Ares I-X Updates

[reject]

My problem is that it appears as if the first stage is pushing the second into that rotation we saw. I could be wrong (I'm no expert) as my understanding of supersonic flow and its effects on bodies is minimal, but it seems intuitive to me that the second stage wouldn't rotate as it did if it was truly free after separation. Like I said above though, we'll find out!

I think you are right. The fact that the stages rotate in opposing manner at the same time strongly implies interaction of some sort (conservation of angular momentum anybody? ). Perhaps the SRB skirt retros need to be beefed up but that is going to be a tricky proposition given that the first stage is still burning during the sep process.

 

[C3PO]

There is a debate on nasaspaceflight* as to whether the USS (Upper stage simulator) was supposed to tumble or not. It's essentially a large lump of unguided metal so a tumble's not out of the question. However, it did seem to tumble a lot at separation.

The NASA animations didn't show it tumbling, so I guess it wasn't supposed to.
I think the bigger problem was that the 1'st stage remained close to the upper stage after the sep. I didn't see it slow down at all when the slow-down motors fired. It may be the camera angle, but when the upper stage has rotated 180° it looks like both stages are parallel to each other. It looks like they weren't far from colliding.

But the liftoff was spectacular.:thumbup:

 

[Brad]

Having watched the video again, I would clearly see that the deacceleration burn did happen and it appears, as has been alluded too, that maybe an clean seperation wasn't achived, contributed to the upper dummy stage/payload to spin. At any rate, the test certianly verified what the engineer thought would happen and now they can move forward with real data.

This certainly was cheaper, and faster, the better is yet to be determined.

 

[movieman]

This certainly was cheaper, and faster, the better is yet to be determined.

I'm not sure that $450,000,000 to stick a dummy upper stage on top of a shuttle SRB and send it 25 miles into the air is really what I'd call 'cheap' .

 

[Moonwalker]

Not doing something because it's expensive or "too" expensive or that the money could have beend spend on "something lese" is the wrong attitue in space flight.

 

[Ghostrider]

It's the wrong attitude everywhere. Like in, "oh, having kids is too expensive. the money could be better spent elsewhere..."

 

[Kyle]

Speechless..

 

[reject]

Speechless..

I asked in another thread (maybe it was earlier in this thread, I dunno) why NASA had built a 300 foot home pregnancy tester kit. I was obviously wrong. Looks like what they built actually would prevent that problem from arising. Well done boffins!

 

[Spicer]

I believe that tipping is planned. It's intended to pitch the craft away from the launch tower. There are also some planned "wiggles" which are intended to test the stiffness of the whole rocket.

I was under the impression that the upper stage wasn't supposed to spin after sep, but that is only because of the NASA videos that I've seen recently. As was seen recently on LCROSS,we know those videos aren't necessarily exactly what is intended to happen during flight.

 

[Moonwalker]

What can be seen on that picture above partly is the result of optical effects caused be the lense of the camera, as had been mentioned during the post flight conference.

 

[Dambuster]

If anyone has a rather funny-shaped monitor, and is looking for a desktop picture, here's a larger version that someone else posted earlier in the chatbox:

 

[Star Voyager]

Great shots near Atlantis:

http://spaceflightnow.com/ares1x/091028gallery/index3.html

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

Amazing Ares I-X hi-res launch photos: http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/search.cfm?cat=166

Ares I-X launch in HD:

 

[Moonwalker]

If anyone has a rather funny-shaped monitor, and is looking for a desktop picture, here's a larger version that someone else posted earlier in the chatbox:

I think that they (the conferecne team) must be wrong. It doesn't look like a lense effect at all. Amazing.

Great shots near Atlantis:

http://spaceflightnow.com/ares1x/091028gallery/index3.html

Indeed. Historic. We won't see such images again. But I think that AresV and AresI on their pads at the same time also will enable epic images...

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

But I think that AresV and AresI on their pads at the same time also will enable epic images...

Well, let's face it: That'll never happen - at least not in this century!

BBC News said "It's likely that the first flight of Ares I will also be it's last" and fortunately/unfortunately (depending on your perspective) I have to say that I agree.

---------- Post added at 21:45 ---------- Previous post was at 21:29 ----------

I really wish I had one of NASA's Ares I-X press kits – gotta be the best press kit ever! Apparently they were handing them out for free at KSC!

See photo!
http://twitpic.com/n8xat/full

 

[garyw]

It's downloadable on this link but I assume you want the real thing?

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

It's downloadable on this link but I assume you want the real thing?

Yes - I just gotta have one of those Ares I USB Sticks! :lol:

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Triboelectrification T-Shirt! www.zazzle.com/triboelectrification_tshirt-235080115582183647

Ares I-X booster recovery photo: http://twitpic.com/naine/full

 

[Dambuster]

Amazing Ares I-X hi-res launch photos: http://mediaarchive.ksc.nasa.gov/search.cfm?cat=166

Ares I-X launch in HD: YouTube - Ares I-X Launch HD

At about 2:26 in that video, it looks like there's some bubbling along something near the bottom of the screen - anyone know what that is?

 

[Orbinaut Pete]

At about 2:26 in that video, it looks like there's some bubbling along something near the bottom of the screen - anyone know what that is?

Aah, yes, I hadn’t noticed that. Interesting.
I’d say it is most likely ice that has melted (due to aerodynamic heating?) that is being boiled away in the vacuum of space.

 

[Moonwalker]

BBC News said "It's likely that the first flight of Ares I will also be it's last".

Despite that it wasn't the first flight or Ares I we saw today, because it was Ares I-X, BBC is right. It was the only Ares I-X flight. There won't be another one. The next one is going to be Ares I-Y. But of course I know what BCC journalists and you tend to imply

German news today said "NASA has tested a new moon (?) rocket", "one of the four (?) stages separated successfully".

Beside of the fact that journalists write and say nonsense almost all the time, it also doesn't matter. The future of NASA depends on the government rather than on what BBC says. The Ares launchers are still the current program, and NASA still is told to continue. Anything else is speculation.