Why are these ships manned?
You're the second guy to say this. Stop and think... Ready for it?
Because it was only months away from carrying tourists. You'll scare the tourists if you're afraid to use a human pilot.
Virgin Galactic Executive Summary of Submission on SpaceShipTwo Accident
11–20 of 41 posts
Re: Virgin Galactic Executive Summary of Submission on SpaceShipTwo Accident
#12A little OT, but the contrast between SpaceX and The Spaceship Company is striking. Elon Musk is pushing for interstellar travel, while Branson is pushing for space tourism. Seems so petty in comparison.
If Branson is able to make space flight mundane (b/c so many people do it) and/or put "a resort on the moon," I can't see how that wouldn't push things forward.
Re: Virgin Galactic Executive Summary of Submission on SpaceShipTwo Accident
#13A little OT, but the contrast between SpaceX and The Spaceship Company is striking. Elon Musk is pushing for interstellar travel, while Branson is pushing for space tourism. Seems so petty in comparison.
Maybe space tourism increases public interest in interstellar travel?
Extremely likely due to the overview effect.
Re: Virgin Galactic Executive Summary of Submission on SpaceShipTwo Accident
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
They should just do all this in software. Anything that that's complex and life or death should be autopilot driven.
And then you get an autopilot that under abnormal conditions doesn't realize it should deploy the parachute...
Almost everything an autopilot should do should have a button and a switch for humans. The switch prevents the autopilot from doing it, the button makes it happen.
This isn't to disparage autopilots, but to assure control. The human should always be in control of the system, and capable of deciding when things happen.
Re: Virgin Galactic Executive Summary of Submission on SpaceShipTwo Accident
#15Re: Virgin Galactic Executive Summary of Submission on SpaceShipTwo Accident
#16A little OT, but the contrast between SpaceX and The Spaceship Company is striking. Elon Musk is pushing for interstellar travel, while Branson is pushing for space tourism. Seems so petty in comparison.
I don't really follow SpaceX to know what Elon Musk is pushing for, but as a practical engineer it seems unlikely that he would be pushing for something that is outside the realm of what physics considers at all possible.
Re: Virgin Galactic Executive Summary of Submission on SpaceShipTwo Accident
#17A little OT, but the contrast between SpaceX and The Spaceship Company is striking. Elon Musk is pushing for interstellar travel, while Branson is pushing for space tourism. Seems so petty in comparison.
It's all good. They're bringing more money to an industry that can then fund further development. Google, for example, is mostly an ad company. They've taken all that money and built some pretty cool stuff. Among other things, we should get self-driving vehicles and futuristic robots with that money.
So, the 62 mile high space tourist plane will turn into an one orbit trip in a few years. Then to the moon in 25.
Re: Virgin Galactic Executive Summary of Submission on SpaceShipTwo Accident
#18A little OT, but the contrast between SpaceX and The Spaceship Company is striking. Elon Musk is pushing for interstellar travel, while Branson is pushing for space tourism. Seems so petty in comparison.
Your comment reveals stunning ignorance of Burt Rutan's contributions to aerospace.
Re: Virgin Galactic Executive Summary of Submission on SpaceShipTwo Accident
#19The full transcripts were posted on the nasa spaceflight forum here: http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=35974.440 . One user provided the following summary: > There was corporate conversational knowledge that unlocking the feather system during the transonic region would be catastrophic, but this knowledge wasn't formalized into the pilot handbook or in training. There was formal knowledge that unlockin…
They should just do all this in software. Anything that that's complex and life or death should be autopilot driven.
99 Percent Invisible just had some interesting episodes on automation and autopilot, especially as it relates to air travel:
http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/children-of-the-magenta-automation-paradox-pt-1/
http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/johnnycab-automation-paradox-pt-2/Re: Virgin Galactic Executive Summary of Submission on SpaceShipTwo Accident
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
And then you get an autopilot that under abnormal conditions doesn't realize it should deploy the parachute...
Almost everything an autopilot should do should have a button and a switch for humans. The switch prevents the autopilot from doing it, the button makes it happen. This isn't to disparage autopilots, but to assure control. The human should always be in control of the system, and capable of deciding when things happen.
And in this case, would have pushed the button too early, resulting in the exact same outcome.