Andrew Case wrote:
> 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.
Let's be clearer then ... think passenger suborbital transport. You
land, people get off, your clean and prep and refuel, people get on,
you fly. In that kind of operational mode, I see a people carrier that
extends vertically docking to the aiport gate, people boarding, then
the carrier goes over to where the vehicle is and extends to match
doors, people board the ship and the carrier goes back to the
terminal. You don't want a movable stand or big ground support
vehicle. The vehicle should land, maybe moved, be refurbished and
refueled, loaded and the fly again. Adding more steps increases
down-time and increases costs.
> 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.
Preflight inspection has always been crew responsibility and I don't
see that changing because it's a different vehicle. If I were Pilot In
Command of a ship, *I* would want to walk around and kick the tires,
etc before I signed to take over. This is SOP. Really.
As for getting good connections on fuel ports, etc thing of an
adaptation of the Apollo LM docking probe - the machines get it close
and the port ratchets the connector in for a tight seal and the
telltales confirm. If now, the ratchets release and the arm tries
again. It's not that diffucult.
Michael
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Michael Wallis KF6SPF (408) 396-9037 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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