Tucson Vacation Day 4: Sunday, July 6

[shadowsmark]

Sunday morning, in a somewhat ironic turn of events, our hosts left for the Bay Area in their nice red Prius. We packed up, and headed out to visit a Titan missile (sans its warhead). I was rather dubious about it, but in fact found it fascinating. When all the Titan missiles were decommissioned in 1982, this one was saved as a museum. Since

Comments

[gomijacogeo]

I wanted to ask what happened if either of the two officers was unable to unlock their lock on the lockbox which contained the launch code.

It would probably be treated the same way as a failure to turn the launch key (i.e. not pretty for the guy having the problem). By putting the lock on the cabinet, the person has demonstrated the functioning of the lock and the ability to open it.

Also, from what I understand, there were drills where an incoming message was authenticated, but selected a "this was a test" set of instructions (which were kept in the file cabinet). Problems opening the file cabinet would have been detected pretty early on in the process.

Some kind of adaptation, no doubt.

[jymdyer]

=v= That reddish/pinkish cactus doesn't look all that prickly. Its expanse of light-colored skin must be there to reflect away the harsh sunlight.

[r_wolfcastle]

If either of the two officers was unable to unlock their lock on the lockbox which contained the launch code, they would use dilute nitric acid (*) to dissolve away the lock on the balky lockbox. But the solution strapped to the wall is not nitric acid, as that would mean that anyone with physical silo access could access the contents of the lockboxes without a key.

Instead, the bottle you saw contains ammonia. The lockbox keys themselves were constructed of a reticulated metal substrate coated with a still-classified mix of cobalt compounds and/or noble metals. The lockbox keys themselves therefore acted as superior catalysts for the oxidation of of the ammonia to produce nitric oxide, and from thence nitric acid. Thus the lockbox keys were still required to open the lockboxes regardless.

(*) Why a dilute nitric acid, you ask? Because although iron and steel can be readily dissolved by dilute nitric acid, concentrated nitric acid forms a metal oxide layer that protects the metal from further oxidation, which is called passivation.

[shadowsmark]

Thanks for all the cool, nerdy detail!

Yeah, that solution was nowhere near the lockbox; it was on the wall near an observation window into the missile silo. We weren't told what it was for--I just happened to be struck by the expiration date.

[r_wolfcastle]

When I bullshit someone, I try to do a reasonable job, no matter how far-fetched the premise. Maybe I'll be on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me one of these days.