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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!uiucdcsb!kenny
From: kenny@uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU
Newsgroups: net.columbia
Subject: Re: Small Green Canister
Message-ID: <6800014@uiucdcsb>
Date: Sun, 2-Feb-86 12:52:00 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcsb.6800014
Posted: Sun Feb  2 12:52:00 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 5-Feb-86 07:07:11 EST
References: <413@drutx.UUCP>
Lines: 30
Nf-ID: #R:drutx.UUCP:413:uiucdcsb:6800014:000:1178
Nf-From: uiucdcsb.CS.UIUC.EDU!kenny    Feb  2 11:52:00 1986


/* Written  8:54 am  Jan 30, 1986 by slb@drutx.UUCP in uiucdcsb:net.columbia */
[ ... ]
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?  
[ ... ]
                                     Sue Brezden
                                     ihnp4!drutx!slb
/* End of text from uiucdcsb:net.columbia */

Possibly an SRB separation motor.  Those things are explosive bolts designed
to blow the SRB's clear of the spacecraft, both during normal SRB-sep and in
the event of an emergency jettisoning of the SRB's.  I seem to recall
reading somewhere that they have enough punch to blow through a six-inch
reinforced concrete wall; not something I'd want to pick up with bare hands.

k**2

Kevin Kenny
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
UUCP: {ihnp4,pur-ee,convex}!uiucdcs!kenny 
CSNET:	kenny@UIUC.CSNET
ARPA:	kenny@B.CS.UIUC.EDU	(kenny@UIUC.ARPA)

"Yes, understanding today's complex world is a bit like having bees live in
your head, but there they are."