🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <7641@tekigm2.MEN.TEK.COM> johnob@tekigm2.MEN.TEK.COM (John Obendorfer) writes:
>In article <771@ritcsh.cs.rit.edu> carl@ritcsh.cs.rit.edu.UUCP (Captain Carl) writes:
>>Also, wouldn't it be a bad idea to launch the shuttle from the Islands
>>with all the active volcanoes and bad weather they have??

>   Well, the last time I was hopping around the south point of the big
>island, down below the Kiliuea (sp) volcano, I was literally hopping on
>a 2-week old lava flow, watching the *really* hot stuff drop into the 
>ocean...
>   The Hawaii volcanoes are the most active volcanos in the world.

The current active flow (since the '83 Kilauea eruption) is located well
up the Ka'u coast to the NE of South Point, about halfway to Kohala.
The flows covering southern Ka'u are over a thousand years old.  You
can see the terrain well from the upper reaches of Chain of Craters
Road leading down from the National Park and the Kilauea caldera.  It
is forbidding and actually well isolated for dangerous work.

But, and these are big buts: The Pacific is not friendly along most of
the Big Island's coasts.  Barge and small craft access would be chancy
at times.  Kona storms, when they come, could shut things down for days
at a time.

Another thing that could shut things down for WEEKS at a time is "volcano
weather."  This happens when Pele breathes extra sulfur and fine ash into
the air from her numerous vents around Kilauea and Mauna Loa; the result
is stagnant, hazy weather with lots of fog and rain, BIG lightning and
sharp, tangy, corrosive sulfur vapors day and night.   There are also
numerous low grade seismic tremors from Pele's internal goings-on.

The hazards of orbiter transportation to Hawaii have already been
discussed.  The existing 747 fleet could be upgraded for midflight
refueling, but there would be no emergency landing options in case
of problems on the way.  We could build a new shuttle runway on the
huge, gently sloping lava fields along Kona side, but Hawai'i is
one of the WINDIEST places around on average.  There'd be lots of
safety holds (or worse, safety waivers).

Net-net, the Big Island would be a lousy deal for the program.  It would
also add much-regretted light pollution to the headaches of the Keck
Observatory staff at Mauna Kea...

Canal Zone spaceport, anyone? :-) <ducking>

-- 
"We plan absentee ownership.  I'll stick to       `o'   Tom Neff
 building ships." -- George Steinbrenner, 1973    o"o   tneff@bfmny0.UU.NET