NASA Moon rocket Ares I could shake violently
Jan 24th, 2008 by RedPepper
NASA is facing with a potentially dangerous trouble in a spacecraft, this time in a moon rocket that hasn’t even been built yet.
Engineers are concerned that the new rocket Ares I intended to replace the space shuttle and launch astronauts to the moon may possibly shake violently during the first few minutes of flight, possibly destroying the whole vehicle.
“They know it’s a real problem,” said Carnegie Mellon University engineering professor Paul Fischbeck, who has consulted on risk issues with NASA in the past.
“This thing is going to shake apart the whole structure, and they’ve got to solve it.”
If not fixed, the shaking would arise from the powerful first stage of the Ares I rocket, which will lift the Orion crew capsule into orbit.
NASA officials expect to have a plan for fixing the design as early on March. They do not anticipate the issue to change the objective of returning astronauts to the moon by 2020.
(Image: NASA)