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on Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1993 12:38:50 GMT, Paul Dietz <[email protected]> |
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writes: |
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/in essence, holding a match under the nozzle, is just *nuts*. One |
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/thing you absolutely must do in such an engine is to guarantee that |
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/the propellants ignite as soon as they mix, within milliseconds. To |
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/do otherwise is to fill your engine with a high explosive mixture |
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/which, when it finally does ignite, blows everything to hell. |
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Definitely! In one of the reports of an early test conducted by Rocketdyne at |
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their Santa Susanna Field Lab ("the Hill" above the San Fernando and Simi |
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Valleys), the result of a hung start was described as "structural failure" of |
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the combustion chamber. The inspection picture showed pumps with nothing below |
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, the CC had vaporized! This was described in a class I took as a "typical |
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engineering understatement" :-) |
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Disclaimer: Opinions stated are solely my own (unless I change my mind). |
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Ben Muniz MUNIZB%[email protected] w(818)586-3578 |
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Space Station Freedom:Rocketdyne/Rockwell:Structural Loads and Dynamics |
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"Man will not fly for fifty years": Wilbur to Orville Wright, 1901 |
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