How NASA Solved a $100 Million Downside for 5 Bucks
Just a few years in the past, again when the Constellation Program was nonetheless alive, NASA engineers found that the Ares I rocket had a vital flaw, one that might have jeopardized your complete challenge. They panicked. They plotted. They steeled themselves for the a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} it was going to take to make issues proper.
After which they came upon the way to repair it for the price of an additional worth meal.
The issue going through Ares 1 wasn’t a booster malfunction or a pc glitch. It was easy cause-and-effect physics. Throughout the closing phases of a launch, because the strong booster rocket burns down it makes your complete automobile oscillate quickly. Add that oscillation to the resonant frequency of the massive tube that separates the booster and the crew cabin, and also you get a crew capsule that vibrates like loopy. When people are vibrating to that extent, it is inconceivable for them to learn a digital show. If the astronauts cannot learn, they cannot do their jobs. If they cannot do their jobs, no extra mission.
To judge the extent of the issue, NASA referred to as in its Human Elements Division. They’re those who examine human notion and efficiency, from very primary analysis to very utilized analysis. The truth is, they have been those who had completed the newest spherical of vibration checks: 50 years in the past, for the Gemini challenge, again when shows have been analog, steam-actuated dials and gauges as a substitute of the pc screens of at the moment. Cockpits, like all the things else, have modified quite a bit since these days. It was time for some new checks.
The 1st step was to arrange a chair so it might vibrate purely in an up-down movement (or in-out, when you’re mendacity in your again like an astronaut can be), which is how the launch automobile was predicted to shake. The vibrational frequency of the rocket can be 12 hertz (on common, however it might fluctuate between 10Hz and 13Hz) in order that they wanted one thing that might hit that vary precisely. Fortunately, that expertise already existed; the identical mechanism that causes your chair to shake in simulation rides at amusement park made for an ideal prototype.
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The engineers also knew that as Ares I gained speed the shake would increase. They calculated that toward the final stage, when astronauts would be already subjected to 4 G’s of acceleration, they would be getting an additional 0.7 G’s of vibration. As NASA slowly ramped up testing in the chair, they discovered that at 0.7 G’s even the largest numbers on the digitized display were almost entirely illegible.
Houston, we have a major effing problem.
Plans were drawn up to reduce the vibrations. Spring and counter-firing motors. Hundreds of millions of dollars to implement. Added years of development and implementation. A nearly insurmountable setback.
And then the people in the Vibration Lab had a really, really good idea: By simply strobing the display in time with the vibration, they could kill this problem altogether. They bought a handful of circuits that only cost a few bucks, hooked them up to the screen, and set it to strobe at 12Hz. And it worked!
Well, almost.
The readability was vastly improved, but it wasn’t perfect. The chair was vibrating at 12Hz and the screen was strobing at 12Hz, but they weren’t perfectly in sync. The text was more visible, sure, but it looked like it was swimming around. NASA could do better. So they grabbed a few accelerometers and attached them to the chair. With the vibration and the strobing now perfectly in sync, the display became crystal clear. And the final cost was a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of what they’d anticipated. Victory.
If it sounds too simple to actually work, believe me, I felt the same way until I saw it with my own eyes during a recent visit to NASA Ames. My guides were only willing to take me up to 0.5 G’s, but even at that rate the smallest column of numbers was completely illegible. As soon as they flipped on strobing? I could see it perfectly. The effect was stunning. 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 (well played, Sony. Well played). You’ll have to take my word for it.
Because it was also important to know if the system worked while vibrating and feeling the real, face-melting G-forces that astronauts experience, NASA’s big brains have incorporated a similar strobing/vibrating rig into the iconic G-force simulation centrifuge. They wouldn’t let me anywhere near that thing without all kinds of medical evaluations. Begging, bribery, and tearful theatrics proved ineffective. Maybe someday.
NASA has a patent pending on the technology, although the problems it solves are decidedly not NASA-specific; helicopters, planes, and fast-moving boats have similar vibrational issues, so it’s very possible we’ll see this implemented elsewhere. I just want to sync my TV up to a shiatsu massage chair. Nobody blurs my Beyonce.
So while the the Ares I rocket has been grounded, there is no query this analysis will stay on and be carried out in NASA’s subsequent launch automobile. It is good to know that the following era of astronauts will have the ability to see what they’re doing, and that it did not price the tax-payers a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars}. Whole lot.
Subsequent episode: NASA’s incredible chip that can smell cancer and diabetes.
Space Camp is all in regards to the under-explored aspect of NASA. From robotics to drugs to deep-space telescopes to artwork. For these couple of weeks we’ll be coming at you direct from NASA JPL and NASA Ames, shedding a light-weight on this superb world. You possibly can observe the entire sequence here.
Video shot by Bill Bowles, edited by Woody Jang.
Particular because of Mark Rober, Jessica Culler, Dan Items, Val Bunnell, and everyone at NASA JPL and NASA Ames for making this occur. The listing of thank yous would take up pages, however for giving us entry, and for being so beneficiant with their time, we’re extraordinarily grateful to everybody there.
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