4 ms·
Reading about how toxic thruster fuel is was a real eye opener for me, bunch of god damn idiots in those boats. If I recall right the SR-71 used similar propel
by vvanders 6y ago
Reading about how toxic thruster fuel is was a real eye opener for me, bunch of god damn idiots in those boats.
If I recall right the SR-71 used similar propellants to get the afterburners lit which made fueling... interesting.
- skykooler 6y agoThe SR-71 used triethylborane to light its engines, which is also used by SpaceX to light the main engines (in combination with triethylaluminum); these are also toxic chemicals, but different from the hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide used onboard the Dragon.
- vvanders 6y agoYeah, hence why I said "similar" they're both hypergolic if I remember correctly.
- MPSimmons 6y agoSmall nit, but TEATEB isn't hypergolic, it's pyrophoric. Hypergolic indicates when when two propellants (a fuel and an oxidizer) come in contact with each other, they ignite spontaneously. Pyrophoric indicates that the fuel ignites when it contacts air (no oxidizer needed in a normal Earth atmosphere).
- vvanders 6y agoIt's listed as one of the more common[1] hypergolic propellants with LOX, pyrophoric is pretty much a superset of hypergolic(just that earth air brings the oxidizer "for free"). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergolic_propellant#Common https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypergolic_propellant#Common
- foota 6y agoI believe you mean subset, yes? In that some subset of hypergolic materials have a component of air as their oxidizer and are therefore pyrophoric.
- hoorayimhelping 6y agoNone of the dangers present in this video from the 60s have changed. The RCS system and the SuperDraco thrusters both use hypergolic fuel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zha9DyS-PPA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zha9DyS-PPA