"Touching shuttle debris may cause bad spirits to invade your body!"

[Tim May]

On Monday, February 3, 2003, at 09:18  AM, Thomas Shaddack wrote:

>> ...and some very, very tiny fraction may have actually touched
>> some component which made them slightly ill.
>
> Tf they ingested a part made of beryllium alloy, it could make them 
> pretty
> sick...
>


First, if they are eating shuttle debris, think of it as evolution in 
action.

Second, beryllium is not much used in the mostly-aluminum shuttle. Web 
sites say some of the brake assemblies use beryllium and its alloys.

Third, it would take longer for someone who ate a shuttle part to feel 
sick, due to Be or any other metal poisoning, than we saw on Saturday. 
I vote for the "sympathetic magic" theory.

(As it happens, one of my first engineering assignments, in 1974, was 
working on a BeO alternative to Al2O3/alumina for packages. Berylliosis 
was a concern for the _manufacturing_ of the packages from pressed 
powder, but touching or licking or whatever the finished packages was 
not an issue.)

--Tim May