gizmodo.com— A few years ago, back when the Constellation Program was still alive, NASA engineers discovered that the Ares I rocket had a crucial flaw, one that could have jeopardized the entire project.
Jan 31, 2012View in Crawl 4
$5 modification. How much did it cost to buy that vibrating chair, put it on the acceleration sled, set up the tests and pay people to come in and do the experiment? At least a few thousand dollars? More? I don't mean to downplay the ingenuity of the solution but this is why going to space is not cheap. Every $5 change has to be tested, tested again, approved and implemented.
Yes, a clever solution - to the display readability. They still have the vibrations though. I hope that the rapid oscillations do not have any other adverse affects to the vehicle. Vibrating at a resonant frequency is never a good thing for any structure. It does not sound like a solution to me, only a work-around.
That is a good point, but every part in the ship is vibe tested and the entire structure is vibe tested to make sure it can sustain vibrations from flights. I work for a company that specializes in vibration and data acquisition, NASA is in fact one of our customers. They test the s**t outta their ships before they send it into space, it is highly unlikley itll fail b/c of vibration.
Cute story; I certainly hope it's not true. The solution, as described, would add too much complexity (and potential unreliability) to the design of this instrumentation. Also, the solution described would not cost $5; it would probably cost 10,000 times that value, just like any other design change to a major project. But it is a cute story.
It would cost 10,000 times because even if the parts involved are $5 on digikey, first of all, government has to go through specific pricey vendors, then you have the labor costs as well, which are also artificially inflated to pay several middle men. The labor costs could be broken down into several groups such as the brain guys and the implementation guys. So there are a lot of hands to grease on the way of making $5 = 10,000 times that.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
It's not just a government contract thing. I have first hand experience designing and changing designs on critical, complex projects in the private sector; the cost of the parts is usually the least costly issue. This isn't like building something in your basement, a change like this would involve dozens of people; management, engineering, design, procurement, installation, quality assurance, testing, documentation and drawings, (installation, maintenance, operating) procedures, quality audits of the part suppliers, etc. Changing stuff is expensive when human lives are at stake.
I do agree with you that the changes made to design are costly because of the number of people involved. I guess I didn't make myself brief enough for the digg community.
Kind of reminds me of the old story about NASA's multi-million dollar program to develop a pen that could write reliably at any attitude, angle or G-force without any clogs, ink blots, etc. The Russians, on the other hand, dispensed with such an expensive and technically challenging program and instead decided to go with....a pencil!Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
Not that interesting. NASA hasn't been interesting since the 1970's.
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I thought he was going to say that nasa put the vibrating "theme park" chairs into the c**kpit and synced their frequency up with the vibrating of the rocket, thereby saving the astronauts from the stress of the vibrations entirely. I guess that woulda been a $10 solution...
So, you still have the spaceship shaking madly. Even though you can now read the controls, I really doubt everything is going to reliably stay together.
Who are they kidding about the astronauts actually doing something before they hit orbit? That hasn't been true since the monkey days of the Mercury program.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
wipisFeb 2, 2012
$5 modification. How much did it cost to buy that vibrating chair, put it on the acceleration sled, set up the tests and pay people to come in and do the experiment? At least a few thousand dollars? More? I don't mean to downplay the ingenuity of the solution but this is why going to space is not cheap. Every $5 change has to be tested, tested again, approved and implemented.
trivialanomalyFeb 1, 2012
Yes, a clever solution - to the display readability. They still have the vibrations though. I hope that the rapid oscillations do not have any other adverse affects to the vehicle. Vibrating at a resonant frequency is never a good thing for any structure. It does not sound like a solution to me, only a work-around.
swramanFeb 2, 2012
That is a good point, but every part in the ship is vibe tested and the entire structure is vibe tested to make sure it can sustain vibrations from flights. I work for a company that specializes in vibration and data acquisition, NASA is in fact one of our customers. They test the s**t outta their ships before they send it into space, it is highly unlikley itll fail b/c of vibration.
tomgfromcanadaFeb 1, 2012
they decided NOT to build a moon base???
craig1958Feb 1, 2012
I believe that initiative was from the previous administration and has been canceled.
SpookyGoodTsFeb 1, 2012
Go NASA!
bennygeoFeb 1, 2012
"We did our best to show the before/after by putting our camera on the sled, but the image-stabilization was just too damn good "
There's another solution in there somewhere....
TheNoizeFeb 2, 2012
Not really, because the problem is in vibration between screen and eyes.
yaosioFeb 1, 2012
It only cost $5 in parts, as long as you don't count all the changes they made to the seats.
swramanFeb 2, 2012
accelerometers are more than 5. average industry accelerometer is over 100.
craig1958Feb 1, 2012
Cute story; I certainly hope it's not true. The solution, as described, would add too much complexity (and potential unreliability) to the design of this instrumentation. Also, the solution described would not cost $5; it would probably cost 10,000 times that value, just like any other design change to a major project. But it is a cute story.
linageeFeb 1, 2012
It would cost 10,000 times because even if the parts involved are $5 on digikey, first of all, government has to go through specific pricey vendors, then you have the labor costs as well, which are also artificially inflated to pay several middle men. The labor costs could be broken down into several groups such as the brain guys and the implementation guys. So there are a lot of hands to grease on the way of making $5 = 10,000 times that.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
craig1958Feb 1, 2012
It's not just a government contract thing. I have first hand experience designing and changing designs on critical, complex projects in the private sector; the cost of the parts is usually the least costly issue. This isn't like building something in your basement, a change like this would involve dozens of people; management, engineering, design, procurement, installation, quality assurance, testing, documentation and drawings, (installation, maintenance, operating) procedures, quality audits of the part suppliers, etc. Changing stuff is expensive when human lives are at stake.
linageeFeb 2, 2012
I do agree with you that the changes made to design are costly because of the number of people involved. I guess I didn't make myself brief enough for the digg community.
craig1958Feb 2, 2012
LOL, they have a pretty short attention span.
MrpThaiFeb 1, 2012
Although the room is going to pay.
brucealmightyFeb 1, 2012
Kind of reminds me of the old story about NASA's multi-million dollar program to develop a pen that could write reliably at any attitude, angle or G-force without any clogs, ink blots, etc. The Russians, on the other hand, dispensed with such an expensive and technically challenging program and instead decided to go with....a pencil!Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
Closed AccountFeb 1, 2012
but pencil leave graphite dust everywhere in zero-g and you cant just open the door and put the graphite dust out.
adml_shakeFeb 1, 2012
And....that was also false....
http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/spacepen.asp
brucealmightyFeb 1, 2012
I'm aware of that....but it's an apocryphal story...maybe not truly factual - but it could have been.
yaosioFeb 1, 2012
And Godzilla could have been a real reptile too but you don't see me saying he caused 9/11.
icwydFeb 1, 2012
Graphite is a form of carbon which is a conductor. There is no way you would want carbon floating around the ship with all the electronics.
arron0628Feb 2, 2012
I really wonder at what time NASA would tell us ET exists ?
icool521Feb 2, 2012
interesting
winlotteryApr 19, 2012
Not that interesting. NASA hasn't been interesting since the 1970's.
Facebook needs to go the way of the dinosaur! FAST!
http://greenpasturescodliveroil.com
tomtutsFeb 2, 2012
I thought he was going to say that nasa put the vibrating "theme park" chairs into the c**kpit and synced their frequency up with the vibrating of the rocket, thereby saving the astronauts from the stress of the vibrations entirely. I guess that woulda been a $10 solution...
pranaysinghFeb 2, 2012
genius! relativity is such an awesome concept. kudos to Einstein!
publiclurkerFeb 2, 2012
So, you still have the spaceship shaking madly. Even though you can now read the controls, I really doubt everything is going to reliably stay together.
wilhoitmFeb 2, 2012
Wasn't the Ares rocket canceled? Anyone know if that is really the case?
gt777Feb 1, 2012
Tell me, where can I buy an accelerometer for 5 bucks?
drcrankFeb 1, 2012
How much do you want to bet the Pentagon is hunting these engineers down to be exterminated?
blacklilyninjaFeb 1, 2012
wouldn't that make it a 5 dollar foot long?
albertinasplawnFeb 1, 2012
cute
ferretmanFeb 1, 2012
Sweet!
ninhFeb 1, 2012
Who are they kidding about the astronauts actually doing something before they hit orbit? That hasn't been true since the monkey days of the Mercury program.Comment is buried, click here to see the rest.
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