Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bfmny0!tneff From: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: Hawaii as a launching site Message-ID: <15031@bfmny0.UU.NET> Date: 21 Dec 89 21:05:50 GMT References: <3831@orion.cf.uci.edu> <9222@elsie.UUCP> <771@ritcsh.cs.rit.edu> <7641@tekigm2.MEN.TEK.COM> Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET (Tom Neff) Lines: 47 In article <7641@tekigm2.MEN.TEK.COM> johnob@tekigm2.MEN.TEK.COM (John Obendorfer) writes: >In article <771@ritcsh.cs.rit.edu> carl@ritcsh.cs.rit.edu.UUCP (Captain Carl) writes: >>Also, wouldn't it be a bad idea to launch the shuttle from the Islands >>with all the active volcanoes and bad weather they have?? > Well, the last time I was hopping around the south point of the big >island, down below the Kiliuea (sp) volcano, I was literally hopping on >a 2-week old lava flow, watching the *really* hot stuff drop into the >ocean... > The Hawaii volcanoes are the most active volcanos in the world. The current active flow (since the '83 Kilauea eruption) is located well up the Ka'u coast to the NE of South Point, about halfway to Kohala. The flows covering southern Ka'u are over a thousand years old. You can see the terrain well from the upper reaches of Chain of Craters Road leading down from the National Park and the Kilauea caldera. It is forbidding and actually well isolated for dangerous work. But, and these are big buts: The Pacific is not friendly along most of the Big Island's coasts. Barge and small craft access would be chancy at times. Kona storms, when they come, could shut things down for days at a time. Another thing that could shut things down for WEEKS at a time is "volcano weather." This happens when Pele breathes extra sulfur and fine ash into the air from her numerous vents around Kilauea and Mauna Loa; the result is stagnant, hazy weather with lots of fog and rain, BIG lightning and sharp, tangy, corrosive sulfur vapors day and night. There are also numerous low grade seismic tremors from Pele's internal goings-on. The hazards of orbiter transportation to Hawaii have already been discussed. The existing 747 fleet could be upgraded for midflight refueling, but there would be no emergency landing options in case of problems on the way. We could build a new shuttle runway on the huge, gently sloping lava fields along Kona side, but Hawai'i is one of the WINDIEST places around on average. There'd be lots of safety holds (or worse, safety waivers). Net-net, the Big Island would be a lousy deal for the program. It would also add much-regretted light pollution to the headaches of the Keck Observatory staff at Mauna Kea... Canal Zone spaceport, anyone? :-) -- "We plan absentee ownership. I'll stick to `o' Tom Neff building ships." -- George Steinbrenner, 1973 o"o tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET