Shuttle program extension?

On Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:02:46 -0400, "Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)"
wrote:

Titanic had many ships within hours' travel of rescue The Californian
was within sight (her radioman had gone to sleep and distress rockets
were ignored by her captain, another change after Titanic was that all
large ships have their radios manned 24 hours a day) and the Carpathia
arrived on scene just after sunrise. ISS cannot expect to have other
ships available to rescue the crew within a reasonable amount of time.

Then either that has to change, or the assumption that it's a requirement
has to change.

It won't. Get over it. You may as well say that Carnival Cruises can
stop putting lifeboats on their ships. Never gonna happen.

As I pointed out, there are already scenarios where lifeboats won't do you
much good.

But you provide a lifeboat to handle as much as you practically can.
Practical being the key word. There are always going to be events
that happen too quickly for lifeboats to help, at sea and in space.
The Andrea Doria was listing too far over for half her lifeboats to be
launched in 1956 (the passengers were fortunately rescued by the
nearby Ile de France). We didn't say "See! Lifeboats aren't a 100%
guarantee! Get rid of them!".

The government already sends hundreds of employees out on craft which have
rescue capabilities that are far more feel good than actually useful. One
of our own here served on one such craft.

You're wrong about submarines, Greg. They do have lifeboats, the same
as all Navy ships (you don't see lifeboats hanging all along the sides
of the Nimitz, either). For example, take a look at "Hunt for Red
October" to see inflatable lifeboats in action (the scene was filmed
on a Brit sub, I think). They have been used in real life, too.

Being able to "deliver all the way back to Southampton" is a lot
cheaper for NASA than having a Carpathia on standby for launch 24/7.

Or is it? Seriously. I do wonder if anyone has looked at the cost of
either developing a rescue craft for the next 4-5 years,

We don't need to develop a rescue craft. We just need to accellerate
Orion.

paying the Russians

That's still a lifeboat that gets you back to Southampton. It's just
not one the US builds.

Brian