Comment by zombiepiratefrspace on 01/08/2014 at 11:55 UTC

31 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)

View submission: Comic: Harpoons

Actually, there might be an unknown number of re-used steel that was formerly part of harpoons in space.

I read in a book[1] that some space-faring instrumentation is made from the salvaged metal of pre-WW2 German battleships, because the amount of radioactive contaminants in steel has been significantly increased since atmospheric nuclear weapons tests have started. So pre-WW2 steel creates less noise in the instruments.

Some harpoons could have made their way in via the battleship route.

[1] Not sure, either "Atomic" by Jim Baggott or "Atomic Awakening" by James Mahaffey

Replies

Comment by Shalmanese at 01/08/2014 at 21:55 UTC

6 upvotes, 1 direct replies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-background_steel#Sources