Dusk without dust in Black Rock

One response to “Dusk without dust in Black Rock”

1. 

   jurvetson

   Sep 27, 2022 at 6:29 pm

   Before flight, a detailed simulation in RockSimWith our BALLS XXX shirts (it being the 30th year)Beautiful plumage, with multiple shock diamonds… The blue shift in the flame is from excited copper (from metal salts premixed in the solid AP propellant). From my ScienceBlogs post on rocket propellants: "Metal ions combine with electrons in the flame, and the metal atoms are raised to excited states because of the high flame temperature. Upon returning to the ground state, they give off light (from their line spectrum) characteristic of that metal. The ions come from metal chlorides: Barium Chloride (BaCl) for green, Copper Chloride (CuCl) for blue, or Strontium Chloride (SrCl) for red. These metal chlorides generally do not exist at room temperature or are too reactive to add as an additive, so precursors are mixed in, and they react during the burn to create the desired molecules. The Chlorine comes from the Ammonium Perchlorate oxidizer for free, and one need only add metal salts such as nitrates or carbonates to provide the metal"

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