dietz@SLB-DOLL.CSNET (Paul Dietz) (03/06/86)
The 3/3/86 issue of AWST has a short piece on the safety of the Galileo RTG. According to the article, the worst-case shuttle accident (explosion on the pad, in which the RTG is ejected into the flame-deflection pit) causes the RTG to experience an overpressure of 750 pounds per square inch. Mockup RTGs have been tested in shock tubes at 2000 lb/in^2 without rupturing. In the Challenger accident overpressures are estimated to have been in the 10 - 100 lb/in^2 range.