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From: aer@alice.UucP (D. Rosenberg)
Newsgroups: net.columbia,net.astro.expert
Subject: Re: Whats small, green & deadly?
Message-ID: <4925@alice.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 1-Feb-86 20:36:23 EST
Article-I.D.: alice.4925
Posted: Sat Feb  1 20:36:23 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 2-Feb-86 05:42:51 EST
References: <287@ucbjade.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: Bell Labs, Murray Hill
Lines: 56
Xref: watmath net.columbia:1929 net.astro.expert:202

From the Friday, January 31 _New York Times_:

	"SOUVENIR HUNTERS WARNED OF TOXIC SHUTTLE DEBRIS"
		(by Malcolm Browne)

		Space agency and Coast Guard officials have issued warnings
	that souvenir hunters face severe burns or death if theys hould happen
	to touch some of the debris from the space shuttle Challenger washing
	ashore from the Atlantic Ocean.

		In particular, officials of the National Aeronautics and Space
	Administration warned beachcombers about cylindrical green tanks		with hemispheric ends, 96 inches long and 49 inches in diameter.
	According to Gatha F. Cottee, a spokeman at Kennedy Space Center,
	intact green tanks might or fragments of tanks might be contaminated
	by the rocket fuel with which the tanks were filled when the space
	shuttle Challenge[r] exploded on Tuesday.

		The officials advised anyone coming on such debris not to
	touch it and to immediately notify the authorities.

		The four titanium fuel tanks involved contained two
	violently reactive chemicals. When mixed together the chemicals
	explode spontaneously, even without external ignition. The two liquids,
	collectively designated as hypergolic fuel, are carried in compari-
	tively small amounts aboard shuttle missions and are used to power
	small manuevering rockets after the space ship reaches orbit."

The article went on to say the rockets were also used at the end of missions
to slow down the shuttle in re-entry, and that the fuel consists of a 
clear liquid called monomethylhydrazine, CH6N2 - and it causes caustic
burns on the skin, and can cause liver damage. Its oxidizing agent is
liquid nitrogen textroxide, N2O4. N2O4 will oxidize most anything organic
it touches - like people. N2O4 is nasty, nasty stuff- and none of it had
been used when the Challenger was destroyed. NASA said it wasn't aware of
any other dangerous debris. The article was on page A15.

And oh yeah, from the same article, check this out:

"Earlier yesterday, the official Soviet press agency Tass accused the United
States of loading "secret explosives" aboard the shuttle, thereby creating
a serious safety hazard in the Atlantic Ocean or anywhere else debris might
have fallen.

Quoting Gus Hall, the leader of the Communist Party U.S.A., Tass charged
that the "explosives" supposedly carried by the shuttle were for use in
connection with President Reagan's plan for an antimissile shield."

The Soviets Union doesn't like SDI a whole lot, does it?
The above excerpts are probably copyrighted and patented and everything
else by the New York Times Co., so don't anyone tell them I did anything
wrong, and besides it was an old article.

-- 
##########################################################################
#D. Rosenberg "Disclaimer: I'd never want to hurt anyone with My Opinions"
#(..{ihnp4,research,allegra}!alice!aer)