"astrolite" does it exist and how do you make it???
The pheonix
Would some one please tell me if astrolit exists or is it a hoaks and is
it realy as powerful as people claim that it is. I would also like to
know how to make this stuff if it is real.
Karl A Magdsick
In article <3310DB51.50BA@explosives-no-email-yet>, The pheonix
<n...@kidie.seene> wrote:
Yup, it's real. I believe the astrolite saries are hydrazine nitrate
disolved in hydrazine, and some addtitives. It's pretty powerful if you
compare it on a per weight basis, but that's decieving because of the
difficulties involved with using liquid explosives and the low density of
astrolite type explosives. I believe that hydrazine is carcinogenic and i
know that it's toxic, so you should look up the "recipie" in a good
explosives book. Personally, I wouldn't bother with the stuff because of
the toxicity and inavalibility of anhyfrous hydrazine. DON"T DISTIL
HYDRAZINE HYDRATE, IT'LL EXPLODE. I've also heard that the astrolite
explosives have a tendency to explode in a low velocity mode.
Karl
the pope (tm)
The pheonix wrote:
>
> Would some one please tell me if astrolit
> exists or is it a hoaks and is
> it realy as powerful as people claim that it is.
> I would also like to
> know how to make this stuff if it is real.
I have good news, IT IS REAL!
Its made in small ammounts, by elves working off season.
The bad news its not an explosive.
Astrolite is used in 'football stadium lights'.
This is what lets the players and the fans see the Astroturf.
Glad to answer your questions!
George Herbert
Fume. Idiotic, stupid, wrong postings.
The Pope apparently should stick to religious matters.
Astrolite is a mixture of hydrazine and ammonium nitrate
(which disolves in the hydrazine, making a liquid).
One of the variants replaces some of the hydrazine with
aluminum powder.
Playing with hydrazine without a full chem lab's worth of
safety precautions will damage your liver in the short term
and cause cancer in the long term. There are many faster
and easier ways to kill yourself if you want to play with
explosives than hydrazine poisoning.
-george william herbert
gher...@crl.com
Robert Wieland
To: n...@kidie.seene
Subject: Re: "astrolite" does it exist and how do you make it???
Newsgroups: alt.engr.explosives
In-Reply-To: <3310DB51.50BA@explosives-no-email-yet>
Organization: Department of Mechanical Engineering/University of Delaware
Cc:
Bcc:
In article <3310DB51.50BA@explosives-no-email-yet> you write:
>Would some one please tell me if astrolit exists or is it a hoaks and is
>it realy as powerful as people claim that it is. I would also like to
>know how to make this stuff if it is real.
Astrolite is no hoax. This stuff, invented (I believe) in the late
1960's was then claimed to be the most powerful liquid explosive of usable
stability.
Original astrolite was made by mixing two components: ammonium nitrate,
a weak & difficult-to-initiate salt with a positive oxygen balance, and
hydrazine, a liquid fuel with a negative heat of formation. The mixture
is one-to-one molar, and the product is a liquid. It is powerful & easy
to explode. In fact, it is one of the few explosive liquids that cn be
sprayed on the ground and allowed to seep into the soil, and then still be
exploded. It was thought at the time that this would make the stuff the
very thing for clearing land mines; I don't know exectly why, but nobody
clears mines that way today.
As to making it yourself, stay away from hydrazine. Chemically pure
anhydrous hydrazine is big-time poisonous and carcinogenic, and capable of
spontaneously exploding. Worse, the process usually given for home
manufacture requires careful control to work at all (do you own a pH
meter?), involves chlorine gas (yet another hazard), and produces hydrated
hydrazine containing byproducts that are even nastier: you still aren't
ready to mix until you've purified & dehydrated the stuff.
On the larger scale, give it up. If there was a way to safely make a
powerful & readily-detonated explosive from easily available ingredients,
do you *really* think that there is any way of preventing the recipie from
being common knowledge?
--
Robert Wieland wie...@me.udel.edu
You can't go faster than light, you can't get colder than absolute
zero, and you can't help somebody by not telling them the truth.
Paul Lampuoti
It is really bad stuff I'm not a chemist but I have found some information
on the stuff over the web. Its not something that you play with it is
considered the world's most powerful non-nuclear explosive. Astrolite G is
a clear liquid explosive that can produce a detonation velocity of 28215
ft/sec. Now that's fast.
Robert Wieland <wie...@me.udel.edu> wrote in article
<5f9vjr$c...@news.udel.edu>...
Bill Nelson
Paul Lampuoti (lamp...@pathcom.com) wrote:
: It is really bad stuff I'm not a chemist but I have found some information
: on the stuff over the web. Its not something that you play with it is
: considered the world's most powerful non-nuclear explosive. Astrolite G is
: a clear liquid explosive that can produce a detonation velocity of 28215
: ft/sec. Now that's fast.
The inventors made the claim that it was the world's most powerful "two
component explosive". It isn't, and probably never was.
28000 ft/second is not exceptional. Both PETN and RDX have similar Vdets, and
there are military explosives that are even faster.
--
Bill Nelson (bi...@peak.org)
Gerald L. Hurst
In article <5fbbl8$7...@bashir.peak.org>, bi...@peak.org (Bill Nelson) says:
>
>The inventors made the claim that it was the world's most powerful "two
>component explosive". It isn't, and probably never was.
>
this was for the Astrolite version A-1-5. There were several "inventors"
listed on the patent, one of whom was myself. Although the material was
quite powerful, the claim was exaggerated and was management hype not
the claim or opinion of this inventor. I have personally participated
in one-on-one nominal 500 lb bomb cratering tests pitting A-1-5 against
H-6 and the H-6 was superior at least on a volumetric basis.
>28000 ft/second is not exceptional. Both PETN and RDX have similar Vdets, and
>there are military explosives that are even faster.
>
The velocity is pretty good for a material with a density of about 1.4
(Astrolite G). There were a number of Astrolite formulations with
varying properties, some of them rather exceptional. Unfortunately,
hydrazine-based explosives are very dangerous from a number of
perspectives.
Jerry (Ico)
Roger B. Ballies
In article <01bc26cc$dbf6cde0$1511f5cf@ipc>, "Paul Lampuoti"
<lamp...@pathcom.com> wrote:
> It is really bad stuff I'm not a chemist but I have found some information
> on the stuff over the web. Its not something that you play with it is
> considered the world's most powerful non-nuclear explosive. Astrolite G is
> a clear liquid explosive that can produce a detonation velocity of 28215
> ft/sec. Now that's fast.
>
>
> Robert Wieland <wie...@me.udel.edu> wrote in article
> <5f9vjr$c...@news.udel.edu>...
Are you sure about the velocity? In our classes we measured it at 37500
ft/sec/sec. Please check you specificiations. Suggest you hold your
measuring instruments no further than 10 feet from the epicenter!!
--
Ramsis de sagatas
Imperfecture los costas del Rio
Wacn458 872 2349856