Henry Spencer wrote:
ISTM (from the standpoint of someone who's never actually worked on a liquid fuel test or launch, just to be clear) that if you need three people to work the actual launch, you need at least one more to drive the fuel truck and connect and disconnect the hoses. And safety would suggest you really ought to have separate trucks for fuel and oxidizer, if you're running a bipropellant system, which makes it much more efficient to have separate crews for the two trucks (even if the crew is one person each). If small crew is more important than fast turn around, then one of the basic launch crew could be detached to sequentially drive the two trucks and perform all the fueling operations, but in a commercial environment turn around is typically higher priority than saving a the wages of a couple line crew people (who typically earn about 1/10 what an engineer or pilot would).On Sun, 9 Feb 2003, Donald Qualls wrote:With a launch system like the Castor, three guys, a truck and a computer isn't at all out of line. With liquid fuel, I think you'd still need a larger crew to fuel the vehicle.
How so? It doesn't take a bunch of people to fuel an aircraft.
The DC-X launch crew was 11 people, and at least one of them turned out
to be unnecessary in practice... and that was with LOX/LH2.
The LOX trucks that deliver to hospitals use a crew of at most two (I
haven't watched one in a long time, they may be down to one).
And if people with a training level equivalent to airport line crew can't handle your fueling, you probably aren't ready for prime time yet.
--
What you own is your own kingdom, what you do is your own glory.
What you love is your own power, and what you live is your own story.
-- Neil Peart, 1976
Donald Qualls, aka The Silent Observer NAR # 70141-SR Insured
Rocket Pages http://silent1.home.netcom.com/launches.htm
Telescope Pages http://silent1.home.netcom.com/astronomy.htm
Lathe Pages http://silent1.home.netcom.com/HomebuiltLathe.htm
Opinions expressed are my own -- take them for what they're worth
and don't expect them to be perfect.
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