Terry wrote:
On Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:04:54 -0400, "Tom Gardner" w@w wrote:

Mom was a mathematician, her department checked all the equations for
other departments. She did get me a sample shuttle tile. It's like
Styrofoam, very light and fragile, but you can heat it with an oxy/atc
torch and grab it with your hand and it's cool. She never did get me
a sample of solid propellant....bitch!

Tom, it's not hard to make (almost) the exact propellant used in the
space shuttle. I do it in my lab; I'm sure a lot of guys do it in
their garages. Ammonium perchlorate composite propellant (APCP) is
less hazardous than blackpowder, smokeless, and/or most fireworks. It
generally takes a flame to light APCP---a spark won't do it---and once
it's lit it burns about like a road flare.

It's about 16% powdered aluminum, 69+% ammonium perchlorate, a
fraction of a percent of red iron oxide, 2% epoxy curing agent (DER331
works), and 12% PBAN (polybutadiene acrylic acid acrylonitrile).
Chemicals can be obtained from Firefox.

It took ten years and about three-quarters of a million dollars in
legal costs but APCP was removed by court order from BATFE's "orange
book" (list of exp**sives) a couple years ago.

Who was it who first said, "Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
should be aisles in the local store, not a government bureaucracy."

Apologies for the paraphrase. :-)

Thanks,
Rich