On Wed, Feb 07, 2018 at 12:31:20PM -0700, Henry Vanderbilt wrote:
On 2/7/2018 11:59 AM, Norman Yarvin wrote:
On Wed, Feb 07, 2018 at 05:47:21PM +0000, William Claybaugh wrote:
We spent many thousands of hours during ESAS looking for any solid rocket
failure mode that would create a more difficult escape environment than a
liquid rocket; that team identified one only which applies only when the
solid rocket is in line with and below the crew capsule. Despite much hand
waving by an Air Force employee, there were no identified failure modes
that created a more difficult escape environment when the solids were side
mounted.
That makes it sound as if the failure mode in question is one that
shoots debris straight up, like a cannon, and in no other direction.
Or no?
I might guess it's more a matter of where a solid may go if it breaks
loose largely intact.
Given that the whole point of strapons is adding thrust to a stack, on
their own they'll tend to accelerate quite briskly. No reasonable
capsule is likely to stand up to direct ramming by a loose solid.
Which reminds me of another solid failure mode affecting the escape
environment: The spreading cloud of burning chunks of solid fuel you get
after a solid explodes (or is exploded for range safety reasons.)