On Sun, Dec 15, 2019 at 8:37 PM Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Sun, 15 Dec 2019, Craig Fink wrote:
Anybody interested?
With any luck, no. :-) As Doug Jones commented the last time you brought
this up:
"Craig, have you ever worked with LH2?
I have, and it is a complete pain
in the ass.
Every step of the supply chain is expensive, slow to react to
demand, and wasteful. \
It brings with it all the materials science hassles
of embrittlement, the operational problems of *freezing* air,
oxygen-enriched liquid air drips and _their_ dangers, expensive quantities
of helium required for purges and pressurization, vacuum and aerogel
insulation, and a dozen other ways in which it is a step far beyond other
fuels. XCOR spent almost a decade learning how to handle LOX, alcohol,
kerosene, and methane IN THAT ORDER before we tackled LH2... and we made
it work but it was difficult for a full-time professional team with
man-centuries of experience."
Henry