Xref: utzoo sci.space:7183 sci.space.shuttle:1284
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.space.shuttle
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Unmanned w/old SRBs (was Re: space news from July 11 AW&ST)
Message-ID: <1988Sep24.053829.16201@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1988Aug16.040406.5434@utzoo.uucp> <6137@dasys1.UUCP> <1988Aug29.172104.10823@utzoo.uucp> <6185@dasys1.UUCP> <1988Sep7.212736.6080@utzoo.uucp> <6377@dasys1.UUCP> <1988Sep13.164340.1289@utzoo.uucp> <484@c10sd1.StPaul.NCR.COM>
Date: Sat, 24 Sep 88 05:38:29 GMT

In article <484@c10sd1.StPaul.NCR.COM> johnson@c10sd1.StPaul.NCR.COM (Wayne D. T. Johnson) writes:
>... why not remove the oxidizer from the
>old segments and put it into the new ones?  

Possible in theory; very difficult in practice.  It's not the most stable
material in the world -- obviously -- and the setting process that occurs
after casting is not readily reversible.  NASA was originally planning on
igniting the old segments under controlled conditions to make the casings
available for re-use.  As far as I know, there's no other safe way of
cleaning them out.
-- 
NASA is into artificial        |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
stupidity.  - Jerry Pournelle  | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu