NASA looking at backup, twin SRB, CLV design

On Wed, 02 Aug 2006 18:26:05 -0500, Pat Flannery wrote:

Squat little SOB, isn't it?
Somewhat reminiscent of a Energia M as far as looks go.
Although it looks easy to move around, you've just doubled the potential
for a catastrophic SRB failure, as well as introduced a whole new
failure mode- one SRB lights and the other one doesn't at launch. The
nice part of The Stick is that either lifts off or it just sits there in
case the SRB doesn't ignite.

In a later post you suggested it would go 90 degrees in a second or two.
I'm not holding you to that estimate, but how quickly could the escape
system react to a single SRB ignition? Seems like "a second or two"
would be more than ample time.

Is a 2-3 segment SRB any less prone to failure than a 5 segment one?
I assume that there are still SRB failure modes beyond ignition failure,
right? If the shorter one has any less potential for catastrophic failure,
perhaps that would partially offset the dangers of a single ignition. Do
two 2-3 segment SRBs have any cost/reusability advantages over the
5 segment SRB?

I kinda like the looks of the backup idea. Reminds me of Totie Fields

Dale

Watched way too many Merv Griffin shows as a kid...