[AR] Re: Way OT question: degerate matter thrusters?
- From: Ian Woollard <ian.woollard@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2015 20:54:07 +0000
It would work in principle, but super compressed, super hot hydrogen would
(of course) work a whole heap better.
Air's pretty shit but would work, steam is significantly better (lower
molecular weight than N2/O2), hydrogen is much better still.
On 18 February 2015 at 19:35, Galejs, Robert - 1007 - MITLL <
galejs@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I know this is way off-topic, but it has always had me wondering and it
> seems like Arocket has the appropriate knowledge base to address this (or,
> at least wildly speculate)...
>
>
>
> In some of Larry Niven's sci-fi stories, he imagines rocket thrusters
> (between the ground and orbit) based on super-compressed air (supposedly
> "nearly degenerate matter"). Would such thrusters theoretically work, or
> are there some thermodynamic (or other physics) limitations that come into
> play?
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
>
> Robert
>
--
-Ian Woollard
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