late to the show, as usual. I have no filght techno-skills, just a compuer jocky that got
hired in to do "systems" then bailed out ca. 1990.
RE The Shuttle:
as a prior participant (just a small cog I assure you), I have a few comments:
The O-Ring crap is/was a smoke-screen, here was no actual proof, only conjecture. They needed a sacrificial goat, fast,
and decided upon MT o-rings. An independent assesment by ex-players published in Aviation Week & Space Technology
recommended that investigators look into
1) the "drilling of extra holes" along the joining flanges of solid propellant boosters (thus weakening the joints)
2) the photos clearly showing a forward mounting strut from the shuttle to the fuel tanks breaking loose
and perforating the liquid fuel tank, and the resulting jet of liquid fuel
http://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/11/us/puncture-of-large-fuel-tank-by-pivoting-booster-is-cited.htmlBut it was squashed.
The Shuttle was a good design, especailly for the day. A bit overly large. Nasa wanted a pick-up truck, and the
Pentagon demanded a Semi-Truck and got it. Actaully it was a "pretty damn good design" with all the different
contactors not playing nice together- so damn good the Soviets were copying it until their economy crashed.
The shuttle was good for what it was, and it should have been a stepping stone, to a better system and permanent
stations built at the LaGrange points. The Shuttle program WAS NOT READY for civilian scientist ride-alongs,
but the public image being projected demanded it. But the budgets were cut to the bone, cheap-a$$ bean-counters
were put in charge, and the KB's (kabooms) happened as a direct result. That doomed it all. To the bean-counters,
budget mattered more than lives.
If you don't agree, read the transcripts where the astronauts were directly forbidden from looking for any tile
damage. Lawyers call that culpable deniabilty.
BTW, in "the biz" everything was so compartmentalized, we never knew wtf we were working on, so we went to
Avionics Week, found out who was flying where for what, and figured it out. Their photos were the only way we ever saw
the platforms fly.
ooohhhh "Sierra Nevada Corporation's Dream Chaser mini-shuttle" <<<< --- that should have been the next step!
perhaps it will, yet...
I am intrigued that no-one is pursuing rail-launch from an Andes Mountain in order to avoid the dreaded "muti-stage rockets" .
yhs
prof (been yelled at by generals) marvel