Self-destruction
The self-destruction is a system on board a technical object - often a means of locomotion - that guarantees of the object in case of danger or in the case of an imminent takeover by opposing forces of destruction or Non-utilization. Alternatively, self-destruct can be used to cause damage to objects in a target area, similar to the kamikaze technique used by the Japanese in World War II.
In space travel , a device for self-destruction is an integral part of the security concept. The best-known example is the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986. After the shuttle broke up, the two solid rocket rockets that were supposed to help put it into orbit flew for several seconds in unpredictable trajectories across the sky until the responsible security officer the NASA decided that the missiles posed a threat to the ground staff and the numerous spectators present, and she blew up by remote ignition 34 seconds after the breakup of the ferry. This procedure has already been required for many rocket launches.
Tanks are partly destroyed by the crew themselves if they are incapable of fighting and rescue by their own troops is not possible or there is a risk that the tank will be captured by enemy forces (captured tanks ). For example, in the Second World War, tanks were often blown up because they were too worn out and they could not be repaired in the retreat battles. The destruction took place or takes place as a rule by additional explosives or by igniting the tank's ammunition supply. In the German Leopard 2 there is a thermite rod on board for destroying one's own tank.
In building technology, too, there are isolated mechanisms for deliberately destroying buildings in whole or in part. For example, the TV tower St. Chrischona near Basel has calculated a predetermined breaking point at a certain point on the tower shaft , which causes the structure above to break off. This emergency measure starts in the event of extreme wind pressure or severe earth tremors. The broken tower stump has emergency antennas for broadcasting. For example, radio coverage can be maintained even after an atomic bomb has fallen.
fiction
Self-destruct mechanisms are often used as a dramaturgical device in science fiction stories:
- In the 1952 Tintin comic Destination Moon , the test rocket is equipped with a self-destruct mechanism on the advice of the title character, which ultimately also ensures that the rocket does not fall into the hands of the enemy power that has hijacked it.
- In the television series Kobra, you take over and the film adaptations Mission Impossible based on it , it serves to prevent secret service messages from falling into the wrong hands: the tape with the instructions for the current mission ends each time with the often-quoted words “This tape will turn into destroy yourself for five seconds ”and then go up in smoke.
- In the 1979 film Alien , the heroine Ripley's last desperate attempt to escape an alien being on board the spaceship Nostromo consists in triggering its self-destruct mechanism and escaping in a lifeboat herself.
- In Star Trek , the self-destruction of a ship is repeatedly activated, mostly to prevent the ship from being taken over by a foreign party or to trigger an explosion that the ship's weapons are unable to. Only in the rarest of cases does the ship actually be destroyed; the threat is usually eliminated in some other way before the countdown has expired, the self-destruction is put out of action by enemy boarding troops or is defective due to massive combat damage.
- Also in Stargate - Kommando SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis , the base has a self-destruct function, which is activated occasionally if an enemy takeover of the base threatens to form a bridgehead for an invasion of the earth. However, the self-destruction is never actually carried out here either.
- This is parodied in Mel Brooks' Spaceballs : Here the heroes infiltrate a superior war spaceship and press its self-destruct button, whereupon a female computer voice starts a countdown with the words "Thank you for pressing the self-destruct button."
