Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!glacier!oliveb!hplabs!qantel!lll-lcc!lll-crg!seismo!brl-adm!brl-smoke!wmartin
From: wmartin@brl-smoke.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.columbia,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Escape tower for shuttle orbiter?
Message-ID: <2096@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 25-Mar-86 14:22:15 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.2096
Posted: Tue Mar 25 14:22:15 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 1-Apr-86 04:34:52 EST
References: <9696@ucla-cs.ARPA> <588@qantel.UUCP> <2593@genat.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: USAMC ALMSA, St. Louis, MO
Lines: 44
Xref: watmath net.columbia:2740 net.philosophy:4788

In article <2593@genat.UUCP> phoenix@genat.UUCP () writes:
>What I was trying to say (tell-me-twice), is that Life is ideosyncratic;
>that is, each living being (human, sentient, or otherwise) is different
>from all other living beings:  like snowflakes.  It is this diversity of
>life that cannot be duplicated.  

Of course this is true -- each individual is unique -- but it has no
bearing on the question at hand, which is the relative values *to the
space program* [that is, in that limited context] of the equipment and
the personnel.

To their spouses or families, each astronaut is unique and irreplaceable;
their loss is a tragedy which cannot be overcome. To the space program,
it becomes a matter of many factors, usually including such things as
the size of the available manpower pool, the length of time training
requires, the cost and difficulty of such training, etc. 

Thee is no question that losing people is a terrible blow in many
aspects, having much wider effects than just the loss of the investment
in their time and training, so we take more precautions and expend more
efforts to preserve life than we would if the decision was purely and
simply an economic one. However, in the long run, you have to operate on
the expectation that people will become no longer available, due to
various factors (getting sick, dying in accidents [even auto accidents &
etc. unrelated to their jobs], changing their minds and quitting,
whatever). So you have a larger pool of people than you have an
immediate requirement for, and try to have enough of them functionally
interchangeable so that you can pick out replacements when you need to.

In this light, the astronauts are no different than you and I -- the
organizations and projects of which we are a part will likely go on
despite something happening to us. If I get flattened by a truck outside
the office building tonight, there will be some period of a degree of
chaos as a result, until a new person takes over my job and things
settle back, but the organization will persist. Because my replacement
is not identical to me, there will be some degree of difference in minor
details, but it really will not matter. In my relationship to the
organization, those qualities that make me unique normally do not make
much difference. I can be replaced, as far as the organization is
concerned. (Now, if this was not a government agency, but was a sole-
proprietorship small business, I probably *would* be irreplaceable.
But that is a different situation.)

Will