"Fred J. McCall" wrote in message
...
Brian Thorn wrote:
:One could also argue that the extreme height/width ratio of Ares I
:needs to be proven a bit before trusting it with an upper stage and
:Orion CSM. Lord knows, we've been hearing "it will be impossible to
:control!" and "the wind will blow it into the tower" often enough for
:the last four years.

But until you've got real engines and real structure test flights
won't tell you anything about controllability or potential resonant
frequencies.

True. I write engineering softare for a living and could tell you about
dozens of cases where customers have changed seemingly small things in a
design only to find out that the overall design doesn't work anymore. Of
course, we sign NDA's for everything we do, so I can't openly talk about any
specifics.

In laymen's terms, just because Ares I-X may fly successfully doesn't mean
that Ares I won't be problem free. The two designs just aren't similar
enough to extrapolate much from Ares I-X and be confident that it will work
for Ares I.

Jeff
--
"Take heart amid the deepening gloom
that your dog is finally getting enough cheese" - Deteriorata - National
Lampoon