From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Mon Feb 03 2003 - 08:05:03 MST
On Mon, 3 Feb 2003, avatar wrote:
> It's not just the shuttle. I've often wondered why planes don't have
> video input into black boxes when every gas station has one.
Because until very recently, and perhaps even now, there has not
been a storage medium that could survive crash conditions that
could record a significant amount of video. Videotape and probably
CD-RW or r-DVDs probably would not withstand any high temperature
conditions that might be encountered in a crash.
I'm unsure what medium was used by older black boxes but the
newer ones are using solid state memory.
> I bet
> the only reason they don't have an emergency escape/landing pod is cost
> and weight. They should have one for obirtal problems that are immediate
> (too quick for rescue). It's the mighty $ or lack of it.
Escape pods have been proposed. They could be introduced using
current technology. The problem is they could only fit
4 or 5 of them in the the shuttle cockpit as currently designed.
They do add weight but it is primarily the reduction in crew
capacity that biased NASA against them. NASA is also afraid
that they might fail under "normal" conditions (obviously they
need to be computer activated) and that would create more
problems than it might solve.
Robert
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