On Wed, 22 Oct 2003 11:11:26 -0700 (PDT), Bill Clawson
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Maybe I'm off in the weeds here, but I'm wondering if
>customer training might not approximate airline
>passenger training. It seems to me that most
>emergencies that can't be solved by putting on your
>oxygen mask (or equivalent), rapid evacuation after
>landing, or fastening and unfastening your
>seatbelt/harness; aren't very survivable anyway. For
>instance, learning how to put on a life vest is useful
>information only in the rare event that the airplane
>doesn't dash into the water at 500 mph.
The analogy doesn't hold. In commercial aviation, the only thing the
passenger can do to endanger himself is open the overwing door in
flight. I don't even know if that's possible. Basically, the
passenger's fate is that of the airplane, and there isn't much he can
do either to change that or to endanger the airplane.
In the first suborbital vehicles, by contrast, the spaceflight
participant will have many opportunities to harm himself. The first
example that comes to mind is to close his helmet and forget to turn
on his oxygen. Or if the cockpit sprang a leak he could go on oxygen
but forget to close his helmet, and get bent. If he has an ejection
seat, he can REALLY get into trouble.
We won't be making the first generation of vehicles idiot-proof, and
we'll try to screen out the idiots. But even the best people
sometimes do stupid things - I'm pretty good, and I do stupid things
all the time - especially when they're excited. Suborbital rides will
be exciting for many years to come. (They better be, anyway: that's
the basis of the space tourism revenue stream, assuming it exists.)
So we want to train our customers enough that they're familiar with
the vehicle, the equipment, and the flight profile, and they get no
real surprises except the immediacy of the experience. Ideally, the
satisfied customer will say, "It was just like you said. That was
GREAT!"
-R
--
Tip Of The Day:
Never Pet A Burning Dog.
--Lance M. Bryant, Capt USMC
_______________________________________________
ERPS-list mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
