Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 4.3bsd-beta 6/6/85; site ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!ucbvax!ucbarpa.berkeley.edu!yee From: yee@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu.BERKELEY.EDU (Peter E. Yee) Newsgroups: net.columbia Subject: Re: Small Green Canister Message-ID: <11663@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> Date: Sat, 1-Feb-86 16:47:29 EST Article-I.D.: ucbvax.11663 Posted: Sat Feb 1 16:47:29 1986 Date-Received: Mon, 3-Feb-86 06:27:27 EST References: <413@drutx.UUCP> Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: yee@ucbarpa.berkeley.edu.UUCP (Peter E. Yee) Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 107 In article <413@drutx.UUCP> slb@drutx.UUCP (Sue Brezden) writes: >The paper today mentioned that people are being urged not to touch >possible debris from the Challanger. One of the reports was about >a "small green canister" that was supposed to be deadly. "You'd >be dead in about 2 seconds" if you touched it. > >What the hell could that be? Or is it just media hype or a story >circulated to make sure people don't tamper with possible important >evidence? >-- > > Sue Brezden > ihnp4!drutx!slb From New York Times (Friday, January 31, 1986): 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 they should happen 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 spokesmen at Kennedy Space Center, intact green tanks or fragments of tanks might be contaminated by the rocket fuel with which the tanks were filled when the space shuttle Challenger 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 spontan- eously, even with external ignition. The two liquids, collectively des- ignated hypergolic fuel, are carried in comparatively small amounts aboard shuttle missions and are used to power small maneuvering rockets after the spaceship reaches orbit. Fuel and Oxidizing Agent The maneuvering rockets with hypergolic fuel are also used at the end of each mission to slow down the orbiter so it re-enters the at- mosphere. All rocket propulsion systems require two types of ingredients: a fuel and an oxiding agent to burn the fuel. The oxygen in air is it- self an oxidizing agent, but it is not nearly concentrated or reactive enough to fuel a spacecraft. In the hypergolic system, the fuel consists of a clear liquid called monomethylhydrazine, whose chemical formula is CH6N2, a powerfully reactive substance that can cause intense caustic burns on the skin and is also a poison that particularly affects the liver. Far more dangerous is the hypergolic oxidizer, liquid nitrogen tetroxide, N2O4. Nitrogen tetroxide is so exotic a substance that it is not even listed in The Merck Index, a standard reference volume that summarizes the properties and toxicity of thousands of compounds. However, nitrogen tetroxide violently oxidizes almost any or- ganic substance it touches, including skin and all other human tissues. The burns it causes are instantaneous and likely to be quickly fatal. Nitrogen tetroxide is also a strong poison, even in very small quanti- ties. Space center workers must observe special precautions when hypergolic fuels are loaded on each shuttle, and those not required for the operation are cleared from the launching pad area. No hypergolic fuel had been consumed by the shuttle at time it blew up, and it tanks were therefore presumably full, at least until they were separated from the ship or ruptured. When a Coast Guard cut- ter unloaded it collection of debris at the dock yesterday, several ob- jects shown in photographs looked as if they might have been hypergolic fuel tanks or associated equipment. Mr. Cottee said the agency was not aware of any other debris constituting a hazard in any way comparable to that posed by the hyper- golic fuel tanks. He said the shuttle had carried nothing its payload bay that posed any particular danger. The amount of hypergolic fuel that might have survived the des- truction of the shuttle and many hours in the ocean was not known. Clearly, dilution of the chemicals by sea water would quickly reduce the danger they posed. Although debris from the fuel tanks might still be contaminated, it did not seem likely that the sea water along could have been contaminated enough to endanger people or fish. But NASA and other interested agencies have stressed that even the smallest particle of debris from the shuttle could play a pivotal role in the investigation of the accident, and anyone finding shuttle material is urged to leave it alone. [The article continues with some accusations from the Soviets and some information about problems with Cosmos satellites.] /* Reprinted without permission of the publisher in the interest of ** public dissemination of this information. */ -Peter Yee ..ucbvax!yee yee@ucbarpa.BERKELEY.EDU