This morning a friend of our DIY space project, Gregory Frank, led my attention towards a low cost solution by NASA to overcome problems reading display and control panels caused by launch vehicle oscillations.

In short, the NASA Ares-1 rocket is damned with an oscillation frequency at 12 hertz on average, but changing between 10Hz and 13Hz, which makes it almost impossible for astronauts to read any displays, pull knobs and fiddle controls.

The cost to mitigate this effect as part of the launch vehicle development or in the construction of the seat is very high so the Human Systems Integrations Division at NASA Ames came up with a somewhat simple and low cost idea to solve the problem, for the astronauts (at least) [1].

The idea is to strobe the display in the frequency caused by the launch vehicle. This freezes the displays and provides clear reading for the astronaut.

As everybody else doing rockets, we are no strangers to rocket oscillations!

The HEAT-1X Copenhagen Suborbitals launched June 3, 2011 had a well known 9 Hz oscillation which can be seen in the video below. Even though this rocket is a part of the development process and will not be launching one of our guys, oscillations in our rockets will always occur. You might find the remedy within the engine it self or the amplitude might be very low in which case do not have a problem. But if you do, this idea is definitely worth taking into account.

Now, there is a bit of contradiction in this, from my part. I have sworn to always make us of mechanical or analog devices, if possible. A pressure reading should come from a manometer to avoid having computers and power running such relatively simple functions. But hey.. if we end up having serious problems reading displays and controls and we could fix this by going digital I might just change my mind.

Of course, you need a reliable system to measure the frequency in your seat to know the Hz´s of the strobe. There you go again. One idea never comes without the need for more stuff. Also, engine oscillation might not only be an problem for the astronauts. If it becomes a liability for other systems within the rocket or space capsule architecture you cannot squeeze your way out of this using strobes...

However, the questions still stand: What does the astronaut need to read and control? But that is a totally different discussion.

Have a great Monday,

Ad Astra

Kristian von Bengtson

[1] Ref.