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Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, November 4, 2013 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

photo of Erin Betts
photo of F-! rocket engine

Erin M. Betts

"Waking a Giant: Bringing the Saturn Era F-1 Engine Back to Life"

ABSTRACT -- After decades of slumber, a team of engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center embarked on an endeavor to wake an F-1 engine and bring it back to life. An advanced F-1 engine is currently in the trade space for NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) evolved capabilities, and MSFC engineers recognized that they had a unique opportunity to develop their skills by tearing into this historical engine and moving into a component test program. The findings from this project will be applied to SLS advanced booster risk reduction activities and SLS trade studies. This activity has energized the propulsion department at MSFC and has brought life back to an engine that was once a sleeping giant.

photo of rocket engine test

SPEAKER -- Erin M. Betts is a Propulsion Systems Engineer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, within the Engineering Directorate, working on the design, development, and fabrication of propulsion systems. Ms. Betts has worked significantly in the field of additive manufacturing and led a team that disassembled a Saturn era F-1 engine, taking the gas generator into a hot-fire test program. She also has experience working the development and testing of the J-2X engine for SLS and solid propulsion systems for the Space Shuttle and Ares in the early part of her career.

Ms. Betts began her career at Marshall Space Flight Center in 2004. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and the University of Alabama in Huntsville with a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering.




Engineering Colloquium home page: https://ecolloq.gsfc.nasa.gov