Artemis Spacecraft Launch Abort Simulated by NASA Supercomputers

The Orion spacecraft launch abort system is designed to pull the crew capsule to safety in the event of an emergency during launch. Its powerful abort motor can fire within milliseconds and produce about 400,000 pounds of thrust. Simulations run on our Aitken and Electra supercomputers helped researchers visualize the vibrations imparted by the motor plumes onto the vehicle for various launch abort scenarios. In this video, the plumes—represented by animated particles—and vehicle surface are colorized, with red indicating areas of high pressure and blue areas of low pressure.

Video credit: NASA/Ames Research Center/Timothy Sandstrom, Francois Cadieux, Michael Barad, Cetin Kiris