Design of Next-Gen NASA Rocket Showing Flaws

caffiend666 writes "According to an AP news article, NASA engineers are concerned about the design for the new rocket meant to replace the shuttle. Work on the project has revealed that the first few minutes of flight could see 'violent shaking', a serious flaw that might destroy the craft soon after launch. 'NASA officials hope to have a plan for fixing the design as early as March, and they do not expect it to delay the goal of returning astronauts to the moon by 2020. The shaking problem, which is common to solid rocket boosters, involves pulses of added acceleration caused by gas vortices in the rocket similar to the wake that develops behind a fast-moving boat.'

Comments

Better to find it now rather than later...

[the_humeister]

...before it's built. Seems like a non-story.

so what?

[The_Rook]

so they found a problem with a preliminary design. big deal. that's why they call it research and development.

how long did it take to design the saturn Ib/saturn V and make sure that they'd mate well with the apollo capsule? how long did it take to come up with skylab, an orbiting lab that could be mounted on a saturn V?

i expect it'll take about five to six years to bring the orion program to a complete first generation system.

Re:so what?

[Pedrito]

Mod parent up. This is a completely ridiculous article. It's little more than a footnote on a status update of the development.

Re:so what?

[cyclone96]

Indeed. In fact, the Saturn V itself had problems with pogo oscillation, a condition that affects liquid fueled rockets and caused the center engine shutdown during the first stage of Apollo 13.