Survivability of astronauts

[Paul O`Shaughnessy]

Now that the crew compartment has been recovered in a far less damaged state
than had been expected (at least publicly) by NASA, I'd like to again ask the
question that was discussed soon after the explosion - how survivable can the
shuttle be made, within reason? I have read the accounts of how the crew
compartment may have survived the explosion relatively intact. The lower
deck appears to have been seriously damaged but the upper deck left intact.
This tells me that the compartment is ruggedly built. I have also read that
the compartment is attached to the shuttle hull in only a few places, much
as an engine is mounted in a car. Would it be possible to eject the entire
compartment from the top of the shuttle in the event of a similar catastrophe?
I'm sure that the g forces involved would be wild, but perhaps survivable.
Critical real-time information would also have to be available to the pilots.
The entire capsule could deploy parachutes to land in the water. I don't
know what sort of deceleration the capsule would experience upon ejection,
so perhaps someone in the know could comment.

Is this fantasy? What would be the cost in dollars and weight? What is the
probability of ejection at the wrong time (in orbit or reentry) and would
this outweigh the advantage? Could humans survive such a sequence?
Knowlegable comment supported by some facts and calculation would be
very interesting. Thanks in advance.

[Burch]

The B1-a had an escape pod system where the enire crew compartment would
separate and come down on parachutes. It would be possible to completely
redesign the shuttle to have this feature, but it is potentally more
dangerous than the current situation; What if it separated at the wrong
time, like in orbit??

--
-David B. (Ben) Burch
Analyst's International Corp.
Chicago Branch (ihnp4!aicchi!dbb)

"Argue for your limitations, and they are yours"