We mix and test our solid motors at our experimental mine. Many of the
faculty who work in down there have experience handling explosives.
Similarly to Daniel we must all go through training before we are granted
access to mix. This training is put on by a few faculty with explosive
safety licenses. Even with this it still took almost a year between first
contact and getting permission to mix.
Zachary Martinez
Aerospace & Mechanical Engineering
Missouri S&T
On Wed, Mar 8, 2017 at 5:04 PM, Greg Deputy <greg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I helped at a major university here in WA a couple years back, and they
were mixing propellant ALA typical research motor types, in a kitchen aid.
Looking back , I’m not sure it was actually approved or known of by the
safety department. Just a data point…
*From:* arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
*On Behalf Of *William Claybaugh
*Sent:* Wednesday, March 8, 2017 12:35 PM
*To:* arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Subject:* [AR] Re: APCP Mixing Safety
Most universities won't allow it for a wide range of liability issues of
which fire is fairly minor.
MIT allows small liquid rocket testing inside a building in a test bay
originally built for combustion experiments; it is metal lined and can be
filled w/ nitrogen to quench any fires. It also features remote control
from an adjacent room.
Of the others w/ whom I have visited (Yale, UVA) no testing of any sort is
allowed on university property.
It might be informative to visit w/ the USC / RPL folks but this could
also be a question they would not care to bring to the attention of their
university insurers.
Bill
On Wed, Mar 8, 2017 at 1:07 PM Brett Coles <brettcoles@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi there! I have lurked for a while, but this is my first (or second. Not
sure if the first one went through) post. I have a question about solid
rocket propellant mixing.
I'm at BYU, and we are attempting to get permission from the university to
mix our propellant on campus. We have mixed propellant before.
Particularly, one of the members of our group frequently flies custom
motors. We are getting significant pushback from the university about the
fire risk. I can understand that since solid propellant burns hot and
cannot be extinguished. I know that some other universities mix propellant
on campus, and I am curioius what we can do to ease the fears of our Health
and Safety department as well as the fire marshal. Any suggestions would be
appreciated.
Thanks
--
Brett J. Coles
