What emergency...

Is this basket and armoured truck escape supposed to be used for?

Looks a bit risky, and surely the only sort of emergency it could maybe have
a place in would be poisonous gas or similar release in the cabin. If the
stack got punctured in a tank, or a fire occurred, I'd have thought it would
happen far to fast to be able to get out.

Brian

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Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
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"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
.uk...
Is this basket and armoured truck escape supposed to be used for?

Looks a bit risky, and surely the only sort of emergency it could maybe
have a place in would be poisonous gas or similar release in the cabin. If
the stack got punctured in a tank, or a fire occurred, I'd have thought it
would happen far to fast to be able to get out.

Brian


Cynically, the emergency it covers is the Congressional hearing after a pad
accident and Congress is asking why there wasn't an escape system at the
pad.

In reality, I think there's probably a few emergencies such as you mention
and perhaps a few others (maybe APU fire, OMS/RCS fire of some sort, etc.)
that it would be useful for.

Saturn had something similar and there's still supposed to be the bomb-proof
room built into the concrete pad that the emergency elevator would have
dropped them into.




--
Greg Moore
SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available!
Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html

On Nov 24, 3:51 am, "Brian Gaff" wrote:
Is this basket and armoured truck escape supposed to be used for?

Looks a bit risky, and surely the only sort of emergency it could maybe have
a place in would be poisonous gas or similar release in the cabin. If the
stack got punctured in a tank, or a fire occurred, I'd have thought it would
happen far to fast to be able to get out.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________

The system is also for the closeout crew. The astronauts are not the
only people at the pad/

There are many uses for it. The comment about the hearings is BS.

I thought so, as I seem to recall many years before any Shuttle flew a
system like this was shown over here on TV.



Brian

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Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


wrote in message
...
On Nov 24, 3:51 am, "Brian Gaff" wrote:
Is this basket and armoured truck escape supposed to be used for?

Looks a bit risky, and surely the only sort of emergency it could maybe
have
a place in would be poisonous gas or similar release in the cabin. If the
stack got punctured in a tank, or a fire occurred, I'd have thought it
would
happen far to fast to be able to get out.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________

The system is also for the closeout crew. The astronauts are not the
only people at the pad/

There are many uses for it. The comment about the hearings is BS.

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
.uk...
I thought so, as I seem to recall many years before any Shuttle flew a
system like this was shown over here on TV.



Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________



Maybe this is what you saw.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pLiAwSKkm6k (James Burke demonstrates Apollo
Saturn emergency precautions)

"Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" wrote:

"Brian Gaff" wrote in message
o.uk...
Is this basket and armoured truck escape supposed to be used for?

Looks a bit risky, and surely the only sort of emergency it could maybe
have a place in would be poisonous gas or similar release in the cabin. If
the stack got punctured in a tank, or a fire occurred, I'd have thought it
would happen far to fast to be able to get out.

Cynically, the emergency it covers is the Congressional hearing after a pad
accident and Congress is asking why there wasn't an escape system at the
pad.

wrote:

The comment about the hearings is BS.


From one whose life has depended on emergency escape systems useful
only during extremely unusual circumstances... (A former submariner.)


Nah, the comment about the hearings seems spot on to me.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

http://derekl1963.livejournal.com/

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL

On Nov 27, 7:23 am, (Derek Lyons) wrote:
"Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" wrote:


The comment about the hearings is BS.

From one whose life has depended on emergency escape systems useful
only during extremely unusual circumstances... (A former submariner.)

Nah, the comment about the hearings seems spot on to me.

Incorrect. There has always been alternative method of escaping
pads, even before the current environment

Mercury-Redstone had a cherry picker
Mercury-Atlas had a "passive" elevator
Gemini had a slide wire
Apollo had a slide wire and a bunker with a slide

wrote in message
...
On Nov 27, 7:23 am, (Derek Lyons) wrote:
"Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" wrote:


The comment about the hearings is BS.

From one whose life has depended on emergency escape systems useful
only during extremely unusual circumstances... (A former submariner.)

Nah, the comment about the hearings seems spot on to me.

Incorrect. There has always been alternative method of escaping
pads, even before the current environment

Mercury-Redstone had a cherry picker
Mercury-Atlas had a "passive" elevator
Gemini had a slide wire
Apollo had a slide wire and a bunker with a slide


Umm.. and so?

That doesn't refute my statement. The fact of the matter is, the likelihood
of those being of any use were practically nil. They were useful in a very
narrow set of circumstances.

But, they also (not exclusively) serve as a cover in the event of an
accident.

Look at Apollo 1. If there was ever a case for an emergency evacuation from
the capsule level, that was it. However, not only wasn't any evacuation
method used, it wasn't even possible.


--
Greg Moore
SQL Server DBA Consulting Remote and Onsite available!
Email: sql (at) greenms.com http://www.greenms.com/sqlserver.html

On Nov 27, 9:14 am, "Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)"
wrote:
wrote in message

They were useful in a very narrow set of circumstances.

There are many circumstances that they are useful for.

1. propellant leak at the pad
2. loss of commanding of the vehicle or GSE
3. fire at the tank farm
4. pending over pressurization of a vessel
5. unsafe cabin atmosphere


I could go on.

wrote:

On Nov 27, 7:23 am, (Derek Lyons) wrote:
"Greg D. Moore \(Strider\)" wrote:


The comment about the hearings is BS.

From one whose life has depended on emergency escape systems useful
only during extremely unusual circumstances... (A former submariner.)

Nah, the comment about the hearings seems spot on to me.

Incorrect. There has always been alternative method of escaping
pads, even before the current environment

Nobody was debating or denying the existence of the alternative
methods. We are discussing their relative and probable usefulness.

Do keep up.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

http://derekl1963.livejournal.com/

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL