Post #78,654
2/1/03 3:44:27 PM
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Re: Allah works in mysterious ways.
Unfortunately there *are* no emergency procedures to take at liftoff. You can't separate from the external tank until above the atmosphere - aerodynamic force would push it back into the tank with predictable results. To get above the atmosphere, you have to be going so fast that the problem would have come up anyway if, say, a large number of tiles had been disloged.
It's well known that launch abort procedures are basically forlorn hopes. It either gets to orbit or it dies.
I'm certain the underside was inspected while in orbit. But it seems however (NASA dude on now) there was burn-through on the underside - left main gear tire pressure went off-scale low. Could the tire have exploded? Remember that's what doomed the Concorde.
-drl
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Post #78,656
2/1/03 3:53:14 PM
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So maybe "tire pressure" *wasn't* a euphamism after all
===
Microsoft offers them the one thing most business people will pay any price for - the ability to say "we had no choice - everyone's doing it that way." -- [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=38978|Andrew Grygus]
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Post #78,672
2/1/03 6:28:59 PM
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Re: So maybe "tire pressure" *wasn't* a euphamism after all
I've heard pilots say things like "gotta go kick the tires". I think this really is pilot lingo - I read it in some report (AvWeek?)
But in this case, it meant tire pressure :/
-drl
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Post #78,963
2/3/03 1:22:51 PM
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Heard that too
I believe there is a saying "Kick the tires, light the fires".
Which (I think) is aviator slang for bypassing the normal thorough
inspections. I think it can also be used in sense of
"let's get this machine prepped and airborne asap".
Can't remember where this is from though.
-- The truth is somewhere in between --
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Post #78,657
2/1/03 4:27:51 PM
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They do have abort procedures.
[link|http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts-newsref/mission_profile.html#abort-modes|Shuttle aborts].
[link|http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/nasafact/tal.htm|Space Shuttle Transoceanic Abort Landing].
But, as you say, they maybe forlorn hopes.
Alex
"No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session."\t-- Mark Twain
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Post #78,673
2/1/03 6:31:40 PM
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Oh sure, but it's mainly show
Abort modes were conceived back when there were two planes and two crews. The presence of the tank and solid rockets more or less means that a Shuttle launch is a bench press with no one to spot you.
-drl
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Post #78,707
2/1/03 9:51:37 PM
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Aye
I worked in aerospace around the time of the Challenger accident. The company I worked for built one of the crew escape systems that were retrofitted to the remaining orbiters. The system is only usuable once the orbiter has reentered (and is at 30,000 ft or less IIRC). IOW, it wouldn't have been usable in the Challenger accident, or the Columbia.
[link|http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/technology/sts-newsref/sts_asm.html#crew_mods|http://science.ksc.n...sm.html#crew_mods]
-----
Steve
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Post #78,749
2/2/03 9:46:54 AM
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Small world. I worked with the AF guys that tested it
at Edwards AFB. They made a mockup of the hatch and egress pole and put it in a C-141. You're right on about its limited utility.
Brian Bronson
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Post #78,780
2/2/03 3:21:23 PM
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Oh right - read about it in Parachutist
Because - who else you gonna get to try it out but skydivers?
I always wondered if it ever got installed.
I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customer got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I don't think we are. I think we're responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don't become missionaries. Don't feel as if you're Bible salesmen. The world has too many of those already. What you know about computing other people will learn. Don't feel as if the key to successful computing is only in your hands. What's in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability to see the machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that you can make it more.
--Alan Perlis
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Post #78,886
2/3/03 9:47:56 AM
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Not only that ...
But it's only useable in level, steady flight. Now just what possible condition would prompt you to bail while still in level, steady flight? Landing gear malfunction, maybe. That's about it.
===
Microsoft offers them the one thing most business people will pay any price for - the ability to say "we had no choice - everyone's doing it that way." -- [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=38978|Andrew Grygus]
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