| Re: .0
What is your point?
If you tally all the systems, probability failures, etc. this seems rather
reasonable.
Let me try a quote from memory here (read this a few weeks ago): A NASA
engineer was talking to Michael Collins about the Saturn V rocket that
propelled Michael and his collegues (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin) to
the moon. "Mike, the Saturn V has 1.1 million parts, 50,000 subsystems,
many of them critical to flight safety. Assuming 99.9% non-failure
rate, that means that you could probably have 5600 failures during
the flight." [Mike heard this BEFORE he went to the moon] (Note: I may have
my numbers wrong).
Considering the complexity of the Shuttle over the Saturn V (hell, the
software alone is incredibly complex), such a statistical projection
of 1 life-taking failure in 35 seems rather optimistic, no?
- dave
Just think how complex cars are getting nowadays... You still have to get
from point A to point B, no? Need vs. Risk
|
| One need also consider that if NASA had contradicting data of its own,
it merely became a question of who should they believe. The press, of course,
always believes the side that forces a clear villain.
-Brian
|