SpaceShipOne question

MarineNav

MarineNav

New Member
Hello All,

It was very exciting to watch the recent events involving SpaceShipOne, and the Discovery Channel show is great as well. What's surprised me is that I didn't see anyone wearing space / pressure suits. I'm assuming that SSO must be one heck of a presurrized vessel. Anyone know anything about it?

Thanks,

JR
 
Hello ATP,

If so, then why did the SR-71 pilots flying at well below one half the altitude of SpaceShipOne wear full-body pressure suits?

Hmmmm,

JR
 
[ QUOTE ]
Hello ATP,

If so, then why did the SR-71 pilots flying at well below one half the altitude of SpaceShipOne wear full-body pressure suits?

Hmmmm,

JR

[/ QUOTE ]

In case they had to eject... the needed it to not have all their blood boil when the left the plane...

Melville had no way to eject, so he didn't need the suit. Just good ol pressure from inside SSO.
 
I would guess that a full pressure failured at that altitude likely would be catastrophic. A space suit likely would only keep him alive until he hit the ground.

I'm sure they weighed the various risks and decided it wasn't worth it.
 
[ QUOTE ]

If so, then why did the SR-71 pilots flying at well below one half the altitude of SpaceShipOne wear full-body pressure suits?

[/ QUOTE ]


As already mentioned ejection at 80K.

But more importantly Air Conditioning!

If the AC breaks in the Blackbird the crew might cook alive before they can slow down.
shocked.gif


Getting the plane to fly that fast wan't a real challange, finding a way to deal with all that heat was.
 
"Inside SpaceShipOne is a small cockpit, 60 inches (152 cm) in diameter, that you enter through the nose of the ship. The cockpit is an air-tight pressure vessel. The pressurized cockpit creates a pressure differential between the cockpit and the near vacuum of sub-orbital space. This internal pressure pushing out on the structure of the craft allows the structure to endure the large forces acting on it during reentry.

The cockpit is outfitted with dual seals, and the whole structure is surrounded by a second space-worthy shell. Each of SpaceShipOne's many windows are special double-paned glass, and each pane alone can withstand the pressure and force of flight. This doubling up ensures that if either window were to crack, the passengers would still be safe.

The air inside the cockpit is made breathable by a three-part system. Breathable air is added at a constant rate by oxygen bottles. The exhaled carbon dioxide is removed from the cabin by an absorber system, and humidity is controlled by an additional absorber created to remove water vapor from the air. During the entire flight, the cockpit remains comfortable, cool and dry.

This whole system creates what Scaled calls a "shirt-sleeve environment." Passengers don't need to wear spacesuits inside SpaceShipOne thanks to the design of its cockpit. "
 
If this is going to be practical you have to design for no loss of cabin pressure. Kind of like the high altitude certification for the Lears. So you design it with plenty of redundancy and if one ever does de-pressurize, bye-bye.
 
I recall from the discovery channel documentery Burt Rutan said that there are about a dozen things that if they break, there is nothing that can be done to save the people on board.

If the wing dosen't "feather" properly they will burn up on reentry.

Space flight isn't anything resembling "safe"!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top