REALSPACE: Ares 1-X - was it a success or a failure?
Yes, yes, I know I've been doing a lot of this "Realspace" stuff this week, but thi one's pertinent, and we'll get back to the fake stuff tomorrow: Back in October, NASA launched the Ares 1-X rocket. For those of you who don't follow the real space program, here's the deal:
The Space Shuttle is being retired in 2010, after a largely ineffectual 29-year career as our only manned spacecraft. According to the Constellation project, forwarded by Congress and President Bush II back in the day, the Shuttle will be replaced by two spacecraft, an HLLV - the Ares V - which is not man-rated, and the Ares I - which is man rated. To get in to orbit, we'll launch an Ares I with an Orion capsule on top, and a crew, and they'll dock with the ISS or do their orbital mission, or rendezvous with an Ares V, at which point they'll go on to the moon. It's a little awkward, but doable.
If I have a major complaint with the Ares rockets, it's simply that they're relying too heavily on Shuttle-Era hardware which never worked all that great in the first place. This is a money-saving decision to keep the pork in place and maintain as much of the existing infrastructure as possible, but it results in things like the Ares-1, which is ugly as hell, and potentially frequently dangerous. You see, the first stage of the Ares 1 is a shuttle SRB.
It's been super-attenuated to have five segments instead of four, and of course the second stage being bigger than the first stage means the thing *wants* to cartwheel its but all over the sky, and only a buttload of computers are preventing it from doing so. And being an SRB, it's an amazingly rough ride. Early tests suggest that just the shaking alone might be fatal for the crew, and even if it's not, the thing is inescapable in the event of an accident http://www.republibot.com/content/realspaceares-i-inescapable-within-fir...
So there's concerns. It'd be easier, frankly, just to ditch the first stage and design a new LRB from scratch.
Anyway, the first test-launch of an Ares I was...uhm...not exactly hitch-free. Check this out, particularly around the 2:19 mark:
Yikes! It's really not supposed to tumble like that!
Now, this was a first test, and it wasn't even a full-dress rehearsal - the upper stage was a boilerplate, and the SRB itself was actually just a traditonal 4-segment piece gussied up as a 5-segment one to test out the aerodynamics in flight, but even still: that's a bit spooky. Added to which, recovery of the spent 1st stage went horribly horribly wrong: http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/091030-ares-1x-parachute-update.html
If you'd like more info on the Ares 1, here's a good place to start: http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/aresi.htm and Wiki's got some great stuff to. Check out their section on pad damage caused by the launch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ares_I-X
We now return you to our regular fantasyworld stuff.
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Comments
27 December 2008
14 min 27 sec
We sent 12 men to the moon. Exactly one of them - Jack Schmitt - was a scientist, and the only reason he was included was that Congress *demanded* someone on the last mission be some kind of science guy. NASA had no intentions of doing it otherwise. And that was back in their hero days...
The Shuttle will probably *not* be retired. The disaster was long enough ago now that it's lost some of its spectre, and so they'll just quietly roll back the retirement date until Orion or whatever is available.
27 June 2009
27 min 50 sec
The easiest thing for them to do is punt and extend the Shuttles for a few years. There have already been questions in congress from both democrats and republicans about why they are thinking about dropping the moon plan. Since the plan is something that has been voted on in congress killing it becomes not a question of space priorities but of separation of powers. The congress always gets cranky when they think the Whitehouse is trying to grab power from them.
There is also the large number of people that are going to be laid off in Florida a state that always seems to be in the mix during elections. Killing Ares/Orion/Constellation and retiring the Shuttle has a few political headaches that the Whitehouse does not need right now. The political cost of just letting the program go on is smaller than making a big move one way or another. Adding to the domestic political fun is that the Russians are asking that we not retire the Shuttle yet so that puts a little more pressure on Obama to extend the Shuttle and let Ares/Orion/Constellation idle for a few years. Killing a big politically popular program is usually done in the second term of a President if he gets one. Nixon did not kill Apollo until he was reelected doing it before would not have been a wise move.
Remember this is politically popular not what the general population may or may not want. Questions about killing projects like this usually have more to do with congressional district politics than national ones. If 5 billion a year to NASA would keep 3 or 4 districts democrat then Pelosi would fight for it, the coming midterm elections are going to be a knife fight and a handful of seats can make a difference.
27 December 2008
14 min 27 sec
As I recall, the orbital rendezvous method of getting to the moon was rejected not because it was particularly dangerous, but simply because it required more R&D time than we had available. We were in a race, after all, and developing and sending *one* rocket is always going to be easier than developing and sending two.
I agree with everything else you said, though - that staging is the kind of thing you see two or three seconds before people die.
I personally don't think the current administration would have any qualms about cancelling Ares/Orion/Constellation. They see no value in it, it's expensive, there's a big, big economic crisis that they're making worse, and, of course, it'd get 'em in with the hippies, who are still a significant power bloc in the left, and who don't want anyone trying to get away from their beloved earth mother godess.
27 June 2009
27 min 50 sec
When I saw that separation live on CNN I said to my wife WTF was that, it had to be the worse staging I have ever seen in 45 years of watching launches.
The logic in using a proven man killing technology for a new manned launch vehicle is beyond me. If they do not want to use the proven RP-1 (kerosene) and liquid oxygen that worked on the first stage of the Saturn V why not use the hybrid fuel and engine type used for Spaceship One. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_rocket
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipOne
We have fifty years of experience using solid fuel rockets and all though they are great for ICBMs they are for crap used in a manned system. Did NASA not learn from Apollo One and Challenger that letting politics override or drive hardware decisions gets people killed.
The Delta or Atlas can lift the capsule they are planning all they have to do is get it man rated. I do not see how that would not be cheaper than developing this new death trap.
The new (ha) plan to go to the moon is the old earth orbit rendezvous plan that was rejected for the original project Apollo. If it was deemed a bad idea in the 60’s why is it a good one now? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Orbit_Rendezvous
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program#Choosing_a_mission_mode
I have my doubts that NASA can pull this off even if the President and congress does not kill it first. Oh they will not kill manned flight out right that gives to much political ammo to the other side but they can hamstring it so it never gets passed a few orbital flights.