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.

Comments

Oh man.

[Seumas]

Just be sure you pack the adult diapers for that ride.

Re:Oh man.

[n dot l]

"Oh no! The launch is a disaster! To the bunker! Wheeeeeee! Abort! Abort!!"

Escape shoot?

[ryants]

Somewhere, Noah Webster and Samuel Johnson weep.

Chute, not shoot

[Lucifer]

I guess that needs to be corrected....

So,

[iceZebra]

not only do they get to go to space, but free rollercoaster rides aswell.

Re:Pedant Warning

[LiquidCoooled]

With a huge rocket possibly exploding behind you I believe shoot is the correct term ;)

One minute you are sitting the aiming for the ky, the next you are hurtling downwards towards the centre of the Earth.
I hope the harness is easier to use than a real coaster though, it should really just be a sheet of webbing covering everywhere at the push of a button.
An injured guy in a spacesuit isn't going to be able to sit in correct position, you will just want to lob him in a row of seats and be done.

Re:Pedant Warning

[Nossie]

I noticed your post had a few typos... but I'm not a nazi

One question though, was the 'aiming for the KY' intentional? :)

the alternative?

[OglinTatas]

Dying in a giant fireball? Yeah, I'd ride it too.

Is this really good for anything?

[Maximum Prophet]

Has NASA ever had an accident where 4 minutes to escape is good enough? Most of the accidents that I've read about went "Boom" and was over, long before any escape system like this could work.

Re:Is this really good for anything?

[khallow]

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.

Re:Is this really good for anything?

[mdmoery]

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?

Re:Is this really good for anything?

[CodeBuster]

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.

They didn't even give the Wikipedia link

[p3d0]

You can read more about it here.

Here's Demon Drop

[phorest]

Sounds like Taco has taken a ride or two...For those of you that don't know what that is here you go. http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/park/rides/thrill/demon_drop/index.cfm

Re:Pedant Warning

[somersault]

Well, when you've got a gigantic rocket pushing up your ass..

Whee!

[cheebie]

I was at Cape Canaveral this past spring, just as a tourist. (Missed
Buzz Aldrin signing his book by half an hour, dernit!) We took the better
tour that let you see more of the launch pads and the construction sites.

Anyway, the escape system they have right now is a zip line. If something
bad is about to happen, the astronauts grab onto the harness and slide down
a metal cable. There's a sorta-fire-proof vehicle at the end of the zip line
ready to haul ass at a moments notice. Their instructions were to get in the
vehicle and take off. Fast. I assume praying would also be involved. The
guide said that MIGHT be enough to keep them from becoming BBQ, but not blowing
up the craft is still the best strategy.

Getting blown into space on top of a barely controlled explosion is still a
pretty dangerous profession. I admire those with the guts to do it.

Re:Whee!

[cheebie]

Correcting myself.

I just remembered that they don't slide down individually. There's a
basket they all get into, and THAT slides down the wire. Still sounds
like a fun ride, as long as there aren't several tons of rocket fuel
about to explode behind you.

Best ride people won't enjoy

[Jtheletter]

Putting aside for the moment that the people this is intended for will only be using it in emergency situations, they are also the group of people least likely to appreciate such a "ride" even if it were in casual circumstances. These folks already ride a massive controlled explosion into orbit where they are weightless for a week or more at a time. Compared to that ride this "third highest drop in the world" probably sounds like a day off for their stomachs. ;)

Coaster trajectory versus old escape system

[hcdejong]

It looks like this track goes straight down along the launch tower, while the old system had wires going from the top of the tower at a shallow angle. It seems to me that the old solution gets you out of the blast radius quicker. It certainly stays farther away from the noisy end of the rocket.

Re:Not to be pessimistic...

[cyclone96]

Does any disaster involving space travel and rockets have a 4 minute window for people to escape?

In the accidents this system is designed to protect for, it can. This really is not to help out a crew that is strapped into a launch system during terminal count. In that case, the launch abort system is fired and the whole capsule is carried away rapidly. This is actually what happened during Soyuz T-10-1 when it caught fire (link here).

Where the pad escape system really comes in is those days and hours before launch when ground crews and the maybe the flight crew itself is out at the pad doing launch prep and some sort of accident occurs, such as a fire. I've done work out on the shuttle pads, they are really industrial areas, like a petrochem plant. Getting out in a hurry is tricky business, involving riding elevators, finding your way through the pad structure itself (which has hatches) and making your way to the ground. This system and the current zip line system is designed to get workers off rapidly if there is an emergency, especially before the crew is strapped in but after the upper stage is fueled.

Re:Pennies on your knees

[Ogive17]

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.

And if CmdrTaco happens to read this.. I think we need a /. day at the park.. If it doesn't sound nerdy enough, we can talk about the forces exerted on each ride :).

Buh and boom

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

> More like the Cedar Point Demon Drop than a roller coaster, but still, I'd ride it.

No doubt it would be highly exciting as the shuttle or rocket it was attached to is probably in the process of exploding.

Lemme know how it goes.

Re:escape chute on rocket launchpads ..

[Animats]

What they should design is a small engine-less glider that sits on top of a conventional rocket and in an emergency a small solid fuel rocket would propel it and the occupants to safety.

Both Mercury and Apollo had that. In a pre-launch emergency, a solid fuel rocket on an escape tower atop the capsule would fire, explosive bolts would detach the capsule from the booster, and the astronauts would take a very short, high-G ride upward, away from the booster. Then more explosive bolts would detach the escape tower and a parachute would open. It was a whole-capsule ejection system. Never had to be used.