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Reasons are largely historical. The engines used on the Proton were designed in the late 50's/early 60's for ICBMs. Ignition! is a great book on the history o

by Zuph 13y ago

Reasons are largely historical. The engines used on the Proton were designed in the late 50's/early 60's for ICBMs. Ignition! is a great book on the history of rocket propellants: http://www.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf http://www.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf

pavel_lishin 13y ago
Red Moon Rising is also a pretty good write-up of the history of the Space Race.
arethuza 13y ago
"Now it is clear that anyone working with rocket fuels is outstandingly mad. I don't mean garden-variety crazy or a merely raving lunatic. I mean a record-shattering exponent of far-out insanity". Thanks for the link :-)
- dnautics 13y ago
  I'm thinking about working with rocket fuels. I think it should be possible to build a kerosene-drop-in hydrocarbon fuel with about twice the energy density - along the lines of syntin or JP-10, that is biologically derived... I think this is "relatively safe" compared to hypergolics =)
VLM 13y ago
"Ignition! is a great book" You could just stop right there. It was pretty effective at convincing me to go into chemistry for my first year at university. I understand this experience is not all that unusual. Max Gergel's memoirs are also a pretty hair raising recruitment tool. I got out when I figured out that anecdotes about leading an o-chem org in the 40s/50s make leading an o-chem org in the 40s/50s sound like The Best Place To Be, then I figured out I'm not likely to be a o-chem org leader and the 40s/50s are not likely coming back around again anytime soon. Kind of like reading a dotcom story about the late 90s and deciding to become a web designer in 2013, you're in for a bit of a surprise...
e3pi 13y ago
Thank you for this Ignition pdf link. Looks interesting. The frontipiece image identifies `Mach diamonds'. I said to myself its time to find out just what are those beats anyways, having just now viewed the Proton catastrophe video. Mach diamonds: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_diamonds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_diamonds

by Zuph 13y ago

pavel_lishin 13y ago

Red Moon Rising is also a pretty good write-up of the history of the Space Race.

arethuza 13y ago

"Now it is clear that anyone working with rocket fuels is outstandingly mad. I don't mean garden-variety crazy or a merely raving lunatic. I mean a record-shattering exponent of far-out insanity". Thanks for the link :-)

dnautics 13y ago
I'm thinking about working with rocket fuels. I think it should be possible to build a kerosene-drop-in hydrocarbon fuel with about twice the energy density - along the lines of syntin or JP-10, that is biologically derived... I think this is "relatively safe" compared to hypergolics =)

VLM 13y ago

"Ignition! is a great book" You could just stop right there. It was pretty effective at convincing me to go into chemistry for my first year at university. I understand this experience is not all that unusual. Max Gergel's memoirs are also a pretty hair raising recruitment tool. I got out when I figured out that anecdotes about leading an o-chem org in the 40s/50s make leading an o-chem org in the 40s/50s sound like The Best Place To Be, then I figured out I'm not likely to be a o-chem org leader and the 40s/50s are not likely coming back around again anytime soon. Kind of like reading a dotcom story about the late 90s and deciding to become a web designer in 2013, you're in for a bit of a surprise...

e3pi 13y ago

Thank you for this Ignition pdf link. Looks interesting. The frontipiece image identifies `Mach diamonds'. I said to myself its time to find out just what are those beats anyways, having just now viewed the Proton catastrophe video. Mach diamonds: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_diamonds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mach_diamonds