Engineering, Budget Problems for NASA’s New Spacecraft

Written by Nancy Atkinson

NASA has discovered a potentially dangerous problem with the first stage of the Ares 1 rocket
that will launch the new Orion crew capsule to the space station and to the moon. Engineers are
concerned that during the first few minutes of flight, the rocket could shake violently, possibly
causing significant damage to the entire launch stack. Meanwhile, nasaspaceflight.com reports
that a budget review of the Constellation program found a short term deficit of $700m that will
likely delay test flights and development of the yet-to-be built rockets.

The shaking problem is called thrust oscillation, and is typical in solid rocket motors. The
phenomenon is characterized by increased acceleration pulses during the latter part of
first-stage flight. Depending on the amplitude of these pulses, the impact on the vehicle
structure and astronauts may be quite significant.

The Associated Press reported that NASA discovered the problem in the fall of 2007, but did
not discuss the problem publicly until January 18, 2008 after the AP filed a Freedom of Information
Act request and Keith Cowing of NASAWatch.com submitted detailed engineering questions
regarding the oscillations.

Full article here:

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/01/19/engineering-budget-problems-for-nasa%e2%80%99s-new-spacecraft/