Re: [ERPS] Turnaround Crew

[Andrew Case]

On Monday, February 17, 2003, at 02:45 PM, Henry Spencer wrote:

On Mon, 17 Feb 2003, Andrew Case wrote:

...There's a cost, of course, but at least in the case of propellant
transfer, I would like human eyeballs looking at the connection as it
is made and broken...

You misunderstand, I think. The connection is made as the vehicle is
moved onto the launch stand, which presumably involves humans on the spot.

Ah. OK, that makes more sense.

I think it is better to assume that the vehicle gets moved to the stand
from a separate landing pad.

I can see the argument for this, but I can also see arguments for what is effectively a mobile stand. I suspect that the problem space is not well enough defined to come to a firm conclusion, though I'm open to arguments either way.

Routine monitoring is *exactly* the sort of task that machines do better
than humans. They don't get bored or distracted; they are just as
attentive the thousandth time as they were the first time.

I'd like to have people up near the ship one way or another. Not necessarily doing
routine monitoring, but just up there where they might notice a little discoloration here, or a ding there or whatever it is that machine monitoring can't catch. Having them perform some task or other is less important to me than that they be physically close to the ship and that they develop a familiarity with it that will give them a sense when something isn't quite right. They could be the crew that loads the ship on the transporter, or the guys who hook up the umbilicals or whatever, but they should routinely spend time within eyesight the ship, and they should have a good working relationship with whoever it is who has the authority to halt the countdown for closer inspection. This obviously matters more in the first thousand flights than on the ten thousandth, but it seems to me that having those eyeballs there in the early stages makes it much more likely that you'll get to the later stages.

......Andrew

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