The project is part of NASA’s Artemis mission, scheduled for launch in 2024, and will conduct new research into the separation of propellants and launch environments for rocket launches at the Kennedy Space Center, helping NASA engineers build safer and more successful spacecraft To support.
In addition, HPE has taken the power of NASA’s Eightcon supercomputer to the next level with HPE Apollo Systems, designed for computationally intensive modeling and simulation. The increased computing power has been utilized for NASA’s Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study, which is critical to understanding aerodynamics since January this year.
Bill Mannel, vice president and general manager of the HPE HPC business unit, said, “We are very proud of our groundbreaking research results based on HPE’s high-performance computing technology. Today, NASA researchers and engineers are constantly working to advance spacecraft beyond its limits. Therefore, it is a great honor to accelerate insights by upgrading NASA’s EightCon supercomputer performance based on the HPE Apollo system, and to contribute to the historic moment of the birth of the first female astronaut on the moon and the next male astronaut There is.”
-NASA’s 8Con Supercomputer: More Powerful Supercomputing Power and Greater Efficiency
In August 2019, HPE built EightCon computers to support NASA’s diverse tasks, including the Artemis program, a study to send the first female and next male astronauts to the lunar Antarctica in 2024.
The EightCon supercomputer, developed by NASA and HPE, was housed in the first 12 computer modules in the Modular Supercomputing Facility (MSF), dramatically reducing power and water consumption. For example, in the first year of operation, it consumed only 16% of the energy required for cooling, saving $100,000 in cost and 1.4 million kilowatts of power, and reducing water usage to cool the supercomputer by 91%, about 370 daily. More than 10,000 liters (million gallons) of water could be saved.
The supercomputer will use the HPE Apollo system equipped with the 2nd generation AMD EPYC processor to improve computing power and support the ongoing research projects more solidly.
-NASA’s 8-Con supercomputer for the success of humanity’s return to the moon mission
Eightcon Supercomputer is currently supporting the Artemis Mission in the following areas:
Development of aerodynamic database to prepare for dangerous situations when separating propellants
The moment the propellant is separated from the body during the launch of the Artemis rocket is a very important moment directly connected to the success of the project and the safety of the crew on board, so NASA engineers must be prepared for any situation that may arise in the event of a crisis. Currently, NASA is considering the possibility of two solid rocket boosters (SRBs) colliding with each other during separation or with the center of the body.
Therefore, in order to model and simulate all the parameters of the propellant separation, NASA has developed an aerodynamic database to demonstrate all positions of the propellant. Based on the EightCon supercomputer, by using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool to understand the movements of 22 rocket engine pillars moving high-temperature exhaust gases, the researchers can see all possible situations within the hull when the propellant is launched. A database of 13 independent variables that can be modeled was developed.
Through this, the improved performance of EightCon supercomputer will help the development of more sophisticated and extensive databases and increase the accuracy of analysis for safe body manufacturing.
-Investigation of the launch environment of the Kennedy Space Center
The Artemis mission will be launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. When launching a rocket, it is important to accurately grasp the effects of ignition overpressure (IOP) and duct overpressure (DOP) waves caused by rapidly expanding gas from the rocket nozzle.
NASA’s Launch, Ascent, and Vehicle Aerodynamics (LAVA) team applied a CFD tool based on the EightCon supercomputer to simulate the impact between these waves and the projectiles, proactively inspecting potential hazards, and have.
As such, the analysis tasks enable NASA engineers to redesign more advanced rocket launch environments. By utilizing the upgraded Eight-Con supercomputer, researchers will be able to obtain insights and solutions for the creation of launch pads for the next-generation Space Launch System in a faster time by securing additional computing power.
For more information on NASA’s ongoing research and simulations, visit the NASA website:
https://www.nas.nasa.gov/SC20/home.html
For more information on HPE’s supercomputing solutions, please visit the official HPE website:
https://www.hpe.com/kr/en/compute/hpc/supercomputing.html
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