Whilst a rocket propelled laptop would be as exciting and saleable as a liquour propelled one, there would be some liability problems with the former that make the later more appealing (grin). Is there a twelve step program for my Dell Inspiron?
I was always partial to the famous rocket designer Bob Truax's formula, nitric acid and aniline. Makes a dandy hypergolic fuel. He did the first JATO device for the Navy with this, I think. Beat out Goddard who tried gasoline and LOX, all kinds of problems with that and it didn't autoignite. Come to think of it, laptops and cellphones _do_ explode on occassion. Cheap lithium batteries that build up elemental lithium aren't as fun as sodium, but it does the job. Never go cheap on batteries. K. -----Original Message----- From: Mike Carrell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 8:20 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Spontaneous ignition Blank Richard wrote: Another view of such taken from NASA website Hypergolic propellants are fuels and oxidizers which ignite on contact with each other and need no ignition source. This easy start and restart capability makes them attractive for both manned and unmanned spacecraft maneuvering systems. Another plus is their storability — they do not have the extreme temperature requirements of cryogenics. The fuel is monomethyl hydrazine (MMH) and the oxidizer is nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4). Perhaps the ancient Chinese were the first to experiment with stuff that goes bang in the night and thereafter came Oak Ridge Labs. Richard ------------------------------------ Both of these compounds are highly toxic. Hydrazine has been used a propellant in automotive air bags. the ancitne Chinese were extremely competent in many surprising ways, and far ahead of Europe. However, it is unlikely their chemistry was good enough to produce the above chemicals. Mike Carrell
