Ares 1 flaws solved

[Andy44]

I don't know, I guess as long as the skipper can get his hand on the abort handle it's all good...?

 

[pete.dakota]

Well yes, I noticed, yet they still want to dampen the seats too. I'm just wondering what's the use of damping seats only, if the rest of the capsule if still going to vibrate. Or are they saying that without those dampened seats astronauts would get so screwed up that they would be incapable of any meaningful activity afterwards?

Metals, alloys, carbon fibre, or whatever else the capsule will be made out of will have a significantly higher tolerance for G-forces than humans. NASA may be expecting that, without dampening measures, the vibrations may cause crew members to g-loc, and so, leaving them incapacitated for several minutes and unable to perform potentially necessary tasks during the latter part of the ascent or after MECO.

 

[Cosmos]

They've got much bigger problems now.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23955590/

 

[Urwumpe]

They've got much bigger problems now.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23955590/

Sounds more like "If nothing changes, nothing will fly". But NASA is not underfunded. It is in reality over-funded - the money flows into NASA often without the requirements of reaching specific mile stones. Not really effective.

 

[Cosmos]

Sounds more like "If nothing changes, nothing will fly". But NASA is not underfunded. It is in reality over-funded - the money flows into NASA often without the requirements of reaching specific mile stones. Not really effective.

I would completely agree. I really think NASA needs to get smaller, more focused but not sure how how they could. They are a perfect example of the tail wagging the dog!

 

[teago]

Couldn't NASA rig up a test model on the fly, just stick a dummy weight on top of a five segment SRB and test what kind of vibrations they may get?

 

[Andy44]

The first tests will be similar to what you're describing, teago, but you don't want to wait until test flying starts to find out your booster needs a major redesign. If you can model it correctly before flying you save a lot of time and money.

Remember that the first time a space shuttle flew into space, it was all on the line, orbiter and crew. While one can argue that this was reckless, it certainly demonstrates the ability to model a complex system very well before it's even flown.