Word: rubbers
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January's disaster was the result of 38 degrees temperatures, which weakened an O ring, one of a pair of synthetic-rubber washers that keep hot gases from squirting through tiny gaps in the joint between sections of the solid-fuel rocket. When the O ring failed, escaping gas cut into the shuttle's liquid-fuel booster like a blowtorch and triggered a massive explosion. The modified design, said Thomas, will make a repeat catastrophe virtually impossible...
...most important changes are a new material for the O rings (probably a nitrosilicon rubber), which NASA expects to pass tests down to 31 degrees, and a small heater installed at each joint, just in case. Another is a "capture latch," a metal lip containing an added O ring, which would force escaping gas to turn an extra corner and lose momentum. The maximum distance that joints can pull apart under the stress of launch will be reduced from the current one thirty-thousandth of an inch to one-fifth that figure. A "vulcanized, rubbery substance" will replace the putty...
...home to California to retire but instead opened a seafood restaurant in Orange, compares the mood to "gold-rush fever." Says Stockbroker Trevor Spruston: "The atmosphere challenges everyone's drive." It also encourages second starts, says Alan Rypinski. He made one fortune producing a protective coating for vinyl and rubber called Armor All, stumbled financially with an auto boutique and a fast-food spaghetti business, and is now trying to pile up another bundle selling a product that removes wrinkles from fabric. Says Rypinski: "It's pretty easy to recover. There's so much going...
...most effective way of freeing trapped dolphins from a net that is full and cinched shut at the bottom is for the ship laying the net to run in reverse, dragging the net and its finny contents into an elongated shape (see diagram). Crewmen in rubber rafts then drive the surface-swimming dolphins toward one end, and as the ship pulls the net, the dolphins spill out, leaving the tuna behind. Despite these efforts, an average of eight dolphins die during each netting, often at night, when freeing them is more difficult...
...outlook is quite different for most of the Asian nations that are dependent on commodity exports, for which prices are deeply depressed. In both Indonesia, a major oil exporter, and Malaysia, a supplier of rubber and tin, virtually no growth is expected through 1987. Says Peter Drysdale, executive director of the Australia-Japan Research Center in Canberra: "There are going to be considerable stresses on the commodity-exporting part of the Western Pacific economy over the next 18 months or so." He noted that Australia had been severely hurt by low prices for agricultural exports. But after expanding...