Post by ka9q on Mar 4, 2010 5:46:57 GMT -4
Does anyone know if Apollo carried Halon fire extinguishers? Where they considered or added during the recovery from the Apollo 1 fire?
Carbon tetrachloride was the first of the halogenated hydrocarbons to be used as a fire extinguisher, since about 1900. Then methyl bromide (also a fumigant!) in the late 1920s and bromochloromethane in the late 1930s. They were used by the British, Germans and Americans on ships and aircraft during WW2. The main members of the Halon family (Dupont trademark) were discovered by Army-sponsored research at Purdue in the late 1940s so they were available by the mid 1960s.
I know that the recovery from the Apollo 1 fire consisted largely of a drastic reduction in the amount and types of flammable materials in the cockpit. On the ground, the cabin atmosphere was diluted with N2 and slowly replaced with pure O2 in flight. But fires were still possible, so an effective extinguisher would still be useful.
I've never really understood how the Halons extinguish fires. Apparently it's more than the usual cooling and O2 displacement that you get with water and CO2; some of them actually participate in the chemical reactions as anti-catalysts. And I'm wondering whether the Halons would have worked in an enriched (or pure) O2 atmosphere. Anybody know?
Carbon tetrachloride was the first of the halogenated hydrocarbons to be used as a fire extinguisher, since about 1900. Then methyl bromide (also a fumigant!) in the late 1920s and bromochloromethane in the late 1930s. They were used by the British, Germans and Americans on ships and aircraft during WW2. The main members of the Halon family (Dupont trademark) were discovered by Army-sponsored research at Purdue in the late 1940s so they were available by the mid 1960s.
I know that the recovery from the Apollo 1 fire consisted largely of a drastic reduction in the amount and types of flammable materials in the cockpit. On the ground, the cabin atmosphere was diluted with N2 and slowly replaced with pure O2 in flight. But fires were still possible, so an effective extinguisher would still be useful.
I've never really understood how the Halons extinguish fires. Apparently it's more than the usual cooling and O2 displacement that you get with water and CO2; some of them actually participate in the chemical reactions as anti-catalysts. And I'm wondering whether the Halons would have worked in an enriched (or pure) O2 atmosphere. Anybody know?
