came True]

"Verne couldn't have known about what was needed to go to the moon," said David Neyland, director of the Tactical Technology Office for DARPA. "That's probably where we are today in terms of the 100-Year Starship."

Future spinoffs and benefits

Despite the challenges, DARPA sees the effort as a great way to focus research on a grand vision and create useful spinoff technologies along the way, Neyland said. It also encourages big thinking, as seen in a strategic workshop held by DARPA with prominent scientists and science fiction writers in January.

One wildly futuristic idea came from Craig Venter, the scientist who led the private team that helped accomplish the Human Genome Project, when he proposed sending genomes out on the interstellar journey and allowing them to reconstruct at the end.

Many of the solutions for a self-sustaining starship also have great practical use for U.S. military operations. Breakthroughs in energy storage and production might free U.S. soldiers from the risk of protecting fuel supply convoys that bring fuel to forward bases.

"Clearly a starship would have to be energy neutral, and would not able to stop off at a gas station along the way," Neyland said during a teleconference.

Similarly, the technologies needed to create an ecologically balanced starship that has self-sustaining water and food supplies could help tremendously on Earth. Figuring out how to make sustainable medical supplies aboard the starship would have similar benefits for both the military and civilians.

"You can't go home to get prescriptions for antibiotics if someone gets sick," Neyland said.

Making the future happen

But big ideas won't happen without funding and long-term planning. By the end of the study in November, DARPA hopes to hand off about $500,000 of the original $1 million as seed money to a startup organization that can "carry the ball forward for us," Neyland said.

That unknown organization may emerge from among the crowd of researchers and big thinkers who have responded to DARPA's call so far. About 150 individuals or groups already sent in responses to an earlier Request for Information that focused on how to create an organization that can sustain the 100 Year Starship vision. DARPA plans to issue a Request for Proposal on forming the organization later this summer.

Perhaps the biggest current debate comes from the question of whether the organization should be for profit or a nonprofit.

"The latter group says it should be completely philanthropic," Neyland said. "The former says that, to be self-supporting, you need to have return on investment for investors and researchers so they can bring the best to the table."

Neyland hopes that people who have a vision for such an organization will also attend the Orlando conference in September, where the big thinkers are expected to gather to discuss all the technical details and challenges of creating a starship.

Anyone with serious ideas for talks on papers or panels for the conference must submit their proposals to the 100 Year Starship Study by 2 p.m. ET on July 8.

This story was provided by InnovationNewsDaily, a sister site to SPACE.com. Follow Jeremy Hsu on Twitter @ScienceHsu and get the latest  InnovationNewsDaily news on Twitter @News_Innovation, or on Facebook.

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