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NASA Building Giant Roller Coaster For Science
Jamie found a story of NASAs Giant "Science" Roller Coaster. It will be used as an escape chute on rocket launchpads, and will be the 3rd highest drop in the world. More like the Cedar Point Demon Drop than a roller coaster, but still, I'd ride it.
I guess that needs to be corrected....
It will be used as an escape shoot on rocket launchpads, and will be the 3rd highest drop in the world.
I think the word you're groping for there is 'chute'. ^_^
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
The Apollo 1 fire would be a good example. If there was a cockpit fire and any of the crew got out, you'd want them out of the way and on the ground fast. That takes a lot less than 4 minutes.
I've been to CP probably around 50 times in my life (my grandfather was a software engineer there back in the 80s).. and I never rode the Demon Drop until this summer. I'm not scared of roller coasters... the only reason to go to CP is to ride the best ones in the world. I was amazed at how much of a thrill that ride actually gives for as "small" as it looks compared to the new mega coasters.
/. day at the park.. If it doesn't sound nerdy enough, we can talk about the forces exerted on each ride :).
And if CmdrTaco happens to read this.. I think we need a
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
What scenario are they planning for? Shuttle has the escape wires because there is no other method of escape. (At most times during the mission, your only hope to survive a Shuttle flight is to land safely.) Orion will have a good, old-fashioned escape rocket to pull the whole capsule into the sky and parachute down. So you would use this roller-coaster to evacuate if the emergency is prior to the point where the access arm is retracted? I notice from the number of seats on the "coaster" that there are more than the Orion holds. For white-room launch pad workers, I guess?
Pree skriptiv ism bee kaym pas eh inn leng gwistix deck ades agho. Wye chould whee kare watt itts phig yours had two seigh, wenn whee know unn der stannd dee skrip tiv issm iss de weight two gho?
Given the fact that the launch tower and associated facilities for Orion will be built / modified anyway for at a cost of billions of dollars why not spend a few extra million to provide yet another obvious escape route? Heck NASA could even license the naming rights and theming for rides at amusement parks to recoup some of the costs.
The rocket concept is really a return to the right direction after the long lived and oversold space shuttle side mounted launch vehicle. The Russians have long had rocket powered escape systems on their launch vehicles (the system has saved lives on at least one occasion: Soyuz T-10-1), a system that was deemed too complex and expensive for the shuttle due to the side mounted launch position and the need for an independent escape capsule, because the rocket already contains a capsule-like vehicle oriented in a vertical position with a clear shot up and away.
If we have to return to manned space flight then the rocket concept is definitely the way to go. Personally however, I think that a return to a manned program at this time is largely a waste of taxpayer money (although not entirely since some concepts will still have to be tested from time to time) that could be better spent on advanced probes, propulsion research, artificial gravity, long term self sustained life support systems (which will be needed both for permanent off world bases and long duration space journeys), and compact fusion power generators. In fact the manned program should really not take priority again until we have developed all of those technologies to the point of high reliability AND have at least a working understanding of an interstellar drive system (probably not in my lifetime). The problem with spaceflight is that people want immediate results when in fact it will probably take several more centuries or even millennia, assuming that we do not blow ourselves up in the meantime, to really start moving people off this planet and on to other destinations in the Solar System and beyond. The question is this: do we as a species have the maturity to set and reach such long term goals? The answer, at least for now, is a resounding "no"...hence the long expected time frames.