Is there any such lock mechanism on the doors of an airplane?
I would imagine there could be sever consequences of someone opening an emergency hatch at 10,000m
What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?
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Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?
#12Is there any such lock mechanism on the doors of an airplane? I would imagine there could be sever consequences of someone opening an emergency hatch at 10,000m
That such incidents don't happen more often in commercial aviation may give us some comfort, but in reality, there have been many attempts by passengers to open an emergency exit door in flight. (Fortunately, it's almost impossible at cruising altitudes).
Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?
#13[deleted]
Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?
#14Is there any such lock mechanism on the doors of an airplane? I would imagine there could be sever consequences of someone opening an emergency hatch at 10,000m
That such incidents don't happen more often in commercial aviation may give us some comfort, but in reality, there have been many attempts by passengers to open an emergency exit door in flight. (Fortunately, it's almost impossible at cruising altitudes).
For added context those doors open inward and the pressure differential between the cabin and cruising altitude is such that you would literally have to be superman to do it. When it does happen it's always at relatively low altitudes.
Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?
#15Is there any such lock mechanism on the doors of an airplane? I would imagine there could be sever consequences of someone opening an emergency hatch at 10,000m
No, there aren't.
> Passenger arrested after plane door opened mid-flight explains he felt 'uncomfortable'
https://news.sky.com/story/passenger-arrested-after-plane-do...
Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?
#16In the 90's at a party I heard the story of the scientist who cried because their experiment didn't work while in space. It was told around the idea civilians shouldn't go to space, only trained professionals.
The story never quite added up just because of crying. This I assume was the incident.
Good to finally get it 30 years later.
The story I thought was related to Richard P. Feynman and maybe his Challenger report. I just had a quick look and it doesn't seem to be in there. Memory fail I guess.
I respect Taylor Wang's honesty in this interview -
"So finally, in desperation. I said. "Hey, if you guys don't give me a chance to repair my instrument, I'm not going back." Well. NASA got nervous at that point. They actually got a psychologist to talk to the other crew members and ask. "Is Taylor going nuts? Fortunately my commander. Bob Overmyer, said, "No. he's okay He's just depressed, and he really wants to repair the experiment. We'Il help out. They were on my side. Finally NASA said okay, on a couple of conditions. First, that I wouldn't neglect my other responsibilities, and second, that I would quit after a reasonable effort
I was relieved, because I hadn't really figured out how not to come back if they'd called my bluff. The Asian tradition of honorable suicide, seppuku, would have failed, since everything on the shuttle is designed for safety. The knife onboard can't even cut the bread. You could put your head in the oven, but it's really just a food warmer. You wouldn't even bum yourself. And if you tried to hang yourself with no gravity, you'd just dangle there and look like an idiot." - https://archive.org/details/spaceshuttle00dkpu/page/232/mode... p232
Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?
#17If you hate the format of these kinds of article let me summarize:
Guy builds an experiment, flies it, it doesn't work, requests more time to get it working, is denied, threatens 'not to come back', goes into a depression, worries crew that he'll open the door to space, eventually granted more time to work on the experiment, gets it working.
There are consequences for letting this kind of person fly and dealing with mental health while on a mission, but that's the basic plot.
Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?
#18If you hate the format of these kinds of article let me summarize: Guy builds an experiment, flies it, it doesn't work, requests more time to get it working, is denied, threatens 'not to come back', goes into a depression, worries crew that he'll open the door to space, eventually granted more time to work on the experiment, gets it working. There are consequences for letting this kind of person fly and dealing with…
>The next day, Wang did receive permission to work on the experiment, and he eventually got it working.
I don't think he came back and got to space again in-between.
Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?
#19Is there any such lock mechanism on the doors of an airplane? I would imagine there could be sever consequences of someone opening an emergency hatch at 10,000m
An airliner's external doors are designed such that they're held closed by internal pressure. Thus opening a door on the ground is pretty easy, which is convenient because that's the only place you should open them. But opening at cruise is extremely difficult.
Now - a strong person can do it when the plane is far enough up that it's very scary, after all some normal passenger airports are a few thousand feet above sea level and we want the doors to work there. But you won't open them at cruise.
All the normal doors on an aeroplane are fire doors so they can't be locked from the inside.
Re: What happens when an astronaut in orbit says he's not coming back?
#20Is there any such lock mechanism on the doors of an airplane? I would imagine there could be sever consequences of someone opening an emergency hatch at 10,000m
Didn't that happen in a plane recently? There have been so many random issues in the air lately, especially with the Boeing planes... so I may be misremembering, but I thought some guy opened the emergency hatch and the plane was up there pretty high at the time.
Paused my reply and took a moment to search. Looks like I was right and wrong. The plane wasn't very high in the air, only about 700 feet. A man did open the emergency hatch, though. [1]
1. [https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/5/27/man-who-opened-flyi...