On Mon, 23 Oct 2000, David Honig wrote:
At 08:14 AM 10/23/00 -0400, Ken Brown wrote:
(3) The small amount of stuff that really *is* dangerous is dangerous enough that it would be too risky putting it in a rocket. What is the success rate of unmanned launches? About 19/20?
Those fsckers in NASA have lobbed a few kilos of very hot (literally) isotopes as thermoelectric power sources; they even played gravity-ball with one of them (Cassini IIRC) using Earth as the reflector. Wasn't that special of them?
"We're from the government, and, well, you can't stop us, so bugger off."
Oh, bullshit. The containment vessel for Cassini was more than sufficient had their been a cato. As to Ken's question, the success is approaching 80-90% AFTER the initial burn-in of the design. That usualy takes 2-5 flights depending on the pedigree of the particular bird you're talking about. ____________________________________________________________________ He is able who thinks he is able. Buddha The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------