It let go within two or three seconds of starting the cold flow. Didn't
help with accident severity that ambient temperature was above nitrous
critical temperature. Perfect conditions for a BLEVE. I always wonder what
that day would have been like if the weather had been cold and rainy. Very
possible they would have had no injuries at all, and my report to my
girlfriend (now fiancee), "Burt just blew his schedule all to hell," would
have been all that happened.
If anyone did a technical report, it would have been Scaled. They have not
released one. The Cal-OSHA report is just about useless; it can be
paraphrased as, "People died on your work site, so you must have been doing
something wrong. Write us a check."
Scaled did write a Lessons Learned guide to nitrous handling. They handed
that around fairly freely, so there is probably a publicly available copy
somewhere.
A little bird pointed me to the European Industrial Gases Association
standard on nitrous oxide handling. I never had time to read it, but my
colleagues who did said it was pretty good, looked complete except for
materials compatibility issues (many seal manufacturers will give you a
different story on nitrous compatibility than you would get if you asked
your nitrous supplier about that seal material).
Like LOX and HTP, it's a good oxidizer, IF you learn its demon side and
treat it accordingly.
-R
On Fri, Apr 22, 2016 at 6:56 PM Paul Mueller <paul.mueller.iii@xxxxxxxxx
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','paul.mueller.iii@xxxxxxxxx');>> wrote:
I'm surprised to hear that in the Scaled explosion at Mojave, it was the
CTN simulator that exploded and shot the injector into the tank. I had
guessed that the tank suffered a nitrous oxide dissociation reaction near
the end of the test when it was nearly empty of liquid (but had lots of gas
at high pressure). I've never seen an official report detailing the
technical aspects of the Scaled explosion. Is there one publicly available?
Or is that kind of information still tied up in litigation?
On Fri, Apr 22, 2016 at 10:42 AM, Randall Clague <rclague@xxxxxxxxx
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','rclague@xxxxxxxxx');>> wrote:
I am not with Agile. Jeff is positioning Agile to be the 21st century
version of Scaled Composites, essentially vehicle design for hire. I'm a
system safety guy and a government guy, and at Agile's scale, Jeff doesn't
have enough work for me to put me on the payroll.
I am working freelance, hanging out my shingle as RSpace, proven
expertise in System Safety and Government Liaison, 90+ manned/RLV flights,
no mishaps, yada yada yada, shoot me an e-mail if you want a copy of my
CV. I'll get a web site up when I figure out what I want it to be for.
Currently under contract, expecting to be available again in July.
Thanks,
-R
On Fri, Apr 22, 2016 at 4:35 AM, John Dom <johndom@xxxxxxxxx
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','johndom@xxxxxxxxx');>> wrote:
The injector being the N2O tank explosion culprit was new for me.
I take it you are with Agile Aero now?
jd
*From:* arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx');> [mailto:
arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx');>] *On
Behalf Of *Randall Clague
*Sent:* vrijdag 22 april 2016 12:39
*To:* arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx');>
*Subject:* [AR] Re: breathing nitrogen
The three fatalities in the Scaled accident were not involved in the
cold flow test. They were bystanders, watching the test through a chain
link fence. Any nitrous exposure they experienced was entirely incidental
to their injuries. Their injuries were due to their being perforated by
pieces of the carbon composite run tank, which suffered a BLEVE upon being
punctured by the injector under test. The injector was fired into the run
tank by the explosion of the Case/Throat/Nozzle (CTN) simulator. I do not
know why the CTN simulator exploded..
There were no enclosed spaces anywhere on the Scaled test site that day.
Asphyxiation was not a factor. Those people died because they were not
under cover when the hardware they were watching exploded.
-R
On Fri, Apr 22, 2016 at 3:04 AM John Dom <johndom@xxxxxxxxx
<javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','johndom@xxxxxxxxx');>> wrote:
Lloyd Droppers wrote on 220416:
A few people died during space shuttle launch prep
https://nsc.nasa.gov/SFCS/SystemFailureCaseStudyFile/Download/523
Albeit the damage of pure N2 exposure proved fatal in the STS incident I
found it amazing their heart had kept beating (and maybe their breathing as
well?) for so long after their extraction to air.
As to the Scaled Composites cold flow fatalities due to N2O exposure
(page 4): did they perform that test inside a non-ventilated compound as if
it were LOX?
jd
