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From: john@frog.UUCP (John Woods, Software)
Newsgroups: net.columbia,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Escape tower for shuttle orbiter?
Message-ID: <704@frog.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 25-Mar-86 12:20:32 EST
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Posted: Tue Mar 25 12:20:32 1986
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> >> >... A much smaller escape tower motor could then be used.
> >>    I hate to sound callous, but ... Doesn't this seem a trifle excessive?
> >You don't sound callous, you sound like a neanderthal SAVAGE!
> The point is, that orbiters, though expensive are REPLACEABLE:  Life, human
> or otherwise, is not...
> -- 
> 					The Phoenix
> ---"A man should live forever...or die trying."

Speaking as a Neanderthal SAVAGE here, the humans, though unique, are
replacable as astronauts.  To assign them an infinite value not only
scraps the Shuttle, it scraps every conceivable activity, for no conceivable
activity can have its risk reduced to zero.  In the case of the Shuttle,
you have astronauts willing to "die trying...to live forever" (to twist your
.signature) because the Shuttle is a tool for learning things about a goal
they strongly believe in.

This is not to say that safety measures (yea, verily, even escape towers)
are out of place -- if the Shuttle hardly worked at all, and killed 8 crews
in 10, there would be scarcely anything that the Shuttle could teach which
would be worth the loss.  However, a safety measure which costs a great deal
and offers only a tiny extra margin of safety (which an escape tower on the
Shuttle appears to me to be, though I am quite willing to listen to
engineering testimony to the contrary) just isn't worth the cost.


--
John Woods, Charles River Data Systems, Framingham MA, (617) 626-1101
...!decvax!frog!john, ...!mit-eddie!jfw, jfw%mit-ccc@MIT-XX.ARPA

This space dedicated to Challenger and her crew,
Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Ellison S. Onizuka, Judith Resnik,
Ronald E. McNair, Gregory B. Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe.

"...and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God."