Xref: utzoo sci.space.shuttle:3138 sci.space:11426
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!ukc!icdoc!syma!andy
From: andy@syma.sussex.ac.uk (Andy Clews)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle,sci.space
Subject: Magellan & SRB exhaust
Message-ID: <982@syma.sussex.ac.uk>
Date: 15 May 89 12:41:11 GMT
Organization: University of Sussex
Lines: 18

If the Shuttle crew were able to watch Magellan as it fired off on its
trip to Venus, would they have been able to see the exhaust plume from
its solid motor?

The reason I ask this fascinating :-) question is that, years ago when
I watched the later-Apollo LEMs leave the moon (by the miracle of TV), I
noted that no exhaust was visible - only the debris blasted from the top
of the descent stage.  If liquid fueled motors burn "invisibly" in the
vacuum of space, what about the solid rocket motors? 

Also, (rather naive question), would the shuttle have been "showered"
with any of the impurities from the Magellan solid motor exhaust at burn
time, even though it was obviously a long distance from it?

-- 
Andy Clews, Computing Service, Univ. of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QN, ENGLAND
JANET: andy@syma.sussex.ac.uk   BITNET: andy%syma.sussex.ac.uk@uk.ac
Voice: +44 273 606755 ext.2129