nasa is working to solve potentially

NASA is working to solve a potentially dangerous

New Rocket Has Problem With Vibration

NASA is working to solve a potentially dangerous vibration problem in

its next generation of launching vehicles.

Engineers are concerned that a new rocket, the Ares I, which will

replace the space shuttle and send astronauts on their way to the

moon, could shake violently during the first minutes of flight.

The problem is common to solid rocket boosters.

If not corrected, the shaking, which arises from the powerful first

stage of the rocket, could "shake apart the whole structure," said

Paul Fischbeck, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon

University.

"They know it's a real problem," said Professor Fischbeck, who has

consulted on risk issues with NASA.

The concern is not the shaking of the first stage, but how it affects

everything that sits on top: the Orion crew capsule, instrument unit

and a booster.

NASA officials said they hoped to have a plan for fixing the design as

early as March and did not expect the problem to delay the goal of

returning astronauts to the moon by 2020.

"I hope no one was so ill-informed as to believe that we would be able

to develop a system to replace the shuttle without facing any

challenges in doing so," the NASA administrator, Michael D. Griffin,

said in a statement to The Associated Press.

"NASA has an excellent track record of resolving technical

challenges," Dr. Griffin said. "We're confident we'll solve this one

as well."

Professor Jorge Arenas of the Institute of Acoustics in Valdivia,

Chile, said that the problem was serious but added that "NASA has

developed one of the safest and risk-controlled space programs in

engineering history."

Since 2005, the space agency has been working on a plan to return to

the moon, at a cost of more than $100 billion. Two rockets are

planned, the Ares I, which would carry the astronauts into space, and

the Ares V, an unmanned heavy cargo ship.

That rocket's first stage is composed of five segments derived from

the solid boosters that NASA uses to launch the shuttle.

The shaking problem involves pulses of added acceleration caused by

gas vortexes similar to the wake that develops behind a fast-moving

boat, said Professor Arenas, who has researched vibration and space

launching issues.

The Ares I vortexes match the natural vibrating frequencies of the

rocket's combustion chamber, and the combination causes the shaking.

Senior managers were told of the findings last fall, but NASA did not

talk about them publicly until The Associated Press filed a Freedom of

Information Act request this month and the watchdog Web site

Nasawatch.com submitted detailed engineering-oriented questions.

The first launching of astronauts aboard Ares I and Orion is scheduled

for March 2015.

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