New Ares Moon rocket likes to shake, rattle, and roll

William Atkins
Saturday, 19 January 2008 13:50

Science - Space

It is also being reported by the press that NASA had not publicly announced this problem until the two organizations—Associated Press and NASA Watch—requested information based on the U.S. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

When the two organizations informed experts in the field about the problem, they considered it a serious engineering problem with the yet-to-be-built rocket. The problem was reported by NASA Watch on Friday, January 18, 2008.

NASA had already considered it a serious problem, too, ranking it as a “four” on a scale of one to five, with five being the most serious. They call it a "thrust oscillation” that occurs late in the burn of the SRB.
Thrust oscillation is a well known and well documented problem that can happen in virtually all solid rocket based vehicles—and is especially a problem in the early design phases of such vehicles.

For instance, the two SRBs used for each launch of a space shuttle deals with the problem of thrust oscillation. 

Specifically, George Torres, a spokesperson for ATK, the builder of the SRBs, states, “It is a well and long understood phenomenon in the launch industry. Many other launch vehicles at this stage of development have had to deal with this issue and have dealt with it as a normal part of the development process." [Houston Chronicle]

The Houston Chronicle is reporting that NASA officials are hopeful that they can develop several options by March 2008 to solve the problem with the “dangerously high vibrations for the spacecraft and its astronauts.”  [Houston Chronicle]

It is reported that NASA administration Michael Griffin stated, "This is a development project like Apollo. I hope no one was so ill-informed as to believe that we would be able to develop a system to replace the shuttle without facing any challenges in doing so." Griffin also stated, "NASA has an excellent track record of resolving technical challenges. We're confident we'll solve this one as well." [Houston Chronicle]

This article is based on information provided within the Associated Press (AP) article by science writer Seth Borenstein, which is found on the MSNBC website: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22735324/.

Additional information about the Ares and Orion projects (both called Project Constellation) is found at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/constellation/ares/index.html.