Dan C wrote:
On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 16:50:09 -0700, wrote:

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.

Almost. Close enough for the sake of this conversation. But.... What do
you think happens if the engines shut down before the shuttle has reached
a high enough altitude to break free of gravity and remain in space? The
problem which occurred last week was that the sensor indicated the tank
was empty (when it really wasn't), and therefore would have shut down the
engines. Guess what happens next...

Yes, I am fully aware that the function of these sensors is important.
Good thing three out of four work. We just wouldn't have redundancy
for a mission while they fix it. Lots of space shuttle systems don't
have redundancy.


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.

That is a VERY over-simplified view of things. The reality of it is that
you DO NOT launch if there are things which you KNOW are problems. That
way if things go wrong it is only because of things you did not know about
beforehand. The real name of this process is: "Operational Risk
Management" (ORM). It's how things are done.

The real name of this process is "Cover Your Ass (CYA)". A
spineless CYA culture is incapable of simultaneously being a Can-Do
culture that makes things happen. Risks need to be taken or progress
slows to a halt. People need to start getting mad about the lack of
America's progress in space instead of the shuttle disasters.


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).

Wrong again. China is not currently anywhere near our level. The real
point here is that there is not really a "space race" any more. What are
they going to do, go to the moon?

You are right. We are not in a space race. We are just sitting there
and China is rapidly advancing. China IS going to go to the moon.
None of the people who sent us to the moon would be much help going
back. In many ways it would be like going for the first time all over
again. The shuttle should have been replaced after 10 years with a
better vehicle and then the vehicle after that should have been
replaced by now. We should have long ago colonized the moon and
perhaps Mars. We should have completed the superconducting
supercollider. The list goes on and on. I am happy to see bush
setting some meager goals in the distant future but the fact is we have
been sitting on our hands. We are just sitting here waiting to be
passed. Unless we change our attitude it will happen.


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?

Absolutely not.

Good. I run Fedora or Red Hat Enterprise Linux on all of my systems.
(Except I have a Mac and a Windows 2000 system specifically for testing
setup in VMWare) I do some software development from time to time.
What is your profession?


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