Further Details From Soyuz Mishap 190
fyc brings us some information from Universe Today about what happened to Soyuz TMA-11 when it re-entered the atmosphere late last week. Reports indicate that a failure of explosive bolts to separate the Soyuz modules delayed the re-entry and oriented the capsule so the hatch was taking most of the heat, rather than the heat shields. CNN reports that the crew was in 'severe danger.' They experienced forces of up to 8.2 gravities. NASA officials have voiced their approval of how Russia handled the crisis. They expect to rely heavily on Soyuz spacecraft once the shuttles are retired in 2010.
Safe even upside down? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:We won't always be so lucky (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Russian hardware (Score:5, Insightful)
Built tough. (Score:4, Insightful)
They're the Volvos of the space program.
Can we vote this guy in (Score:5, Insightful)
old-fashioned engineering (Score:5, Insightful)
Back in the old days: "We don't fully understand the physics of this thing, so let's make this part 5 times stronger than it has any reason to be, just in case shit goes seriously wrong."
*kaboom*
"Heh, good thing we had that margin of error!"
Modern engineering: "We can shave 0.37% off the cost of the final product by replacing this part with cheaper, lighter materials. The computer model tells us this is perfectly safe to do."
*KABOOM*
"Oops, I guess our computer model didn't account for turbulence."
Re:Russian hardware (Score:1, Insightful)
They don't even do FOD sweeps at Russian airfields. Instead, they just designed the aircraft to operate from runways that might have some debris on them.
Re:We won't always be so lucky (Score:4, Insightful)
I know you're being flippant, but xenophobia can be very rational.
Some cultures area more productive than others, and they all compete with each other for resources -- consisting mostly of land, energy, and minds. Sometimes that competition devolves to open war, other times to guerilla war, but nowadays mostly to ideological subversion. The current "all cultures are equivalent" drumbeat is an example of this kind of attack.
When one culture has developed an efficient pattern -- one capable of producing vast amounts of safety and comfort and making it available in some proportion to all of its members -- then it is rational for that culture to adjust its pattern to breed resistance to changes that other cultures try to introduce into it. Xenophobia is probably the cheapest way to mobilize that kind of resistance en masse.
Re:old-fashioned engineering (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Recent NASA announcement on ISS resupply (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:You are being held by a force of two gravities! (Score:3, Insightful)
8G during reentry is bad enough for me, thanks. It must feel like quite a beating.
Re:Safe even upside down? (Score:3, Insightful)
And Soyuz has two hatches - on the side solely to exit the capsule after landing, and top one connecting the capsule with orbital module; I guess the latter one took the heat (as heppened 39 years ago during Soyuz 5 reentry when service module also failed to separate - aerodynamically stable position for Soyuz in such configuration is "top hatch first")
Re:We won't always be so lucky (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:We won't always be so lucky (Score:3, Insightful)
"We cannot guarantee quality or precision, so instead we employ redundancy"
Soviet/Russian design theory is "Make it thicker, make it simpler, make three of it". It's classic belt, suspenders, AND holding on to your waistband with your hands thinking.