Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: shuttle escape systems
Message-ID: <1989Oct17.162137.16832@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <538.252A3A3B@mamab.FIDONET.ORG> <1989Oct12.021826.7915@utzoo.uucp> <1155@crdos1.crd.ge.COM>
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 89 16:21:37 GMT

In article <1155@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes:
>  I wish the public could know just what the state of the astronauts was
>after the failure (a) before water impact and (b) after...

Unless you really want all the morbid details, there is nothing secret
about this.  According to the medical/forensic report from the team led
by Joe Kerwin (an MD/astronaut):

1. It is virtually certain that at least some of the crew were alive and
	conscious for at least a few seconds after the breakup.

2. It is highly likely that all of them were alive and more or less
	intact until water impact.

3. IF the cabin held pressure, and in particular IF none of the windows
	broke, they might have been conscious until water impact.  If
	the cabin lost pressure, they would have become unconscious in
	a few seconds from hypoxia, and would not have recovered before
	impact.  There is no evidence that they remained conscious, but
	there is no conclusive evidence that they didn't.  It was not
	possible to determine definitely whether the cabin held pressure.

4. The water impact was severe and almost certainly instantly fatal.

>Certainly after
>the breakup the cabin dropped subsonic, it would be worth thinking about
>a chute system at that point, something which isn't all that heavy. It
>would cover the case in which the cabin survived, as it seems to have...

Assuming that the chute system wasn't damaged in the breakup or obstructed
by debris, that is.  (Remember the solar array on Skylab -- it doesn't
take that much obstruction.)  Actually, the Challenger astronauts probably
could have survived if they'd had pressure suits, oxygen, personal
parachutes, and an escape hatch... which the astronauts now have.  Getting
out at subsonic speed with no engines running nearby is the easy part.
-- 
A bit of tolerance is worth a  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
megabyte of flaming.           | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu