Re: SpaceShipOne and reentry heat

From: Joann Evans (bondage_at_frontiernet.net)
Date: 06/26/04 

To: sci-space-tech@moderators.isc.org
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 2004 19:38:05 GMT

David Given wrote:
 
> How about fitting the shuttle out with a lifeboat? Stick it somewhere in
> the cargo bay. If a shuttle gets sufficiently damaged that it can't
> reenter, you use the capsule to get the crew down.

   Ships usually (certainly not always) take some time to sink. In a
Columbia-type scenario, you don't know you have a serious problem until
it hits hard and fast. Even if it could survive having the orbiter come
apart around it, you need at least enough time to get to such capsules.

   Something like this is why the B-58 and B-70 bombers had enclosable
ejection capsules for the crew, which were also their normal seats. And
even in the B-70 that went down after a mid-air collision, one of the
crew still didn't make it out.

   And, of course, a 'lifeboat' capsule takes weight/volume away from
possible payloads.... 

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