Word: saturn
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Another worrisome problem, the apparent breaking away of two sheet-metal sections (photographed by highflying jets) early in the flight, was apparently solved when NASA investigators decided that the objects were probably thick sheets of paint that had not been properly bonded to Saturn's metal skin...
After a nearly flawless maiden flight in November, the Saturn 5 moon rocket ran into so many difficulties during its second mission last month that NASA officials feared yet another unmanned flight would be necessary before the rocket could be trusted to carry astronauts into space. Now, after a careful review of the troubles that cropped up in flight, NASA has decided that it can probably correct them all and make Saturn 5 safe enough to carry a manned Apollo spacecraft into orbit this November or December. By eliminating another unmanned test of the huge rocket, NASA would save about...
...first of Saturn's obvious troubles, the unexpected and early shutdown of two of the five J-2 engines powering the second stage (TIME, April 12), was traced to a fuel line that broke under the strain of liquid hydrogen flowing through it at approximately 100 m.p.h. The break set off a chain of events that lowered pressure in the engine, which automatically shut down. Because of an incorrectly wired circuit, the shutdown on the first engine sent a signal to another, perfectly operating engine, erroneously ordering it to shut down also...
NASA scientists at the same time revealed a previously undisclosed problem during the flight: the "Pogo Effect," an up-and-down, pogo-stick-like vibration that was also detected during Saturn 5's initial flight. The effect, caused by the synchronous pulsing of all five first-stage F-1 engines at their natural resonant frequency, produced a vibrational force of three-tenths Gs during the first flight-enough to jar astronauts had they been aboard, but not enough to cause any serious difficulty. On the April shot, however, the Pogo Effect reached a force of seven-tenths...
Helium into LOX. To rid Saturn of Pogo, scientists may inject small amounts of liquid helium into the liquid oxygen (LOX) lines of two of the engines, damping the sloshing of the LOX and thus changing the resonant frequencies of the engines. Or they may place gas-filled cavities beneath the LOX lines of two engines to act as shock absorbers. Either solution would cause two engines to pulse at different frequencies from the others, preventing a five-engine resonant buildup of the Pogo Effect...