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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Crew Escape Mechanisms
Message-ID: <9004@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 28-Nov-87 20:27:33 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.9004
Posted: Sat Nov 28 20:27:33 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Nov-87 20:27:33 EST
References: <843@alliant.Alliant.COM> <1842@phred.UUCP>, <8045@ism780c.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 38

> Since the Challenger crew survived the explosion, doesn't that indicate
> that there is a possible escape mechanism for the first two minutes?  For
> instance, put a parachute on the crew compartment, and when there is an
> emergency, you blow up the external tank.  The crew compartment then
> descends back to the ocean. ... is there anything wrong with it at a
> fundamental level?

The parachute would be big and heavy, unfortunately, since the crew
compartment weighs a lot.  Worse, could you rely on the parachute being
intact after violent disintegration of the orbiter?  More controlled
versions of this idea have been looked at; the only deep, fundamental
problem is that they add a lot of complexity and weight, plus safety
problems of their own (there is no such thing as an escape system which
will never fire accidentally).

On a smaller scale, invididual parachutes, oxygen, and pressure suits might
have kept the Challenger astronauts alive, given that they survived the
breakup.  Parachutes are definitely going to be aboard henceforth, as an
alternative to unsurvivable things like ditching or belly-landing an
orbiter.  Oxygen and pressure suits are being looked at quite seriously.

> By the way, did NASA ever release the autopsy reports?  How many crew
> members did survive the explosion?  How serious were their injuries
> before they hit the water?

I'm not sure they released the actual autopsy reports; they did release
Joe Kerwin's medical report, which summarized the results from autopsies
and other forensic work.  (Remember that, to quote somebody or other,
"we're talking about remains, not bodies" -- the crew cabin wasn't found
right away.)  It is probable that the entire crew survived the breakup
without crippling injury; the human body is pretty tough.  Certainly some
of them were alive and conscious for a few seconds afterward.  If the cabin
held pressure -- superficially unlikely, but the forensic people were not
able to find out for sure -- they could have been alive and conscious
until water impact.
-- 
Those who do not understand Unix are |  Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
condemned to reinvent it, poorly.    | {allegra,ihnp4,decvax,utai}!utzoo!henry