Godspeed! I don’t think Ariane 6 will go down in history as a successful rocket, mostly on account of the shift in economics forced on the rest of the industry by SpaceX. But I do get excited for debut launches – some very clever people worked very hard on this. :)
Outside an atmosphere like Earth’s, everything is already exposed to intense ionizing radiation from the sun/stars. A bit more from an RTG, even a big one, is a drop in the ocean. If we found signs of extraterrestrial life, then we’d want to be extra cautious about not sterilizing by accident, but that’s not currently a major concern. And of course, any sort of nuclear rocket propulsion would need to be handed with utmost care, but it’s also not a major issue once it’s outside the atmosphere.
Analysis shows that one temperature measurement exceeded a pre-defined limit and that the flight software correctly triggered a shut down
Sounds like the fix is changing the start up procedure such that it doesn’t reach the temperature limit. It would be nice to know why it went outside what they deemed safe but I guess it is rocket science.
Yes, not really the complete picture of what happened.
Would have there been actual damage to the system or even destruction if the software did not shut down? Or was the temperature threshold set too conservative? Did the thermal simulations not match the observed temperatures and if so why?
What’s the solution to this problem now for the next flight?
If it reenables European sovereign and independent access to space it’s a success. Fingers crossed that it’s also as reliably as A5. Commercially I agree.
esa
Ważne
Magazyn ze zdalnego serwera może być niekompletny. Zobacz więcej na oryginalnej instancji.