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NASA Will Man Destruct Switch Just In Case

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the explosions-are-cool dept.

Ant writes "Popular Mechanics reports if the looming Discovery mission or any other between now and the spacecraft's retirement loses control, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is prepared to ditch it in the Atlantic ocean — or blow it up. The article also shows complete no-fly-zone maps and a photograph of the switch."

13 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Four Buttons? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't understand why there are four switches. I mean, I understand "Arm" and "Destruct", but why "test"? Does that blow up just a small section of the shuttle? I would have thought that turning off the "Arm" would be the same as "Safe"

    I know, I know ... it's the engineers having a laugh. Getting a kick out of the confused looks on stupid people like myself.

    1. Re:Four Buttons? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The "Test" button probably checks the detonation circuits, WITHOUT igniting the actual charges. And the "Safe" button is probably for permanently disarming the charges once the shuttle's in orbit.

    2. Re:Four Buttons? by Alwin+Henseler · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sure hope those are labeled correctly... just in case anyone at NASA would think it's a funny prank, I recommend NASA add one more rule to their launch procedures: "DO NOT lauch on April 1st"

      Best use a time window, to allow for differences in 'local time' (a relative notion for space operations)

    3. Re:Four Buttons? by greeze · · Score: 5, Funny

      They should've had Apple design it. Apple would've done it with only ONE switch.

  2. photograph by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I looked at TFA, and I gotta tell you, it's an exciting picture of the switch. Actually, it looks like FOUR switches and FOUR buttons. Well worth going to the site to see it.

  3. destruct switches _should_ look like that. by Zarf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know, if you are going to have destruct switches... they really should look like that. A big turn key, solid, metal, single function panel that does nothing else. Heavy clunky switches that tell you you've done something. Yep, if you're going to have what is essentially a "big red button" that's how it should look. There's no mistaking that for the coffee dispenser switch. Putting modern "iPhone" styling on that would be a sin.

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  4. Re:Not news by XNormal · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The press does not exist to provide information but to provoke emotion. Showing the actual button that destroyes a spacecraft with human occupants achieves this effect nicely.

    --
    Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
  5. Already been used by camperdave · · Score: 5, Informative
    Not only are the destruct switches active during each and every launch, they have actually been used on one particular launch. When Challenger's external fuel tank blew up, destroying the shuttle, the solid rocket boosters started to fly out of control.

    At T+110.250, the Range Safety Officer (RSO) at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station sent radio signals that activated the range safety system's "destruct" packages on board both solid rocket boosters. This was a normal contingency procedure, undertaken because the RSO judged the free-flying SRBs a possible threat to land or sea. The same destruct signal would have destroyed the External Tank had it not already disintegrated.[11]
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  6. Re:Not news by moteyalpha · · Score: 5, Funny

    Could we get a set of buttons like that on this article? If the comments are going down in flames, CmdrTaco could self destruct the article.

  7. Re:Not news by dotancohen · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some people get them for every post. It's called -1 [troll||redundant||offtopic||overrated]. The people with them are called mods. Watch what they do to both our poor posts now.

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    It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  8. Other abort modes! by pumpkinpuss · · Score: 5, Informative
    In addition to the destruct switch, there are other flight plans for an intact abort in case of problems. These abort modes are: Return to Landing Site (after SRBs are jettisoned, shuttle returns to Kennedy Space Center); East Coast Abort Landing where the orbiter lands on a different runway somewhere up the East Coast of the US; Transoceanic Abort Landing where the orbiter lands somewhere in Europe or Africa; Abort to Orbit; and Abort Once Around.

    The Solid Rocket Boosters can't be stopped once they are started, but they have their own navigation system (rate gyro assemblies, and inertial measurement units) that are considered as/more reliable as those on the orbiter due to the rigidity of the SRBs. So the reason this "self destruct" button exists is because there is no "off" button for the SRBs, but, as far as I know, it is only an issue if its quad-redundant navigation system fails and somehow its thrust gets stuck in an unsafe vector, and that is very unlikely.

    More detail, including why you can't jettison the flight deck with all the crewmembers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_abort_modes

  9. Slashdot Translation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Test: ping

    Arm: login root

    Destruct: rm / -rf

    Safe: logout

  10. Technical details by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    For the technical details on how this works, check out an old Risks article here. They put a lot of thought into the system.