Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!mailrus!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!db.toronto.edu!hogg From: hogg@db.toronto.edu (John Hogg) Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: An idea Message-ID: <1989Sep27.110807.2646@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> Date: 27 Sep 89 15:08:08 GMT References: <1401.251BA8CC@branch.FIDONET.ORG> <1989Sep26.220340.13871@ziebmef.mef.org> Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI Lines: 23 In article <1989Sep26.220340.13871@ziebmef.mef.org> mdf@ziebmef.mef.org (Matthew Francey) writes: > My idea is a bit more radical.... I say that NASA should launch a shuttle >from inside the eye of a hurricane, since the very low air pressure -> >higher engine thrust. Of course, there are some minor problems like >moving the shuttle around so the eye passes over it, and whether or not >it can stay upright in 150kmh+ winds... (and a friend pointed out that SRB >recovery would be an, er, interesting exercise.) But hey, anything for those >extra kilograms into orbit, right? :-) Radical? It's been done. (Well, Hollywood did it, which amounts to the same thing, doesn't it?) In the movie ``Marooned'' (circa 1966), the rescue launch has to be scrubbed because of high winds on the pad, due to a tropical storm coming overhead. By the time the storm ends, the stranded astronauts will have run out of air. In a daring move, the launch is made right through the eye as it passes over head. Movie buffs can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the rescue craft was even a lifting-body vehicle. I could well be wrong. That may have been the first non-kiddie movie I ever saw, and I haven't seen it since. -- John Hogg hogg@csri.utoronto.ca Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto