Xref: utzoo sci.space:12180 sci.space.shuttle:3343
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: space news from May 15 AW&ST (replacing computers)
Message-ID: <1989Jul4.154306.19639@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1989Jul2.054432.5054@utzoo.uucp> <3827@phri.UUCP> <1989Jul2.210944.15387@utzoo.uucp> <11749@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 89 15:43:06 GMT

In article <11749@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com> smb@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com (Steven M. Bellovin) writes:
>> The real botch here is that the computers are so inaccessible that it takes
>> four hours to replace one.
>
>Sorry, I don't necessarily agree.  As Henry obviously knows, design of
>something like a space shuttle is a series of tradeoffs...

Granted... but NASA has somewhat of a history of assuming that the hardware
must work -- it says so in The Book, after all! -- and so it's unnecessary
to set things up so the astronauts can fix it.  I.e., while tradeoffs do
happen, they can and do get skewed by institutional biases.
-- 
$10 million equals 18 PM       |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
(Pentagon-Minutes). -Tom Neff  | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu