I'm reading this book. Published in 1988, it's more of an engineering history of the space program, which is why I'm enjoying it, and learning new and interesting things.
On the Apollo 1 fire. After that accident, they went to a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, but only while on the ground. In orbit they continued to use 100% O2, at 5 PSI. At that pressure, pure oxygen is no more flammable than the 15 PSI oxygen nitrogen mixture we experience down here. While on the ground, they can't pressurize the ship to 5 PSI, and in fact that pressurize it to a bit over sea level pressure, for leak checking. 100% O2 and 15 PSI is a bomb waiting to go off. Hind sight is a wonderful thing...
On the Apollo Soyuz mission. Among the engineering challenges they faces was the fact that the Soviet ship was pressurized to 15 PSI with an oxygen/nitrogen mixture, while the Apollo was at our usual 5% O2. Can't open the hatch between the two ships that way! Also, when designing the docking adapter, neither the Russians nor the US was willing to “be the female” in the “docking experience”, and so a special “gender ambiguous” docking system had to be designed. Is that funny or what? Can you imagine the engineering meeting when this topic first came up?
"so, the docking syetm will be..."
"whoa, hold up."
"what?"
"that's not going to do at all"
"what?"
"you have us as the female end and you're ship has the male end."
"right, so?"
"well, we want to be the male"
"you can't, we're already the male"
"well, we're not going to be the female"
"somebody has to be the female..."
"you be the female"
"no"
"why not?"
"shut up"
"you shut up"
Anyhow, it's a good read!
On the Apollo 1 fire. After that accident, they went to a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, but only while on the ground. In orbit they continued to use 100% O2, at 5 PSI. At that pressure, pure oxygen is no more flammable than the 15 PSI oxygen nitrogen mixture we experience down here. While on the ground, they can't pressurize the ship to 5 PSI, and in fact that pressurize it to a bit over sea level pressure, for leak checking. 100% O2 and 15 PSI is a bomb waiting to go off. Hind sight is a wonderful thing...
On the Apollo Soyuz mission. Among the engineering challenges they faces was the fact that the Soviet ship was pressurized to 15 PSI with an oxygen/nitrogen mixture, while the Apollo was at our usual 5% O2. Can't open the hatch between the two ships that way! Also, when designing the docking adapter, neither the Russians nor the US was willing to “be the female” in the “docking experience”, and so a special “gender ambiguous” docking system had to be designed. Is that funny or what? Can you imagine the engineering meeting when this topic first came up?
"so, the docking syetm will be..."
"whoa, hold up."
"what?"
"that's not going to do at all"
"what?"
"you have us as the female end and you're ship has the male end."
"right, so?"
"well, we want to be the male"
"you can't, we're already the male"
"well, we're not going to be the female"
"somebody has to be the female..."
"you be the female"
"no"
"why not?"
"shut up"
"you shut up"
Anyhow, it's a good read!