Why We Need to Expand into Space

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xraydog

ege is right. We hit the performance upper limit for chemical rockets decades ago. I think it's long past time to switch to nuclear rocketry. So many problem just vanish when you have that kind of performance. You don't need super large rockets to go to the moon anymore. And in the space business, smaller = cheaper.

Oh, and by performance I mean specific impulse.

Morninglord

It's great how I can use a concrete example as a metaphor for an entire idea, and people focus on the concrete example and think that knocking over that means the whole idea is void. Sorry guys, there's lots more examples I can use. Thousands of them. Try tackling the idea instead, which in this case is almost any research in these fields have the potential for resulting in useful stuffs.
But I'm gonna leave that up to electricity cos he and I seem pretty much on the same page here. Plus he knows more about the actual concrete examples than I do. I'm more of an ideas man. :P

Glal

electricitylikesme wrote: »

...compound similar (in fact almost identical) to the coating they used on the Hindenburg (it blew because it was covered in rocket fuel, not from the relatively small amount of hydrogen on board).

Well, there's some disagreement on this point among whoever is actually a specialist for these kinds of things. When the Mythbusters tested it out they determined the hydrogen was in fact the (main) culprit, but you definitely could see the paint adding to the effect.
The main problem with the paint theory is that you need a pretty exact mix, othewise the reaction will be muted or gone entirely. With the proportions used on the Hindeburg's top or bottom halves there was some reaction, but it wasn't anywhere near rocket fuel levels.

Then again, they might also have fucked up somewhere, wouldn't be the first time. ;-)

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Glal

Can't find the videos of the "just hydrogen" and "air with historical record paint" burns, but here's the final one where they literally coated the thing in rocket fuel. Another con to the paint theory is that, even if the records are wrong and they painted the thing with a mixture that wasn't just flammable but actually thermite, the end result is very ridig and very heavy.

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