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Not an aerospace engineer or anything. I think the fear was that the rocket may tip over and collapse under its own weight. I wouldn't be too surprised if that
by bjt2n3904 9y ago
Not an aerospace engineer or anything. I think the fear was that the rocket may tip over and collapse under its own weight. I wouldn't be too surprised if that could trigger an ignition of the rocket fuel at the very least, risking nuclear contamination.
While the physics package surely has numerous safeties, I'd be concerned that the safeties would be damaged in a way that no one could really predict after falling 80 feet. They served their purpose well, but you can bet all the engineers were in the lab for the next 72 hours straight looking for various failure modes.
- sandworm101 9y ago>> ...one could really predict after falling 80 feet. I'd say that deep within the archives is a report detailing exactly this scenario. Drop testing of munitions is standard stuff. See https://www.rtc.army.mil/Resources/Capability%20Sheets/Insensitive%20Munitions%20Testing.pdf https://www.rtc.army.mil/Resources/Capability%20Sheets/Insen...
- robryk 9y agoAny damage to the warhead would likely make it impossible to have a nuclear reaction. In order to do that, the warhead would have to explode multiple precisely shaped conventional explosives with precise timing. If any one of them was deformed, nothing (apart from the small conventional explosion) would happen, even if all the safeguards incorrectly decided to explode the warhead.
- robotresearcher 9y agoparent was concerned about > risking nuclear contamination. not a nuclear explosion. A conventional boom could spread radioactive materials all over.
- robryk 9y agoEDIT: I was wrong. See the child for correction. There are no radioactive materials in the warhead. In other words: there are no materials that undergo radioactive decay. What is in there are fissile materials: ie. materials that emit neutrons upon being irradiated with neutrons. The only way the warhead might become radioactive is if it partially detonated.