Some assembly required as Dream Chaser mini-shuttle's empty husk arrives in Colorado Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) has wheeled out the first production version of its Dream Chaser spacecraft ahead of a 2021 mission to the International Space Station. Of course, this wasn't the completed vehicle, but rather the "primary vehicle structure", as the company put it. We're a little surprised that no wag thought …
I can relate. Bill Waterson captured the perfect essence of me as a kid with model kits....
"enhanced vision systems". Windows can fall out. Oh, look, it happened again.
Thanks for that link to British Airways Flight 5390. I hadn't read about that incident. The captain got violently blown half way out the window. He was frost bitten and his head repeatedly bounced off the fuselage while they descended. The crew had to fight to hold him inside. Makes you think twice before you take off your seat belts.
And no I'm not talking about the Microsoft version.
They add significant weight, problems with sealing (doubly so in the space environment), significantly weaken your structure, and are an utter shite to install.
Stick a couple of cameras embedded in the structure on the outside and some monitors in place of the windows and let people look out the "windows" that way.
*grumble*grumble*old aerospace engineer*dang kids get off my lawn*grumble*grumble*
For the engineer, they might be, but as a human being I do prefer being to see things with my own eyes.
That said, I must admit that, when watching sci-fi spaceships of a certain size (the ones you can land on), I really think that having the control of an entire vessel one window pane away from the void of space is kind of asking for trouble - especially if it's a combat ship.
I would think that the control center should be embedded deep in the structure of the vessel, and have redundant monitoring equipment to manage attitude, roll and direction.
But for small vessels ? Put the windows back in.
I would think that the control center should be embedded deep in the structure of the vessel, and have redundant monitoring equipment to manage attitude, roll and direction.
The combat information center on real-world warships dates back to World War II(where the US Navy shamelessly stole it from the Lensman series). But that's on warships; I'm fairly certain that civilian ships still have most of the interesting information on the bridge.
But for small vessels ? Put the windows back in.
I'd say this applies for anything that has a controlled landing. If descent is entirely computer controlled, there's not much of a point, but the possibility of human intervention does require the squishy (potentially) in charge to actually be able to see what's happening. There might be ways of getting sufficient sight without full-sized windows, but the end result must absolutely work without power.
So, why doesn't ESA buy a couple, one manned, one unmanned, launch on Ariane 6 out of Guiana, and recover in Europe? Seems like a sweet deal, ESA gets it's own spaceship to transport to LEO/ISS to do various experiments/things, and returns said euro-astros and experiments directly home to Europe, since this thing can land on any 10,000ft runway.
We just need to negotiate for a General Products number 2 or number 3 hull and problem solved.
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