Posted by tourdemars to Humans To Mars at December 23, 2009 11:05 PM

Engineers have identified a way to shield astronauts riding the Ares 1 rocket from potentially dangerous vibrations caused by the launcher's solid-fueled first stage, according to NASA. Managers decided last week to incorporate an upper plane C-spring isolator module and upper stage liquid oxygen damper on the Ares 1 rocket to ensure astronauts inside the Orion crew module will not experience intense vibrations during launch, according to a posting on a NASA Web site.