Great Shot of Ares 1-X Breaking Sound Barrier

Chosun Ilbo ^ | 11/02/09

[TigerLikesRooster]

The cylindrical ring around the rocket is the sonic boom generated by the rocket.

[La Lydia]

“... sonic boom generated by the rocket....” A noise you can see? Please explain. This is fascinating.

[GreenAccord]

Are you sure that's not a Prandtl-Glauert singularity?

[r9etb]

The cylindrical ring around the rocket is the sonic boom generated by the rocket.

Not exactly.... The air cools as the shock wave passes through it -- the thermodynamics are not all that different from what happens in your air conditioner. What you're seeing is the condensation of water in the cooler air behind the shock wave.

[TigerLikesRooster]

The shock wave from breaking sound barrier is visible to ultra-slow motion camera. The shock wave also make loud noise.

[Robe]

BTW .. Did you see that two of the booster parachutes malfunctioned Causing damage to the skirt ??

[GreenAccord]

Bad linky! Bad linky! Now go stand in the corner. (That's at least a functioning link)

[La Lydia]

How many seconds did it take from launch to breaking the sound barrier?

[TheThirdRuffian]

Don’t think so. Pretty sure it’s water that becomes visible.

[Blood of Tyrants]

As the air compresses in the front of the rocket, so does the invisible water vapor. As the compressed water vapor passes the edge and goes back to subsonic, it flashes back to vapor and forms a cloud. You will only see it in the trans-sonic phase because the shape of the shock wave changes from conforming to the shape of the rocket to a V shaped pattern where the tip of rocket coincides with the tip of the V.

[6SJ7]

FTL drive engaged. (Battlestar ref)

[La Lydia]

Thank you. Now I see. I did not know that. This is why I love FR.

[TigerLikesRooster]

It intrigued me for a while what medium make it visible. Now I know how it is made visible: water vapors.
Thanks for you info.

[smokingfrog]

I think it’s water vapor.
Someone more knowledgeable than me can probably explain it.

[Carpe Cerevisi]

[Blood of Tyrants]

That is MR. Nerd, to you.

[oldbill]

Not really.
It’s transonic flow around the payload compartment as the air needs to speed up to get around the conical nose section compared to the relative velocity (airflow) around the rest of the vehicle.

It’s a phenomena similar to the wingtip vortices contrails on aircraft at high lift and like the condensation cloud around the canopy of jet fighters as it approaches the transonic area.

The supersonic shockwave would be more like the straight-edge conical patterns, not the dome shaped cylinder you see here.

[Sefton]

I’m no rocket scientist but... when you have air that is close to saturation with water vapor, (almost 100% humidity,) if you decrease the pressure of that air it can hold less water as vapor so the water becomes visible as a cloud. It stands to reason that their would be a low pressure area right below the angle of the mock capsule, at the top of the rocket, creating the effect photographed at speeds much lower than supersonic. I think this is why you can see “clouds” forming behind the wingtips of passenger planes as they approach runways, at speeds of only a couple hundred miles per hour. Any real rocket scientists agree?

[shibumi]

[rednesss]

That will buff out.

[crusty old prospector]

I have always had a case of Nerd Envy. They won’t let me into their club.

[La Lydia]

That is awesome.

[Blood of Tyrants]

I don’t think you need an extremely high humidity. But the water vapor you see on wing tips usually occurs during hard maneuvers or (sometimes) during flaps-down landings but not on straight flight, as the Ares rocket is doing.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Tell you what. Get a pair of old glasses and put some tape on the bridge, insert pocket protector, wear clothing at least 50 years out of date, make the Vulcan hand greeting, and say “Live long and prosper” and I’ll put in a good word for you.

[oldbill]

Yes.

[GonzoGOP]

Did you see that two of the booster parachutes malfunctioned Causing damage to the skirt ??

Melted the launch pad badly. But since they don't intend to use pad 39b any more it isn't such a big deal. Whatever new vehicle they decide to use will need a new support tower so the fact that the old shuttle tower got trashed isn't going to be critical. But seeing girders and pipes melted like ice tells you how much thrust that SRB puts out.