manning@arrester.caltech.edu (Evan Marshall Manning) (07/19/90)
I was watching a Nova last night about Easter Island. They mentioned that Easter Island is an emergency landing strip for west-coast shuttle landings. Do they fly out people for each landing? Stockpile emergency gear? Or could the astronauts land there and have to let themselves out, just bum around until NASA sends out a plane? Just curious, Evan *************************************************************************** Your eyes are weary from staring at the CRT for so | Evan M. Manning long. You feel sleepy. Notice how restful it is | is to watch the cursor blink. Close your eyes. The |manning@gap.cco.caltech.edu opinions stated above are yours. You cannot | manning@mars.jpl.nasa.gov imagine why you ever felt otherwise. | gleeper@tybalt.caltech.edu
henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (07/19/90)
In article <manning.648341238@arrester> manning@arrester.caltech.edu (Evan Marshall Manning) writes: >I was watching a Nova last night about Easter Island. They >mentioned that Easter Island is an emergency landing strip >for west-coast shuttle landings. > >Do they fly out people for each landing? Stockpile emergency >gear? What they probably meant to say is that Easter Island is an emergency landing site for west-coast shuttle *launches*. Of course, there haven't been any such launches, and it's most unlikely now that there will ever be. However, NASA did make some improvements to Easter Island's airport, and set up some other facilities, before that became clear. I imagine that if Vandenberg shuttle launches were being done, they'd have equipment cached there permanently and emergency crews flown out for each flight. You definitely want people and equipment on hand, if only because the OMS/RMS fuel and oxidizer -- still aboard when the shuttle lands -- are very dangerous chemicals. (There's also some liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, but they're innocuous by comparison.) About a decade ago, Harry Stine (writing as Lee Correy) produced a novel, "Shuttle Down", which graphically described how ludicrously unprepared NASA was for an Easter Island landing. Some of the preparations were made partly as a result of the embarrassment it caused. -- NFS: all the nice semantics of MSDOS, | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology and its performance and security too. | henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry
fischer@dssmv2.mpr.ca (Roger Fischer) (07/19/90)
There is a book called "Shuttle down" that describes a scenario of an emergency landing on Easter Island. I think it is written by Lee Corey (sp?). It is well worth reading and apparently it uncovered quite a few holes in the NASA contingency plan. Roger ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Roger W. Fischer fischer@mprgate.mpr.ca fischer@mprgate.UUCP ..seismo!ubc-cs!mprgate!fischer ...ihnp4!alberta!ubc-cs!mprgate!fischer
ssquyres@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Steven Squyres) (07/20/90)
Several years ago, the then-skipper of the US naval facility at McMurdo Station in Antarctica cooked up the idea of building an abort strip for Vandenburg launches at a place called Marble Point, right across the sound from McMurdo. Not a very practical idea... though it would've been a nice place to land C-141's. I always kind of liked the idea of a shuttle swooping in with the Royal Society range looming in the background.
smcgee%albion.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Scott Mcgee) (07/31/90)
In article <manning.648341238@arrester> manning@arrester.caltech.edu (Evan Marshall Manning) writes: > >I was watching a Nova last night about Easter Island. They >mentioned that Easter Island is an emergency landing strip >for west-coast shuttle landings. > >Just curious, >Evan Just as a related point of interest, in David Brin's new novel (science fiction) called "Earth", the shuttle Atlantis must have used the Easter Island emergency landing strip and then been accidentally "dropped" onto the 747 carrier dammaging both irrepairibly. The shuttle was then stripped of much of the equipement that could be used on the other shuttles and then turned into a monument. I just thought someone might be interested! Scott Buttered bread always lands * Scott McGee butter side down! (Unless * email : smcgee%albion@cs.utah.edu it sticks to the ceiling!) * Would YOU mistake these opinions as anyone's but my own?
Scott.Johnson@p0.f7.n391.z8.fidonet.org (Scott Johnson) (07/31/90)
There is also a very good book called "Shuttle Down" by an author whose name escapes me. It is about a shuttle that has to emergency land on Easter Island and what happens when they try to get it out. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- N.W. Arkansas' UUCP to FidoNet Connection. If you are interested in connecting up Contact Kenneth Whelan. Addresses postmaster@palace or at 1:391/9(Fido) 97.6 % of All Statistics are Made UP -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
thomas@mvac23.UUCP (Thomas Lapp) (08/01/90)
I couldn't help myself here... > Just as a related point of interest, in David Brin's new novel (science > fiction) called "Earth", the shuttle Atlantis must have used the Easter > Island emergency landing strip and then been accidentally "dropped" onto > the 747 carrier dammaging both irrepairibly. The shuttle was then stripped > of much of the equipement that could be used on the other shuttles and > then turned into a monument. But was a panel formed to investigate the accidental dropping?! :-) - tom -- internet : mvac23!thomas@udel.edu or thomas%mvac23@udel.edu uucp : {ucbvax,mcvax,psuvax1,uunet}!udel!mvac23!thomas Location : Newark, DE, USA Quote : I know how to spell banana, I just don't know when to stop -- The UUCP Mailer
shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov (Mary Shafer) (08/01/90)
In article <305.UUL1.3#5131@mvac23.UUCP> thomas@mvac23.UUCP (Thomas Lapp) writes: I couldn't help myself here... > Just as a related point of interest, in David Brin's new novel (science > fiction) called "Earth", the shuttle Atlantis must have used the Easter > Island emergency landing strip and then been accidentally "dropped" onto > the 747 carrier dammaging both irrepairibly. The shuttle was then stripped > of much of the equipement that could be used on the other shuttles and > then turned into a monument. But was a panel formed to investigate the accidental dropping?! :-) Better be an AIB--Accident Investigation Board--since this would surely be a Class A mishap. Cheaper or only minor injuries would entail an IIB--Incident Investigation Board. After all, when you run a complex program it's important to find out what went wrong and to avoid doing it again. Our most extensive AIBs here at Dryden follow a death, naturally. We've had a few, but never from the same cause twice, so maybe we do learn. -- Mary Shafer shafer@skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!skipper.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer NASA Ames Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards, CA Of course I don't speak for NASA "A MiG at your six is better than no MiG at all"--Unknown US fighter pilot
smcgee%albion.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Scott Mcgee) (08/01/90)
In article <81.26B66FFD@palace.fidonet.org> Scott.Johnson@p0.f7.n391.z8.fidonet.org (Scott Johnson) writes: > > There is also a very good book called "Shuttle Down" by an author whose >name escapes me. It is about a shuttle that has to emergency land on Easter >Island and what happens when they try to get it out. > In fact, in the afterword to "Earth", David Brin credits "Shuttle Down" by Lee Correy as the origin of his "shuttle landed on easter island" idea. Scott PS "Earth" is an excellent book! Buttered bread always lands * Scott McGee butter side down! (Unless * email : smcgee%albion@cs.utah.edu it sticks to the ceiling!) * Would YOU mistake these opinions as anyone's but my own?
marc@pinet.aip.org (Marc Wiener) (08/01/90)
In article <81.26B66FFD@palace.fidonet.org> Scott.Johnson@p0.f7.n391.z8.fidonet.org (Scott Johnson) writes: > > There is also a very good book called "Shuttle Down" by an author whose >name escapes me. It is about a shuttle that has to emergency land on Easter >Island and what happens when they try to get it out. > > I believe the author was Tom Easton, but it might have been published under the pen-name Lee Corey. NASA did not have a landing strip at Easter Island until after the book was published. They claim it is merelly a coincidence. -- Marc Wiener | marc@pinet.aip.org American Institute of Physics | marc@aip.bitnet 500 Sunnyside Blvd. |
smcgee%albion.utah.edu@cs.utah.edu (Scott Mcgee) (08/01/90)
I can't help myself here either... In article <305.UUL1.3#5131@mvac23.UUCP> thomas@mvac23.UUCP (Thomas Lapp) writes: >I couldn't help myself here... > >> Just as a related point of interest, in David Brin's new novel (science >> fiction) called "Earth", the shuttle Atlantis must have used the Easter >> Island emergency landing strip and then been accidentally "dropped" onto >> the 747 carrier dammaging both irrepairibly. The shuttle was then stripped >> of much of the equipement that could be used on the other shuttles and >> then turned into a monument. > >But was a panel formed to investigate the accidental dropping?! :-) > > - tom In the novel, the monument was just left uncared for and birds, using it as a roost, dropped ... well, um, droppings ... on it. Was a panel formed to investigate these droppings as well? [insert multiple smilies here] Scott Buttered bread always lands * Scott McGee butter side down! (Unless * email : smcgee%albion@cs.utah.edu it sticks to the ceiling!) * Would YOU mistake these opinions as anyone's but my own?
pjs@aristotle.JPL.NASA.gov (Peter Scott) (08/02/90)
In article <1990Aug1.132127.7689@pinet.aip.org>, marc@pinet.aip.org (Marc Wiener) writes: > I believe the author was Tom Easton, but it might have been published under > the pen-name Lee Corey. NASA did not have a landing strip at Easter Island > until after the book was published. They claim it is merelly a coincidence. Lee Correy, a pseudonym for G. Harry Stine. I just read the book after seeing it mentioned in these bytes. It prompted a question about the turnarounds they had to build for the C-5s; they expended much effort in building these concrete aprons for the C-5s to turn around to take off, but surely the C-5 has to be towed around anyway, so why couldn't they have just towed the plane backwards along the runway? And it would already be facing into the wind. This is news. This is your | Peter Scott, NASA/JPL/Caltech brain on news. Any questions? | (pjs@aristotle.jpl.nasa.gov)
kenny@m.cs.uiuc.edu (08/02/90)
marc@pinet.aip.org writes: [Re: _Shuttle Down_] >I believe the author was Tom Easton, but it might have been published under >the pen-name Lee Corey. _Shuttle Down_ was written by G. Harry Stine. I believe that he did indeed use the pseudonym of Lee Correy (which has two `r's, by the way). Kevin, KE9TV kenny@cs.uiuc.edy
tif@doorstop.austin.ibm.com (Paul Chamberlain) (08/02/90)
In article <1990Aug1.132127.7689@pinet.aip.org> marc@pinet.aip.org writes: >I believe the author was ... Anybody for sci.space.shuttle.fiction? :-) :-) :-) :-)