Open house again today.
The weather was actually quite favorable, and we had several people show up, some of whom seemed potentially serious.
In between visitors, I continued reading Ignition!, getting to the chapter on hydrogen peroxide. Hey, I've worked with that stuff...!
Wherefore much of the material in that chapter was, in one way or another familiar. I hadn't, however, heard the story of the Rat Test. That... would have been... interesting, if carried out as originally specified. And I'd heard something about the H2O2/JP-4 spill tests, but I think it was garbled; the book brings fresh (or at least new-old-stock) knowledge. Not that I'm ever likely to be involved with that stuff again.
Then on to the chapter on the wondrous propellant combinations that produce hydrogen fluoride as exhaust. Man, I thought SRB exhaust was nasty. And at least the SRB propellant is fairly safe to handle before burning.
Now it's time to wind down; there's actual work-type work to be done tomorrow.
Additional: It's somewhat alarming to realize that, in that book, hydrazine is one of the safer materials under discussion. Also, it seems I was misinformed, all these years, regarding the reasons for using UDMH.
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