NASA officials is developing shock absorbers to reduce potentially dangerous vibrations on its Ares 1 rockets. Without these dampeners, the vibrations could violently shake the Orion spacecraft, injuring or killing its crew.
NASA says spaceship’s violent vibrations under control
New Scientist
NASA studies shock absorbers to fix moon rocket
Houston Chronicle
NASA works to end Ares’ shake threat
The Huntsville Times
NASA says it’s close to fixing new Ares craft’s flaw
Orlando Sentinel
NASA must keep its eye on safety as it fixes flaws in Constellation space program
South Florida Sun-Sentinel (editorial)
The General Accountability Office’s review of NASA’s Constellation lunar program is in and…things aren’t looking up at the moment. GAO examined technical and programmatic risks for the still-evolving Ares rocket and Orion spacecraft. It’s a preliminary progress report because the space agency is still in the process of defining the program.
“The challenges NASA is facing pose risks to the successful outcome of the projects. For example:
- Both vehicles have a history of weight issues;
- Excessive vibration during launch threatens system design;
- Uncertainty about how flight characteristics will be impacted by a fifth segment added to the Ares I launch vehicle;
- Ares I upper stage essentially requires development of a new engine;
- No industry capability currently exists for producing the kind of heat shields that the Orion will need for protecting the crew exploration vehicle when it reenters Earth’s atmosphere; and
- Existing test facilities are insufficient for testing Ares I’s new engine, for replicating the engine’s vibration and acoustic environment, and for testing the thermal protection system for the Orion vehicle.
Continue reading ‘GAO: Ares/Orion Overweight, Underpowered and Potentially Deadly’
The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that up to 6,400 contractors could lose their jobs at the Kennedy Space Center after the space shuttle is retired in 2010.
In a report due out on Tuesday, the space agency estimates that the contractor staff could fall from about 8,000 today to between 1,600 and 2,300 in 2011. Employment would begin to pick up in subsequent years as NASA prepares to launch its new Ares/Orion system. Far fewer employees will be needed to launch the new system.
Shuttle astronaut turned consultant Scott Horowitz says that vibration problems on NASA’s Ares I rocket are easily fixable, Aviation Week reports.
“You can mitigate this throughout the whole vehicle,” Horowitz told AvWeek. “You can do it on the top of the first stage. You can do it on the interstage. You can do it by the orientation of the tanks. When you get up to the [Orion crew exploration vehicle] CEV and the service module, then you can put shock absorbers in the seats.”
Horowitz is a four-time shuttle veteran who is now works as a private consultant for ATK, contractor for the Ares I first stage. He is also advising NASA. Horowitz headed up NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate during the early stages of Ares development.
NASA will provide an update on the findings of the Ares 1 thrust oscillation focus team on Thursday, April 3, at 2:30 p.m. EDT. The teleconference will be broadcast live at http://www.nasa.gov/newsaudio.
The Rocketsandsuch blog has a far gloomier assessment of the thrust problem revolving around the additional weight the fixes would add to the Ares launch vehicle and Orion capsule.
Continue reading ‘Horowitz Deems Ares I Vibration Problems Fixable; NASA Schedules April 3 Briefing’
In a Houston Chronicle opinion piece titled “No place for partisans on NASA, space exploration,” former White House and Pentagon official Douglas MacKinnon invokes the spirit of a president who long ago sent his nation on a voyage to the moon.
“President John F. Kennedy addressed the importance of the United States having a vibrant and preeminent space program. ‘We mean to be part of it we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon and to the planets beyond. Our leadership in science and in industry, our hopes for peace and security, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to become the world’s leading spacefaring nation.’
“No matter who is our next president, he or she is either going to have to buy in completely to the premise of that young president, or stand aside and watch as other nations lay claim to the promise of space. There is no middle ground. John F. Kennedy understood it then, and the People’s Republic of China, with its ambitious manned space program run by its military, understands it now. Preeminence in space translates to economic, scientific, educational and national security advantages,” writes MacKinnon, who is now a Washington lobbyist.
Continue reading ‘MacKinnon: Next President Must Embrace JFK’s Space Vision’
The Rocketsandsuch blog has an intriguing post indicating that in addition to grappling with vibration problems on the Ares booster, NASA may be facing soaring costs on its new Orion spacecraft.
“The contractors are today explaining to the minions that the facilities, tools, and original software code they ’suggested’ would be used in their proposal is inadequate for the job that the minions now say they want accomplished. Woefully inadequate, in fact,” the blog reports. “Caught between a rock and a hard place, the minions have caved and have asked for the ‘new price tag’ to get the machine they thought they had already paid for.”
Apollo 7 astronaut Walter Cunningham has added his voice to a growing chorus of people who want to extend space shuttle missions beyond 2010 and to provide NASA with billions in additional funding to move up the launch date of its successor.
“What we really need is a fix for the five-year hiatus, not a Band-Aid,” Cunningham writes in Launch Magazine. “That means both extending the life of the shuttle and moving the launch date for Orion forward. NASA needs a $2 billion appropriation to extend the life of the shuttle for 18 to 24 months, and an additional $2 billion to move the first flight of Orion closer by 18 to 24 months.”
Cunningham argues that a long gap between flights would erode American leadership in space, devastate the space workforce and astronaut corps, leave the United State dependent upon an increasingly authoritarian Russia, and place the fate of the International Space Station in the hands of other nations. He also called the NASA COTS program, which is designed to fund private human spacecraft alternatives, “a long shot at best” that will be prone to delays.
NASA Administrator Mike Griffin is staunchly opposed to extending the life of the aging shuttles on safety and cost grounds. The shuttle’s retirement will free up billions of dollars needed to get Orion and its Ares boosters flying, the administrator says.
The Houston Chronicle is concerned that the United States will lose its leading role in space exploration.
The Chronicle’s editors are primarily worried about a possible five-year gap in human spaceflight that could follow the retirement of the space shuttle in 2010. It may take NASA that long to get its new Constellation system online. In the meantime, NASA will be dependent upon the Russians for rides to the International Space Station. And China will be expanding its human spaceflight program.
“Congress should heed U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and other lawmakers who are pressing for an additional $2 billion to speed up the construction of the Orion vehicle,” the editors say.
NASA has awarded small contracts to five companies to conduct a 210-day study of the agency’s in-house design for a human lunar lander. The five companies are:
Andrews Space, Seattle
The Boeing Co., Houston
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company, Denver
Northrop Grumman Corporation, El Segundo, Calif.
Odyssey Space Research, Houston.
The contracts total $1.5 million; the largest is for $350,000. These awards are part of NASA’s effort to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020.
“These studies will provide valuable input for developing a sound set of requirements for the Altair lunar lander,” said Jeff Hanley, the Constellation Program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Industry collaboration will provide insight for our planning and early design efforts for the spacecraft.”
The Rocketsandsuch blog has an update this week on NASA’s Ares rocket and Orion capsule programs. Highlights include:
Engineers are considering a strut system to deal with the Ares rocket’s vibration problems, but the strut has problems of its own;
They are not very enthusiastic about this solution because they believe the new administration will discard the Ares next year;
The Orion capsules will probably land in water instead of dry land due to weight issues;
The capsule lacks sufficient structural integrity to be reused; engineers will probably end up stripping the interior for parts instead.
