--- Randall Clague <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Do you really want to dump unburned rocket > propellants onto a piece of > ground you're about to crash-land on?
Depends. If the choice is between certain death by massive abrupt deceleration, versus potential or even probably injury or death by not-so-massive abrupt deceleration and the chance of winding up in a flaming puddle of rocket fuel (assuming the collision itself, or electrical leads jarred loos by the collision, might ignite the flame)...the latter is actually better because the worst is not guaranteed. But this would require a careful analysis of the probabilities and forces for the specific rocket and fuel load. I doubt it's something we could arbitrarily determine for all VTVLs. > If you were using LOX, this wouldn't be a bad idea > for a VTVL. LOX > dump only. I can see the irony: LOX dump to make a landing you can walk away from, only to slip on the suddenly-chilled, and thus suddenly-wet-from-condensation (or even suddenly-iced), ground and break a leg upon trying to walk away. Thinking about it, though - if you were using H2O2, monoprop or bi, wouldn't it be as safe to dump that? (Not a short distance over people, of course, but you wouldn't want to dump LOX there either.) H2O2 would likely react away in a short time, possibly mostly before you hit the ground in some cases. _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
