Rick Jones writes:

wrote:
OTOH, if the fuel was two components, say oxygen and hydrogen, then
neither oxygen tanks not hydrogen tanks are explosive on their own.
To keep them cold in space mainly requires sheilding from sunlight.

Wasn't it an O2 (LOX?) tank that detonated on the Apollo 13 mission?

Only because certain electrical components within the tank were overloaded
and caught on fire. A fire burning inside a liquid oxygen tank burns =VERY=
enthusiastically. The abrupt release of heat by the fire cause the tank
pressure to rise very, very rapidly, which caused the tank to _RUPTURE_,
not explode. The rupture of the tank releasing its pressurized contents
into the equipment bay very rapidly, and propelling fragments at high
velocity through nearby equipment. The effects produced by the rupture
of the overpressurized, overheated tank were _SIMILAR_ to an explosion;
however but there is nothing =INTRINSICALLY= "explosive" about liquid
oxygen per se.


-- Gordon D. Pusch

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