Apparently in the same way that computer scientists worry about &quot;bugs&quot;, rocket scientists have to be concerned with &quot;rats&quot;:<p><pre><code>  But here an unexpected complication showed up. The peroxide 
  was to be stored aboard airplane carriers in aluminum 
  tanks. And then suddenly it was discovered that trace 
  quantities of chlorides in peroxide made the latter 
  peculiarly corrosive to aluminum. How to keep traces of 
  chloride out of anything when you&#x27;re sitting on an ocean of 
  salt water was a problem whose solution was not entirely 
  obvious.

  And there was always the problem of gross pollution. Say 
  that somebody dropped (accidentally or otherwise) a 
  greasy wrench into 10,000 gallons of 90 percent peroxide in 
  the hold of the ship. What would happen—and would the ship 
  survive? This question so worried people that one 
  functionary in the Rocket Branch (safely in Washington) 
  who had apparently been reading Captain Horatio Horn- 
  blower, wanted us at NARTS to build ourselves a 10,000-
  gallon tank, fill it up with 90 percent peroxide, and then 
  drop into it—so help me God—one rat. (He didn&#x27;t specify 
  the sex of the rat.) It was with considerable difficulty 
  that our chief managed to get him to scale his order down 
  to one test tube of peroxide and one quarter inch of rat 
  tail.
</code></pre>
Brilliant short book, thanks for posting!