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For sale: two space shuttles, slightly used.

ddt said:
Depends how you view it. 40% of the shuttles did not survive. But okay, let's follow your calculations. 2 out of 129 missions failed, that's about 1.5%. How would you feel if the brakes of your car failed in 1.5% of your commutes? :rolleyes:
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roger said:
Safer than now :)
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GreenLines said:
Been there, done that, fun times on the highway.
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:p Never done it myself, but I do remember the times before mandatory annual vehicle inspections. You guys do have those by now too, I may hope?
 
ddt said:
:p Never done it myself, but I do remember the times before mandatory annual vehicle inspections. You guys do have those by now too, I may hope?
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Not in most of the states. Seems that so few accidents are actual mechanical failures that they are not cost effective. Liability laws being what they are, most people maintain their cars.
 
ddt said:
Depends how you view it. 40% of the shuttles did not survive. But okay, let's follow your calculations. 2 out of 129 missions failed, that's about 1.5%. How would you feel if the brakes of your car failed in 1.5% of your commutes? :rolleyes:
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I dunno. Is my car a highly advanced prototype design for traveling into one of the most hostile environments known to man, with conditions that cannot be accurately simulated except by using the design, and designed to survive intense radiation (of both the nuclear and conventional 'light wave' type), the forces of reentry, and further used to carry out complicated missions while in the same unbelievably hostile environment?

Or is your comparison beyond stupid? (hint: It's the second one).

Compare it to the early days of aviation if you want an accurate comparison - they're amazingly safe.
 
I'd feel safer on a Soyuz. And Mark Shuttleworth bought his on returning to Earth, which shows style.

Having said that, any museum which buys one of the shuttles - how will it best display it? Will visitors be able to go inside it? Touch it? I would love to be allowed to touch the Apollo 10 capsule in the Science Museum in London.

I would really like space museums to make more use of mock-ups that do allow the punter to sit inside and feel how tiny or spacious various spacecraft are.

I want to know just how much elbow room there is inside a Lunar Module, especially when you're trying to put your spacesuit on and the other guy is still eating his breakfast...
 
technoextreme said:
That didn't stop the Boston Museum of Science from accepting a two story Van de Graaf generator. They built the museum around the generator.
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Sure if you are building new thats a posibility but with most museums now well established and in city locations the ability to expand like that is limited.
 
ddt said:
Depends how you view it. 40% of the shuttles did not survive. But okay, let's follow your calculations. 2 out of 129 missions failed, that's about 1.5%. How would you feel if the brakes of your car failed in 1.5% of your commutes? :rolleyes:
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What does it matter how many of them crashed? It's not like they're going to be flown when they're bought. Did you miss the part of the article where it mentioned that the shuttles' engines were being given away separately for free?
 
The Drain said:
I'd feel safer on a Soyuz. And Mark Shuttleworth bought his on returning to Earth, which shows style.

Having said that, any museum which buys one of the shuttles - how will it best display it? Will visitors be able to go inside it? Touch it? I would love to be allowed to touch the Apollo 10 capsule in the Science Museum in London.

I would really like space museums to make more use of mock-ups that do allow the punter to sit inside and feel how tiny or spacious various spacecraft are.

I want to know just how much elbow room there is inside a Lunar Module, especially when you're trying to put your spacesuit on and the other guy is still eating his breakfast...
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There was a full size mock up of the lunar module which showed the inside and control panels at the Smithsonian Air and space Museum in Washington DC. I had a fascinating day.
 
GreyICE said:
I dunno. Is my car a highly advanced prototype design for traveling into one of the most hostile environments known to man, with conditions that cannot be accurately simulated except by using the design, and designed to survive intense radiation (of both the nuclear and conventional 'light wave' type), the forces of reentry, and further used to carry out complicated missions while in the same unbelievably hostile environment?

Or is your comparison beyond stupid? (hint: It's the second one).

Compare it to the early days of aviation if you want an accurate comparison - they're amazingly safe.
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I would *so*use the shuttle - even at those odds - for my daily commute. So what if I'd die within the year? For whatever time I had left, I'd be the happiest, coolest, nerdiest person evar!
 
Capsid said:
There was a full size mock up of the lunar module which showed the inside and control panels at the Smithsonian Air and space Museum in Washington DC. I had a fascinating day.
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I envy you. I so want to go there.

I had the priviledge of meeting Buzz Aldrin in Dublin a couple of years ago and having dinner with him after his public talk. There were six of us at the table. He talked about the scare he had (actually, he didn't use the word 'scare') when they were trying to go to sleep after their excursion. That was the moment - which he has written about - when he saw that the circuit breaker for firing the upper stage motor was missing; apparently broken off.

What got me were the other details of the story... his sleeping position was on the metal grid floor, (giving him the eyeline to notice the missing plug while trying to drift off), and Neil was in a hammock above him.

When you were in the LM mock-up, was there room to stretch out on the floor or would you have had to curl up? The later missions spent several days on the moon, so sleeping and getting in and out of your outdoor work-clothes & rucksack mattered even more than on the Eagle.
 
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i had heard...and hope..that one of these puppies will be set up at the USS Intrepid Air, Sea, and Space Museum in NYC.

what a beautiful addition that would be. imagine looking at the space shuttle while driving down the West Side highway.
 
Well the engines are free if you can afford transportation.
I vote roadtoad grabs them for the jref, quick, before the bad astronomer gets there.
 
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