Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Minimum Shuttle Crew Size
Message-ID: <1989Nov19.220340.15586@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <UZNTh0W00V4AE_fUNS@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Sun, 19 Nov 89 22:03:40 GMT

In article <UZNTh0W00V4AE_fUNS@andrew.cmu.edu> df1y+@andrew.cmu.edu (David James Foremsky) writes:
>Isn't it possible to launch a shuttle with no crew?  That is, allow
>everything to be computer controlled...

Not with the current hardware.  The shuttle wasn't designed for totally
unmanned operation, so although many things are under computer control,
there are still a good scattering of operations that are manual only.
The classic example is that the computers cannot lower the landing gear.
(This is partly a safety precaution, because the gear cannot be raised
once it is lowered.)  As far as I know, there is no fundamental reason
why completely automatic operation is impossible, but some modifications
would be needed.
-- 
A bit of tolerance is worth a  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
megabyte of flaming.           | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu
