Abstract: The Romanian orbital launcher project NERVA includes as the first, booster stage, a new propulsion system comprising of a cluster of three to five solid rocket motors with an individual thrust of 400-800 kN, level that depends on the environmental temperature. The total maximum thrust of the cluster equals from 2.4 MN to 4 MN, which represent an impressive challenge for the team of experimental engineers. This also gives to the entire vehicle a very high thrust enhancement that is currently solved through a series of design and manufacturing solutions which are approached for the first time in the country. The challenges and constraints, which were solved in the first stage of the design process, are presented, along with the adopted engineering solutions. They stand as an advanced manufacturing technology contribution to the NERVA space project. Experimental planning and data processing is presented as a part of the quality assurance process, developed by a team of six research and industrial partners.

Brief Biography of the Speaker:
Dr. Radu D. Rugescu, Romania, is affiliated with University “Politehnica” of Bucharest, Chair of Aerospace Sciences “Elie Carafoli”, Space Sciences Division since 1969, successively as Assist. Professor and Full Professor. With expertise in Astronautics, Thermochemistry, Propulsion Systems, Robotics, Optimization and Statistics, he teaches courses in Romanian, English and German on “Numerical methods”, “Processes in Rocket Engines”, “Manufacturing technology of aerospace systems”, “Astrodynamics”, “Turbomaschinen”.
His research firsts include a Genuine Rocket Solid Propellant in 1959, The first Romanian liquid propellant rocket engine in 1969, the first Capture of freezing temperature of water-gas reaction in 1982, the first Romanian air-breathing rocket engine in 1987, a New variational method for discontinuous integrands in 1997, a new technology for Air captured imaging and TV live transmission from high altitude airplanes of solar eclipse in 1999, non-Keplerian gravity coupling of very large space structures in 2004. Currently he is the Project Director of the NERVA grant ($800,000) aimed on building the first small orbital launcher in Romania.
He is participating in EU funded space research projects, manages a five-year collaborative research in Space and Energy with Texas A&M University, USA, where he had performed a Fulbright research grant under the sponsorship of the State Department in Space Ecology. and a cooperative research with Stanford University in Combustion Thermochemistry. He is known for 200 publications, including 9 books. His works benefit of 126 quotations, 115 of which are international. He was honored with more than 10 awards (including Who’s Who in the World 2007, 2008, 2009, Medal of Freedom 2007, Experts & Expertise 2007, Man of the Year 2007, Gold Medal for Romania 2007, International Peace Prize 2007, Outstanding Intellectuals 2008, Top 100 Engineers 2008, Leading Engineers 2008, Leading Scientists of the World 2008).
He is active member of the Astronautics Commission of the Romanian Academy since 1975, member of the International Institute for Acoustics and Vibrations since 2002 and in other societies.