{"id":5580,"date":"2015-01-14T09:00:41","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T15:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=5580"},"modified":"2023-12-12T20:05:36","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T02:05:36","slug":"morbid-fact-du-jour-for-january-14-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=5580","title":{"rendered":"Morbid Fact Du Jour for January 14, 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s Inert Yet Truly Morbid Fact!<\/h3>\n

On March 19, 1981, five technicians undid a panel on a simulation spacecraft at NASA’s Cape Canaveral headquarters and entered a cramped rear chamber above the engine. A thirty-three-hour “day” had just ended with a perfectly simulated liftoff, and with the space shuttle Columbia <\/em>– the most advanced space shuttle ever designed – set to launch on its first mission in April, the agency had understandable confidence. The hard part of their day over, the technicians, satisfied and tired, crawled into the compartment for a routine systems check. Seconds later, eerily peacefully, they slumped over.<\/p>\n

Until that moment, NASA had lost no lives on the ground or in space since 1967, when three astronauts had burned to death during training for Apollo 1<\/em>. At the time, NASA, always concerned about cutting payload, allowed only pure oxygen to circulate in spacecrafts, not air, which contains 80 percent nitrogen (i.e., 80 percent deadweight). Unfortunately, as NASA recognized in a 1966 technical report, “in pure oxygen [flames] will burn faster and hotter without the dilution of atmospheric nitrogen to absorb some of the heat or otherwise interfere.” As soon as the atoms in oxygen molecules (O2) absorb heat, they dissociate and raise hell by stealing electrons from nearby atoms, a spree that makes fires burn hotter. Oxygen doesn’t need much provocation either. Some engineers worried that even static electricity from the Velcro on astronauts’ suits might ignite pure, vigorous oxygen. \u00a0Nevertheless, the report concluded that although “inert gas has been considered as a means of suppressing flammability… inert additives are not only unnecessary but also increasingly complicated.”<\/p>\n

Now, that conclusion might be true in space, where atmospheric pressure is nonexistent and just a little interior gas will keep a spacecraft from collapsing inward. But when training on the ground, in earth’s heavy air, NASA technicians had to pump the simulators with far more oxygen to keep the walls from crumpling – which meant far more danger, since even small fires combust wildly in pure oxygen. When an unexplained spark went off one day during training in 1967, fire engulfed the module and cremated the three astronauts inside.<\/p>\n

A disaster has a way of clarifying things, and NASA decided inert gases were necessary, complicated or not, in all shuttles and simulators thereafter. By the 1981 Columbia mission, they filled any compartment prone to produce sparks with inert nitrogen (N2). Electronics and motors work just as well in nitrogen, and if sparks do shoot up, nitrogen – which is locked into molecular form more tightly than oxygen – will smother them. Workers who enter an inert compartment simply have to wear gas masks or wait until the nitrogen is pumped out and breathable air seeps back in – a precaution not taken on March 19. \u00a0Someone gave the all clear too soon, and the technicians crawled into the chamber unaware, and they collapsed as if choreographed. The nitrogen not only prevented their neurons and heart cells from absorbing new oxygen; it pickpocketed the little oxygen cells store up for hard times, accelerating the technicians’ demise. Rescue workers dragged all five men out but could only revive three. John Bjornstad was dead and Forrest Cole died in a coma on April Fools’ Day.<\/p>\n

Culled from:\u00a0The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s a photograph of (L-R)\u00a0John Bjornstad, Nick Mullon and Forrest Cole in the aft compartment of\u00a0Columbia<\/em>. Although Nick Mullon survived, he suffered brain damage in the process of saving his co-workers and he was forced to go out on disability.
\n\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mourning Photo Du Jour!<\/h3>\n

Here’s another image culled from the newest addition to the Library Eclectica<\/a>, Sleeping Beauty III: Memorial Photography: The Children<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mother With Infant, Hands in Prayer.
\nDaguerrotype 1\/6 Plate, Circa 1847<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Deformities Du Jour!<\/h3>\n

Katchaya<\/strong> sent me a lovely link chock full of strange de14formities. \u00a0Makes for a pleasant afternoon’s perusal, indeed!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\n10 Real Deformities You Have To See To Believe<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today’s Inert Yet Truly Morbid Fact! On March 19, 1981, five technicians undid a panel on a simulation spacecraft at NASA’s Cape Canaveral headquarters and entered a cramped rear chamber above the engine. A thirty-three-hour “day” had just ended with a perfectly simulated liftoff, and with the space shuttle Columbia – the most advanced space […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts","category-ghastly","category-library"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5580"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11395,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5580\/revisions\/11395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}