NASA Improves Shock, Vibration Analysis
Stirling Allen, part of the Dynamic Environments Group with NASA’s Launch Services Program Office, showcases a commercial digital software at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The software performs finite element modeling to support shock and vibration analysis and ensure spacecraft and rockets can withstand harsh vibration, shock, stress, or other physical forces before launch, strengthening mission safety in the process. NASA/Clayton Rougelot Rockets vibrate, shake, and flex intensely as they climb into space, and spacecraft packed with delicate scientific instruments must survive those forces. Before any rocket leaves the ground, NASA engineers work to predict how those stresses will affect every part of a spacecraft. To do that, engineers in the Dynamic Environments Group with NASA’s Launch Services Program Office at the agency’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida have streamlined how they ensure spacecraft and rockets can withstand harsh vibration, shock, stress, or oth...