Dan C wrote:
On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 15:59:49 -0700, wrote:

As I understand it there are four sensors. They should just fly the
shuttle with three working until they can fix the fourth (which they
should work very hard on.)

You think so? Would you like to be on it, or a family member of yours be
on it, with a faulty safety system?

I would have been happy to be an Astronaut. I understand that there is
risk associated with it. There is risk associated with being a spy, or
the president, or in the military, or any number of professions. For
many, the risk is worth it. If you don't think so you can sit at home
and watch it on TV while eating potato chips.

Do you even understand what these
four sensors actually *DO* ?

My understanding is that they prevent the space shuttle from running
out of fuel by shutting down the engines before that happens. If the
space shuttle runs out of fuel it could blow up.


The space shuttle is entirely safe if we
keep finding reasons never to fly. We will get more missions out of
the space shuttles before retirement if we take additional risks and
fly more missions than if we are so careful not to let one blow up that
we fly very very few missions.

Are you speaking from the perspective of a highly educated aerospace
engineer, or simply blathering like an idiot with a 3rd grade education?
How could you possibly know how safe the shuttle is? You know nothing.

How do I know how safe the shuttle is? Simple, the shuttle has a long
history. Look at the percent of missions which result in disaster and
the shuttle is roughly that safe. It is a little more dangerous now
because the fleet has aged but it is also a little less dangerous
because we just spend 2.5 years overhauling the fleet. I last saw the
space shuttle in Florida March 9th, 2005 at which point I heard the
number of 3-4% chance of failure per mission. The truth is no one
knows exactly.


More spineless American syndrome if you ask me.

Nobody asked you, and your opinion is clearly worthless, you ignorant
doofus.

It is your opinion that my opinion is clearly worthless. I am an
"ignorant doofus?" Come on, give me a break.


America is trying very hard to throw away the edge we have in
space technology (a very important field long term).

You think so, huh? Who is challenging America in the "space race"?
Russia? France? LOL! Who?

China. China is challenging us. They are not challenging us in where
they are at. They are challenging us in their rate of advance. There
is currently no reason to believe they won't eventually surpass us
(even though they are Communist and we are a Democracy).


--
If you're not on the edge, you're taking up too much space.
Linux Registered User #327951

PS: You aren't one of those Linux users who thinks all non Linux users
are an "ignorant doofus" are you?