You loser. Get some balls.




"Tamas Feher" wrote in message
...
First off, major congrats to the Scaled, Vulcan and SpaceDev
crews. I saw the CNN web video, and it was great to see SS1
flying like that.

Do they use spacesuits or just shirt-sleeve? Are there ejection seats
installed in the vehicles?

Shirt-sleeve; no ejection seats.

Holy ****! They should rename the craft to "Second Soyuz-11". Or
"Challenger-2" maybe? What if one of those pretty round nose windows
suffers a General Protection Fault? I saw a photo on CNN, where the
pilot wore fighter-jet style helmet and oxygen mask. That won't save him
above 12-18 km, they need a full-body compression suit and closed
helmet. What if the stylish pivoting wings break off mid-air? The guy is
NOT going to get out of the spinning wreck under his own power.

So I promptly sent the following e-mail to the X-prize board:

"Dear Ansari X-Prize Comitte,

Scaled Composite's flight was a success, they finally reached 100km. But
the spaceship suffered some severe malfunctions in-flight (uncontrolled
roll, trim failure, violent expansion caused buckling in the rear
fuselage). I think the pilot was lucky to survive.

Here is the question:
X-prize attempts must fly with three persons onboard or one human pilot
and two weight dummies. Would you allow omitting the two weight dummies
if Scaled Composite installed additional crew safety measures for the
remaining single pilot?

I mean things like having an ejection seat and true spacesuite for the
pilot, as opposed to the current shirt-sleeve environment. Considering
that a proven capable ejection seat, like the russian Zvezda K-36DM
weights about 225 kg (~500lbs) fully equipped, that would be no cheating
with regards to mass / thrust requirements. One K36 would provide
full-envelope single crew survival up to Mach3 and 30,000 meters max.
height.

I do feel Ansari X-Prize comitte should encourage all participants to
fly with governmental-grade safety measures in place (especially full
vacuum rated spacesuits and crew bail-out equipment). Shirt-sleeve
environment has historically killed ten astronauts in state-run space
programs (Soyuz-11 and Challenger). The last thing you need is people
spelling your name like "ANother Silly Astronaut Roasted In-flight
X-prize". Especially not with CNN and NBC live coverage.

Thanks for your attention, Sincerely: Thomas Feher."