Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Blowing up the Shuttle
Message-ID: <1990Apr9.164235.26709@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <10556.1574.forumexp@mts.rpi.edu> <1990Apr5.035158.23244@utzoo.uucp> <10884@portia.Stanford.EDU> <1990Apr7.221851.14080@utzoo.uucp> <1990Apr9.062158.21015@uokmax.uucp>
Date: Mon, 9 Apr 90 16:42:35 GMT

In article <1990Apr9.062158.21015@uokmax.uucp> mflawson@uokmax.uucp (Michael F Lawson) writes:
>If there were another similar shuttle breakup today and by some miracle some
>astronauts did remain conscious for a minute or so, would they be able to
>get out of the cabin in free-fall?  More specifically, would the emergency
>hatch jettison system still work with no power to the cabin?  And do they even
>wear parachutes on the ascent?

They now wear partial-pressure suits with oxygen systems, so they would
remain conscious.  And they now have parachutes.  I'm a bit unsure about
the hatch-jettison system, although some of those complications were meant
to deal with bailing out in gliding flight and would be less necessary
for getting out after an orbiter had disintegrated.
-- 
Apollo @ 8yrs: one small step.|     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
Space station @ 8yrs:        .| uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu