Re: News: NASA to use roller coaster for CEV crew launch pad escape


"Pat Flannery" <flanner@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:12kvkist62kcsbf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If it's Ares 1, I think we can pretty well guarantee a blast wave if the
first stage malfunctions on liftoff.
I fact that's the problem here; unless the second stage starts acting up
prior to launch, you've got either a safe condition or a walloping big
explosion requiring instantaneous use of the escape tower, not a roller
coaster.

While this is somewhat true, it's kind of like not having a quick opening
hatch on your capsule. It's hard to imagine when you'd use such a thing,
but you'd better have it, just in case.

In fact, if you have a fire in your capsule during a countdown, and the fire
extinguishers aren't putting it out, I'd think the procedure would be to use
the escape roller coaster, slide wire, or whatever and get the hell away
a.s.a.p. You really don't want to be around if the fire spreads to the
propellants in the service module and upper stage. :-O

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)


.

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