Some of the stories he tells are hilarious; some literally tragic in multiple horrific ways and some of squirming sales reps forced to make fools out of themselves because 'we need to pretend our product is special' but are talking to engineers that 'Know'. The book uses a bit of inorganic chemistry to explain what happens, but nothing that someone that did chemistry to the British O level (taken at 16) 50 years ago cannot follow. It makes an ideal addition due to its high mass which increases the specific impulse, unfortunately every attempt at using any compound containing boron failed due to it gunking up the combustion chamber and/or throat of the test engines, often to the point of choking it off completely and causing the engine to explode or (best case) just stop working due to being clogged with sticky goo.

Clark has a gift for writing, and the book is easy to read and full of amusing (and eye-widening) anecdotes.A favorite of Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, listeners will want to tune into this "really good book on rocket[s]," available for the first time in audio.

We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.I have actually seen the hair-raising sight of rocket mechanics trying to determine the oxygen pressure developed over decomposing WFNA by measuring the bulging of the drums —and shuddered at the sight! was remarkably liberal, with a wide cut (range of distillation temperatures) and with such permissive limits on olefins and aromatics that any refinery above the level of a Kentucky moonshiner's pot still could convert at least half of any crude to jet fuel. I also added a bit to my vocabulary ( eutectic) and learned a heck of a lot about how difficult rocket science can be.

He does this fearlessly as one might expect from a person now retired from his senior position with many of his more incompetent - or simply unlucky - contemporaries dead (literally). Three pamphlets: A Hurry of English by Mary Jean Chan, There's No Such Thing by Lily Blacksell, and Kismet by Jennifer Lee Tsai have sold out. Issac Asimov (1920 - 1992) was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books.later they figured that it would be even better if the missiles didn’t have to carry all its working mass and air augmented rocketry was born. Its only downfall is an artifact of the type of book and the audio format, that is, reading out chemical and mathematical formula. Our current editors are: Les Robinson, Claire Cox, and Niall Munro, and you can find out more about us on our Editors page. Please remember to add the forward-slash and not to put in any spaces in between the letters and numbers. A fascinating informal history of liquid fueled rocket propulsion, something that still does not go right as SpaceX found yesterday (21/4/2019).

In addition to his work as a scientist, he was instrumental in the broad revival of interest in Robert E. The book however is mainly long lists of obscure and unpronounceable chemicals and their properties. Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction books such as I, Robot and the Foundation trilogy. Pamphlets published by the press have so far received five Poetry Book Society Pamphlet Choice selections (for A Hurry of English by Mary Jean Chan, Alycia Pirmohamed’s Hinge, Ripe by Isabelle Baafi, Fathima Zahra’s Sargam / Swargam, and When the Flies Come by Fahad Al-Amoudi).But most of us have no involvement with it at all besides an awareness that it exists, and that makes it easy to take for granted. One of the major themes in the book is the development of hypergolic compounds -- those that ignite promptly on contact. It didn’t take long for the “outstandingly mad” engineers to realize that using this oxidizer was TOO insane, even for them. As someone who is interested in space history, chemistry, and comedy, this one checked all my boxes. A. Yes, so long as you have not previously published a chapbook, pamphlet, or book-length collection.