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NASA Installing Shocks On Ares

caffiend666 writes "In order to abate the massive vibration issues of their new Ares I spacecraft, NASA is installing shock absorbers. 'The plan is to install 16 canisters in the bottom of the rocket with 100-pound weights attached to springs. Battery-powered motors will move the weights up and down to stop vibrations. Those are essentially remote-controlled shock absorbers, said Garry Lyles, who headed the team of NASA engineers tackling the shaking problem.' So, when the spaceship is a rocking, don't come a knocking?"

2 of 293 comments (clear)

  1. massive failfuck. by M0b1u5 · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    You got marked as a troll for this. Yet you are 100% correct. How very sad.

    How very very sad that Americans, who led the space race, and used to make the best cars in the world, now couldn't build a car to save themselves, and after building the stupendous Saturn 5, now find themselves incapable of building a basic launcher (based on 50 year old "techomology") without fucking it up badly.

    No wonder 'Merka is in trouble everywhere it looks.

    --
    How many escape pods are there? "NONE,SIR!" You counted them? "TWICE, SIR!"
  2. Re:Interesting tweak by stmfreak · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Extremely hard for idiots, you mean.

    The idea was that the label rocket scientist was a complement. It's a way of acknowledging that someone has been trained or gifted with the ability to comprehend such a complex subject.

    But as with most things, if you can do it, it's not that hard. Tedious, maybe, but not hard.

    Whether the Saturn V was the biggest kludge ever or the most elegant way of getting to the moon is irrelevant. After fifty years of space program development, hearing that the best funded space team in the history of mankind has to throw a ton of weight on their pig to help it fly is just a fucking shame.

    --
    These opinions guaranteed or your money back.