June 22, 2017 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
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Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Minor nit: the OKC bomb used ammonium nitrate, not ammonium perchlorate.
Calvin–
I heard that as well. It was ammonium nitrate + fuel-oil mixture, as far as I know.
The Huntsman’s, are all crony-rino-statists. Don’t let the Mormon stuff or the Cancer Institute fool you
FYI–
ammonium perchlorate is available from Sigma Aldrich, retail, for “$211 the kilogram.” This is the most expensive way/amount, to buy it, but gives you a relative value-measure by which to judge. They have 4 kilo’s in stock for immediate shipment.
My son-in-law (chem engineer) informs me this can be synthesized on a mass industrial-scale, fairly easily and in relatively short order. (on the order of week’s, and not month’s) EPA approval however, will take 12-18 months.
It is a “specialty-chemical” and heavily regulated by the EPA, under the clean drinking water act of 2011. This explains in part, why only well-connected chemical companies play in this market.
(Huntsman is one a few companies that can afford to comply with EPA regulations.)
It does have a definite shelf-life as well, and can not be stored indefinitely. (And it costs a fortune to clean-up, if you spill it.)
(It’s an Energizer-Bunny type of Government Contract, it’s keep paying & paying & paying.)
I thought there were plenty of solid rocket fuel being produced, for military ICBMs and anti-tank missiles and what not. Maybe they prefer other types. Fuel represents only 2% or so of the total launcher costs, so it doesn’t seem very “strategic” to “protect” its production domestically.
Calvin Dodge: You are correct. I allowed my memory to rule when I said that, which is always a mistake. Fact checking must always be done!
Considering the military applications, there are reasons to protect domestic production other than cost. But there are probably better solutions to doing so.