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Boeing readies 'astronaut' for likely October test launch
Earlier this week, Boeing welcomed its newest astronaut to the Starliner team. Unlike other crew members, he doesn't have advanced degrees in aerospace or much experience at all. In fact, he's pretty dumb.
Meet the Boeing Starliner's anthropometric test device, also known as a crash-test dummy. Its name and gender have not yet been revealed, but a group of engineers and technicians suited up the dummy, which will fly on the inaugural flight of the Starliner spacecraft now slated to launch late September or early October from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
It took a team of five people to wrestle the rigid plastic dummy into the space suit. Melanie Weber, a Starliner design engineer, joked: "It's like trying to get a bride in a wedding dress when's she's gained 10 pounds."
The procedure brings Boeing one step closer to launching humans to orbit, something that hasn't happened from U.S. soil since the end of the shuttle program in 2011.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MrGuy on Tuesday September 03 2019, @04:18PM (2 children)
Vehicle crash test dummies make sense to me. They're designed to specifically to experience high-impact collisions and give insight into human survivability should such collision occur.
I don't get the parallel for spacecraft.
If they want to measure (say) G-forces experienced during engine firing, a.) we're already pretty darn good at that math, and b.) it can be measured pretty easily without a human analog. Car companies (by analogy) don't need crash test dummies (and, to my knowledge, don't use them) to test the vehicle operating within normal limits.
Unlike cars, spacecraft aren't designed to expect significant damaging collisions under normal circumstances. And should they experience one, they're generally not designed for significant survivability. It's either fine, or it's f*cked. A front-impact crumple zone isn't going to help all that much.
I can accept that, on any new spacecraft, there's a whole host of design considerations for human comfort/survivability that need to be done. It's just surprising to me that a "human analog" that's actually riding the spacecraft is part of the process...
Is this a real, useful step, or is this a publicity stunt?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday September 03 2019, @04:36PM
Crew Dragon had its own dummy. Could be more useful than you realize, PR to show off the new spacesuits, or just another NASA requirement.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday September 03 2019, @04:38PM
They can be outfitted with things like G sensors and position sensors. Might not be meant to measure impact but things like how much transmitted vibration is there to avoid organ damage from things like engine firing and stage separation.
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