Ares 1 Rocket Vibrations to be Quelled with Weights and Shock Absorbers

IT Wire ^ | August 20, 2008 | William Atkins

[anymouse]

Who is the chief engineer over there at NASA, Rube Goldberg?!!

[anymouse]

space ping

[anymouse]

Do I really need to say it? :)

[Mr Ramsbotham]

... as part of the new Project Constellation ....

Forget engineering: they probably spent all their money on coming up with a snazzy name.

[Nathan Zachary]

This sounds like the “high tech” 21st century ingenuity that will be remembered in history as the moment Mankind leaped into deep space- on 19th century Monroe shock absorbers smoothing the ride for NASA’S astronauts riding in it’s horse-drawn space buggy. Gas filled or just plain oil filled shocks?

[Larry381]

Must be all the Germans are either dead, retired to Argentina or senile. Where’s Werner Von Braun when you really need him

[wastedyears]

[wastedyears]

They should call up Homer Hickam.

[lewislynn]

Is this the same NASA research engineers that put their global temperature monitoring equipment near hot asphalt, air conditioning equipment and hot automobile engines?

[Spktyr]

If they’re going to have to do that, they should have just built the REAL Orion instead of just stealing the name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)

[Names Ash Housewares]

Not as complicated as it sounds. Shock absorber on top, cancelling actuators on the bottom skirt. I think they have the problem licked.

[Spktyr]

Better idea:

[anymouse]

The NASA managers sketched their two-part plan of (1) adding sixteen adjustable spring-mounted 100-to-150-pound weights (actuators) to the bottom of the Ares 1 rocket, which would then be computer-adjusted with motor-driven sensors to reduce vibrations and (2) adding a ring similar to a shock absorber at the location between the first stage and second stage of the Ares 1 rocket.

All the fancy 3D graphics don't change the fact that they are carrying around hundreds of pounds of dead weight (hopefully this won't be the astronauts ;) and putting a big comfy cushion around the crew compartment. This is a major kludge of a design, that would get an aerospace engineering student a failing grade in design class.

Only at NASA would anyone even dare present this to a design review team, let alone the public.

I've seen some boneheaded concepts come out of NASA, but this takes the cake. Those Aries engineers should hang their heads in shame for even thinking this was worth spending the time to sketch up, let alone the millions they have spent on it so far.

[anymouse]

Let the Navy pukes take care of the nukes. I’m not sure NASA is capable of designing their way to orbit, let alone keeping fissionable materials safely propelling the vehicle and not becoming a 20 ton unguided EMP weapon.

Too bad Robert Truax never got to build a nuclear Sea Dragon. ;)

[Leisler]

NASA is saying 1,600-2,400 more pounds if I read it right.

Why not tell the astronauts to suck it up for a few seconds? What's 5-6 G's for ten seconds? Don't fighter pilots do that?

[Neidermeyer]

Why not tell the astronauts to suck it up for a few seconds? What’s 5-6 G’s for ten seconds? Don’t fighter pilots do that?
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According to the article the vibrations add 0.25G .. their concern is that somebody might push the wrong button or something if they’re shaking for a few seconds... if you’ve ever tried working radios in a light plane when you drive through a level 4 t-storm you could see their concern ... personally I don’t see “a few seconds” of vibration as a big deal ... my solution would be to make a wired remote for the controls used during that part of the flight with ENORMOUS buttons..

[Erasmus]

As I read it, that's 5 or 6 G oscillations. That would be a big deal indeed.

[Tallguy]

Looks like a huge “band-aid” type solution to me. If you have a problem of this magnitude, you’ve got a very basic problem.

[Names Ash Housewares]

Not at all.
“Band-aid” implies something done after you have hardware built. And you discover something you should have caught early on.

This is during the design process. They found the problem early on, and took action.

[Leisler]

Yeah, that does sound kind of rough.