The following information possibly might be helpful. In some of Dean's previous
posts and in Cater's book there are mention of missles losing weight after
traveling through the radiation belt around the earth. Specifically, these
radiation belts were named after Dr. Van Allen at the University of Iowa
in the US that led the projects that discovered them.
My dad worked directly under Dr. Van Allen from about 1960? to 1966.
I hear the Van Allen still goes to work ever so often even though he's
semi-retired. I might possibly try to contact him directly (when I'm
visiting my folks in Iowa) if I can. It might be interesting to see
how he responds to questions about missles that have lost weight.
My guess is that it would be a total waste of time and he would know
nothing about weight loss but you never know for sure, I suppose.
unless one tries.
Jeff