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From: gwh@typhoon.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle,sci.space
Subject: Re: Space Shuttle SRB exhaust gas makeup.
Message-ID: <1989Oct24.222743.23580@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 24 Oct 89 22:27:43 GMT
Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator;;;;ZU44)
Reply-To: gwh@typhoon.Berkeley.EDU (George William Herbert)
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In article <1989Oct24.163114.29924@utzoo.uucp> henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer) writes:
>I.e., water?  Yes, among other things.  Lots of other things.  SRB fuel,
>if I recall correctly, is ammonium perchlorate (NH4ClO4) plus a dash of
>aluminum powder for extra heat, a demitasse of synthetic rubber for
>mechanical strength, and an assortment of minor odds and ends to control
>burn rate and such.  So the exhaust will contain water, alumina (Al2O3)
>particles, carbon dioxide (from the rubber), and a witches' brew of
>nitrogen and chlorine compounds and partially burnt ickiness.

	A _dash_ of aluminum???  The majority of the thrust is achived
by the aluminum component of the fuel !
	The actual materials are Ammonium Perchorate, Aluminum powder, PVC
binder and extra bits to stabilize.  It's about 99% those three.
	Yes, the exhaust if icky.  suprise :)


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George William Herbert  UCB Naval Architecture Dpt. (my god, even on schedule!)
maniac@garnet.berkeley.edu  gwh@ocf.berkeley.edu
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