Re: ““Just a Scratch”: Elon Musk Reacts to Massive Explosion of Starship During Launchpad Test”

In article <1039112$kcg$1@panix2.panix.com>,
Scott Dorsey <kludge@panix.com> wrote:

Lynn McGuire  <lynnmcguire5@gmail.com> wrote:

Almost an hour and a half later, Musk posted regarding a possible
cause, Preliminary data suggests that a nitrogen COPV in the payload
bay failed below its proof pressure. If further investigation confirms
that this is what happened, it is the first time ever for this design.

>
Strong oxidizers are scary no matter what.  Cold strong oxidizers have
even more to be scared about.
>

My older brother ran UW's ChemStores for a couple of decades, and
collected graphic tales of horrific mishaps in a bid to convince
UW's chemists to avoid unnecessary risk*.

One story involved a delivery of LOX, a slow leak, and the drip
drip drip of liquid oxygen onto asphalt. Turns out if you saturate
asphalt with oxygen, you get something that is both unstable and
capable of spectacular and swift energy production. 

* Such as carefully overcoming the threading on gas tanks to fill
an N2 glove box with H2.
--
My reviews can be found at http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/
My tor pieces at https://www.tor.com/author/james-davis-nicoll/
My Dreamwidth at https://james-davis-nicoll.dreamwidth.org/
My patreon is at https://www.patreon.com/jamesdnicoll