Future Shuttle Launches
However the shuttle should be able to be guided back thru the clouds via a ground system, augmented reality simulator like the Global Hawk. Just because the space shuttle would most likely be doing a dead stick landings as it always does should not make any difference, as the runway at Cape Canaveral is huge and made for such emergencies. True safety should begin with complete reality based thinking, back up systems and confidence in the abilities of the systems and those trusted to do their job. Additionally why would the astronauts need to see to fly the spacecraft/aircraft at that point? After all they practice such aborted launches after lift off in simulators, where they are not actually looking at the ground and also we have available now systems, which are even used in Business Jets for zero/zero visibility landings. The systems send out many very hot flare type pieces out of the back of the aircraft and fool the Surface to air missile into thinking that those are the targets, thus the missile goes after the chafe flares instead of the actual aircraft.
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Concorde Crash Conspiracy - It Could Have Been Prevented
Had this been available it could have inspected the Space Shuttle prior to its return and prevented the accident by way of video preflight. This shows why it is important to get ideas from everywhere and how contests spur on innovation. This is an awesome idea and I would hope the US Military would put them on the catapults so when it returns it video tapes the deck. The young man's device is said to be able to spot even a single nut on the runway, which could be picked up by a tire or sucked into a jet engine. In the United States we have constant robotic contests and we all know about Robot Wars.
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Common Cockpit Concepts and Convenient Configurations
If we borrow a friend's car we are constantly looking for where stuff is, where is the hood release, fuel hatch release and how the hell do I turn off this G-Dang windshield wiper? As machines get more complicated and humans become more brain dead due to bad use of natural selection, we will need counter these issues with better designed standardization such is being done in the CCI. Now then I am not criticizing the lack of cranial capacity in the modern day human, rather simply suggesting a reality check is needed. We spend too much time in training of soldiers, drivers, pilots, operators with increasingly more complicated equipment. Often we see drivers in cars sitting too low and can barely see over the steering wheel, when we rent an aircraft everything is in the wrong place. When you go to driver training or into a simulator for your check ride, you simply find the best and most comfortable position and set it.
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