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NASA's new rocket would be the most powerful ever. But it's the software that has some ...
NASA’s new rocket would be the most powerful ever. But it’s the software that has some officials worried.
Link to tweet
Space
NASA’s new rocket would be the most powerful ever. But it’s the software that has some officials worried.
By Christian Davenport
Oct. 31, 2020 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
NASA’s newest moon rocket is powered not only by four RS-25 engines that, combined, unleash 2 million pounds of thrust, but by two solid fuel side boosters that burn six tons of propellant a second at such enormous temperatures that during a recent test fire in the Utah desert, the flames turned sand to glass.
When it launches, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, a towering 322-foot behemoth — taller than the Statue of Liberty — would be the most powerful rocket ever flown, eclipsing both the Saturn V that flew astronauts to the moon and SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, which has launched commercial and national security satellites as well as founder Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster on a trip to Mars.
But as NASA moves toward the SLS’s first flight, putting the Orion spacecraft in orbit around the moon, it’s not the rocket’s engines that concern officials but the software that will control everything the rocket does, from setting its trajectory to opening individual valves to open and close.
{snip}
Christian Davenport
Christian Davenport covers the defense and space industries for The Washington Post's Financial desk. He joined The Post in 2000 and has served as an editor on the Metro desk and as a reporter covering military affairs. He is the author of "The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos" (PublicAffairs, 2018). Follow https://twitter.com/wapodavenport
NASA’s new rocket would be the most powerful ever. But it’s the software that has some officials worried.
By Christian Davenport
Oct. 31, 2020 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
NASA’s newest moon rocket is powered not only by four RS-25 engines that, combined, unleash 2 million pounds of thrust, but by two solid fuel side boosters that burn six tons of propellant a second at such enormous temperatures that during a recent test fire in the Utah desert, the flames turned sand to glass.
When it launches, NASA’s Space Launch System rocket, a towering 322-foot behemoth — taller than the Statue of Liberty — would be the most powerful rocket ever flown, eclipsing both the Saturn V that flew astronauts to the moon and SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, which has launched commercial and national security satellites as well as founder Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster on a trip to Mars.
But as NASA moves toward the SLS’s first flight, putting the Orion spacecraft in orbit around the moon, it’s not the rocket’s engines that concern officials but the software that will control everything the rocket does, from setting its trajectory to opening individual valves to open and close.
{snip}
Christian Davenport
Christian Davenport covers the defense and space industries for The Washington Post's Financial desk. He joined The Post in 2000 and has served as an editor on the Metro desk and as a reporter covering military affairs. He is the author of "The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos" (PublicAffairs, 2018). Follow https://twitter.com/wapodavenport
5 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
It burns liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, and was built by Rocketdyne. It's design was based on the J-2 engine used in the Saturn V's upper stages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-25
I used to live near Rocketdyne's test site in the Santa Susana Mountains.
The wall and window shaking rumble of these engine tests was impressive.
I'm still not convinced complex software systems are desirable. I don't like them in my cars and dependence on complex software solutions was a significant cause of the Boeing 737 Max tragedy.
