Comments on: Surviving a crash

By: brimful

brimful — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 19:17:53 +0000

Here, here on Stiff- it's a really fast read, MD, because it's highly entertaining. It also veers off the obvious course a lot (i.e. guinea pigs being hurtled off planes, bullets being shot through gelatin, etc), so there will be plenty in there that won't overlap.

By: Abhi

Abhi — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 18:54:51 +0000

DesiDancer, Yes he is.

MD, Thanks MD. Even though it overlaps with work I am sure you will find the book enjoyable. Its wriiten using dark humor.

By: MD

MD — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 17:30:51 +0000

abhi, I am just a little bit in awe of you right now. Also, I wish I had never read this post.

I've seen Stiff around the bookstores and been tempted to buy it, but there's too much overlap with work, if you get my drift.....

I'll suggest it to the residents in my next lecture; they'd probably get a kick out of it.

By: DesiDancer

DesiDancer — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 16:50:09 +0000

your dad seems really cool, Abhi

By: Yo Dad

Yo Dad — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 15:03:45 +0000

Abhi: I clicked on the link MMU and the picture I saw looked familiar. So I went to your room and there it was on the East wall [2feet X 3 feet]. Hope the mission for the fourth EVA is successful. Your Mom and I are off to China tomorrow and we will have to watch the safe return of the crew next Tuesday over there….Dad

By: dhaavak

dhaavak — Thu, 04 Aug 2005 01:28:56 +0000

There was an earlier thread on how the floods brought out the best in Mumbai-kars. Well… here’s TO’s finest for y’all. … The evacuation of everyone Â— more than 300 people Â— took less than two minutes, with a co-pilot the last to leave the flaming wreckage, airport Fire Chief Mike Figliola said… After escaping, Pajot said, “We ran because it was burning. We walked down the river to the bridge. One lady was carried by a man.” He said the pilot was with them and appeared to be injured. On rainswept Highway 401, Canada’s busiest, which runs parallel to the ravine where the plane halted, drivers suddenly saw what seemed like zombies in a horror movie. “Oh my God, what’s going on?” Yvonne Boland thought as she stopped to help. “Four people, eight people, 12 people streaming up,” she told the Toronto Star. Guy Ledez, a “floating” manager for Budget rental cars at the airport, was driving on airport grounds, parallel to the descending plane. He said he was “pretty sure” he saw lightning strike the aircraft. “There’s all this lightning right on it, then there was smoke and then the plane just disappeared down the ravine,” he told The Associated Press. He said he ran toward the gully and began pulling passengers up out of the mud. “I looked down; there’s just a sea of people trying to get up,” said Ledez, 37. “I had two babies passed to me. There were elderly people who couldn’t get up, so we went down and pulled them up.” When the stream of passengers ended, he said he and another man who had stopped to help them climbed up an emergency escape chute and into the burning plane. Each took an aisle and did a sweep to make sure nobody had been left behind. …

By: astronut

astronut — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 23:25:45 +0000

Yes it does. Thanks.

By: Abhi

Abhi — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 23:18:00 +0000

Yep, An astronautis always tethered or has an MMU on.

If you are aboard the Shuttle then you are traveling through space with the same velocity (direction and speed) as the shuttle. If you step off, you will contine to travel at the same speed and velocity as the shuttle. Eventually your positions will separate because the shuttle’s atmospheric drag profile (even at those high altitudes) matters and is different than yours. In order to move in space you have to apply thrust along an (x,y,z) coordinate. A series of thrusts will get you to the appropriate location (in this case underneath the shuttle). Alternatively you could use pre-built hand-holds or be placed where you need to by being carried by the shuttle arm.

Hope that explains it

By: Manish Vij

Manish Vij — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 23:07:29 +0000

I was told that even if the astronaut is not tethered or is using a backpack maneuvering unit, he will travel at the same velocity as the spacecraft when he steps out.

That's Newton's first law of motion, a.k.a. inertia.

By: astronut

astronut — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 22:59:10 +0000

Abhi, this is off topic, but can you tell me if astronauts are always tethered to their spacecraft or are equipped with a backpack maneuvering unit during a spacewalk? I was told that even if the astronaut is not tethered or is using a backpack maneuvering unit, he will travel at the same velocity as the spacecraft when he steps out.