Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry Jacks
...The Shuttle was never man-rated...
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Of course... It was designed with occupancy in mind. It wasn't an unmanned craft that needed to be verified for manned use.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry Jacks
... The biggest thing that we can hope to achieve with man-rating is to develop malfunction detection systems that can give sufficient warning so the launch escape system can save the crew...
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I agree there. Anything that can be done helps.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry Jacks
... We've done this before. The Redstone and Atlas boosters used for the Mercury program as well as the Titan II used for Gemini launches were missiles adapted for the purpose...
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Yes; There was a bit more to it than adaptations.
I wish I could give a direct reference to a link, but this addressed in a NASA video
on this DVD.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry Jacks
...Delta IVs and Atlas Vs are already built and flying. To date, they have a perfect track record. Each was designed to only require a small ground crew to prepare the boosters for launch and then to launch them...
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Apples and oranges... Sure; the business vs government plays a part in it, but it's only one of the factors.
But, what about the factors between manned vs unmanned?
How much of launch costs are in personel used to monitor and check the crew compartment, the health monitoring, the astronaut workload?