This is not a NASA Website. You might learn something. It's YOUR space agency. Get involved. Take it back. Make it work - for YOU.
SLS and Orion

Unshaking Ares 1

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
February 1, 2012
Filed under ,

How NASA Solved a $100 Million Problem for Five Bucks, Gizmodo
“A few years ago, back when the Constellation Program was still alive, NASA engineers discovered that the Ares I rocket had a crucial flaw, one that could have jeopardized the entire project. They panicked. They plotted. They steeled themselves for the hundreds of millions of dollars it was going to take to make things right. And then they found out how to fix it for the cost of an extra value meal.”

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

5 responses to “Unshaking Ares 1”

  1. Kevin says:
    0
    0

    Meh…clever but kinda skirts the whole issue that the darned thing should’ve been designed correctly in the first place no?

  2. Amy Efting says:
    0
    0

    Very interesting article and technology.  It’s nice to see a positive report on something for a change!  🙂

  3. James Muncy says:
    0
    0

    This is just so stupid as to be beyond belief. 

    As a former NASA Exploration executive commented at the original site, how useful is it for the astronauts to be able to read a display while their bladder is being shredded into a thousand pieces? 

    Ironically, ATK apparently solved the actual problem of thrust oscillation on Liberty.  Turns out that in the Ariane 5 first stage, like all first stages, the heavier propellant (in this case LOX) is on top and the lighter one (LH2) is on the bottom.  But the Ares 1 upper stage put the O2 in back, closer to the engine, and the H2 up top.  Apparently the differing mass properties makes the Ariane a better vibration damper than the Ares 1 US.  

    I’m sure it’s not “technically optimal” to use a first stage ordering for an upper stage, but apparently it actually works. 

    • Evil13RT says:
      0
      0

      The guy in the chair didn’t look like he was experiencing much discomfort.
      I think the politics of constellation lead to its technical problems often getting blown out of proportion instead of being left to be solved by the engineers.
      Unfortunately, money and time to do the proper work are two things NASA seems to be in short supply of between presidents.

  4. sch220 says:
    0
    0

    Ares I was still FUBAR from its inception. Thrust oscillation was the least of the worries. It basically deep-sixed U.S. human spaceflight capability by sucking up and wasting billions of dollars that could have been invested in human rating an EELV. You can laud praise on all these so-called trivial solutions. But in the end perpetuation of this boondogle wasted billions of valuable national treasure. In a way, it reminds me of the classic movie, “Bridge Over the River Kwai.” Ares I kept NASA engineers occupied and gainfully employed, but it was totally out of synch with the needs of the nation. In the end, it took someone else besides General Nicholson to blow up the “bridge,” but the lesson is still the same.