NASA's Rollercoaster For Moon Rocket Escape

simonbp writes "NASA's Constellation Project has approved the Rollercoaster Escape System to be used as the Emergency Egress Systems (EES) for astronauts and pad crew to race away from the Ares I pad, should an emergency be called. The Ares I is the first of NASA's new moon/Mars rockets and is scheduled for a first manned flight in 2014." From the article: "An unpowered fixed single-rail system from the access arm level of the ML tower to the existing bunker would be used. The railcars could be enclosed to provide personnel protection. Each railcar can hold four to six people. The rail would follow the ML tower vertically down to the pad surface, then turn and continue close to the ground to the safety bunker. A passive magnetic and friction braking system will decelerate the cars at the tracks end as well as prevent the cars from hitting each other."

Comments

Re:WTF?

[MichaelSmith]

Heck, they might as well build a loop-d-loop at the bottom so tourists can pay to ride it.

My idea for an escape system in very tall (WTC) buildings is to construct vertical drop tubes inside the buildings. At the bottom it would depart the vertical and follow a parabolic curve for a couple of hundred metres to bleed off speed.

In normal operation users would pay for the jump and would wear protective clothing. In emergency operation water would spray into the tube to reduce frictional heating when you hit the sides. A simple traffic control system would try to prevent collisions with people who enter the tube part of the way down.

Re:Not the right approach IMHO

[DerekLyons]

I mean, 'cmon... We've been doing ejection seat type systems for what, 40 to 50 years now? These kinds of systems are very, very reliable.

Not particularly. It's not unheard to fail to eject, or to have the ejector fire without being commanded to do so.
 
 

Other spacecraft have used similar systems. The F-111 had/has such a system if I remember correctly.

The FB-111 capsule escape system has been used (IIRC) 20-25 times across its history in US service - and one or both of the crew was severely injured each and every time. In the aviation community ejecting from an aircraft is reffered to as "attempting suicide to avoid being killed".

Re:Not the right approach IMHO

[ScentCone]

You've also got another scenario: big ol' nasty fuel/oxidizer leak. You could hop in a passive (enclosed) car for a 32 f/s/s-quickening ride out to a bunker, or, you could use the ejection method, and light a big ol' ejection rocket right on top of the giant leaking tower of flammable stuff. I think you'd want both options, so that you can react to a range of hazards. If they need to bug out, they'll usually know why... and they may very well not be in the capsule (yet) when they see they need to. For that matter, the pad workers may have the need hours before the crew even saddles up.