Eisen-Suppressed-Inventions-and-other-Discoveries-True-Stories-of ...

298 Suppressed Inventions and Other Discoveries
him in the spacecraft. " 16 Shea refused because NASA couldn't patch in a
fourth headset in time for the test. Is that likely
It is difficult to believe that this couldn't have been done in the 24 hour
time frame available. If I had a crew of technicians who couldn't install
another headset-jack in that amount of time I'd fire the whole damn crew.
The original Apollo capsule had different hatches, but by 1300 hours all
three astronauts were strapped in their acceleration couches with the new
hatches sealed behind them. It was later revealed that these hatches were
so poorly designed that even with outside help and in a non-emergency
situation, it took seven or eight minutes to open them. They were originally
supposed to spend a few hours practicing throwing the proper
switches at the right time in sequential response to computer simulations.
However, with delay piled upon delay and everyone in a hurry, each time
a switch was thrown, unnoticed by any, tiny sparks jumped.
During the test of the Apollo capsule on Pad 34 Grissom and his crew
were in 100 percent oxygen simulating the real thing. In fact they reported
a burning smell a few times earlier that day. When that happened technicians
would come with "sniffers," open the hatches, but find nothing.
One wonders if the review board considered that these hatch openings
flushed out the smell with the fresh air admitted by opening the hatch.
These incidents delayed the test and time was running out. 17 The extraneous
combustible materials may have been combining with the pressurized
oxygen each time pure oxygen refilled the cabin. Oxidation makes heat,
and if you stop the process that heat remains in the material. Each time
you repressurize the craft the combustible material will be at a slightly
higher temperature. I sense that the board of review missed this angle.
I also feel that spontaneous combustion would have been much too
subtle for the CIA. If it was a CIA hit they would have done it with an
electric squib or incendiary device wired to a switch programmed to be
thrown toward the end of the test.
While the testing was going on, some mastermind in mission control
decided to save some time. In his wisdom that unknown leader made the
decision to speed up the testing. As the board of inquiry later noted, "To
save time, the space agency took a short cut." What he did was simply order
the capsule to be pressurized with 100 percent oxygen at either 16.7 or 20.2
psi. Notice, that no name was used. The entire agency takes the blame.
I have great difficulty in believing that apparently not one of these
rocket scientists in Control, nor the astronauts themselves, knew that, a
Calorimeter Bomb consists of a combustible material, pressurized oxygen
and a spark. These were highly educated men, men with technical degrees,
men who had taken chemistry courses, and men who must have spent
some time around welding and cutting torches that used oxygen.