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Ok so we have all kinds of neats ideas about Spaceflight.
..But.. try it on a different level...
Project..come up with a drive that works without fossil fuels.
My own design converts electrical energy to momentum energy though not directly.
But I've also heard about a Helium-3 Deutrinium fussion drive, that sounds extremely cheap and clean. Great idea for a back-up drive (to my design) or for those designing a simple ship with abundantly cheap energy in a point and go style rocketship. Its based of course on the fussion power plant idea. wonderful if we could obtain enough helium-3, but i'm skipping to the punchline.
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Hmm. Designing an engine without plastics... tough job.
"We go big, or we don't go." - GCNRevenger
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If I understand correctly fossil fuels are simply the cheapest source of plastics material. All your hydrocarbons necessary for plastics manufacture can be synthesized in other ways. Using brute force you could burn wood to fire a steam turbine to produce enough electricity to make whatever materials needed (including rocket fuel). Zubrin states in Case for Mars that with enough power plastics can easily be produced from hydrogen and CO2.
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Plastics? *confusion*
Isn't he talking about rocket fuel? We do burn "fossil fuels" in LOX/Kerosene engines already. Most American rockets, with the exception of Atlas, use solid rocket boosters (Aluminum, Ammonium Perchlorate, Hydroxyl-terminated Polybutadiene) combined with oxygen/hydrogen rockets. Most Russian rockets use oxygen/kerosene, with noteable exceptions like Proton (N2O4/UDMH hypergolics) or Energia (LOX/kerosene boosters, oxygen/hydrogen mains)
Yes we can make polymers from CO2+H2+energy, but the process is pretty complex I would imagine.
[i]"The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those that do not have it." - George Bernard Shaw[/i]
[i]The glass is at 50% of capacity[/i]
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Project..come up with a drive that works without fossil fuels.
LOX/LH2.
Produce the LOX and the LH2 by eletrolysis of H2O, the elctricity coming from hydro, nuclear, wind generation, etc.
That was a dawdle. (g)
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I think Edwards and I were taking it a step further and taking fossil fuels out of the equation completely - from the beginning of time. How do you produce the parts for the nuclear reactor, wind turbine, solar panels, and hydro plant without fossil fuels?
Rocket fuel is easy, it's the plastics that we need most.
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How do you produce the parts for the nuclear reactor, wind turbine, solar panels, and hydro plant without fossil fuels?
If coal, oil, etc. are used to make plastics and so forth, they are not employed as fuels but raw materials. Therefore, as the original question asks about fuels only, LOX/LH2 wins with a technical knockout.
:band:'
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We'd have cars made out of metal, aluminum, Al2O3 (transparent aluminum), and have hydrogen powered economy... what a beautiful world ;_;.
The MiniTruth passed its first act #001, comname: PATRIOT ACT on October 26, 2001.
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And . . . and . . . hybrid electric cars only within city limits (to start with, at least, until something better comes along), to eliminate idling-emissions in stopped traffic--as soon as possible. And, while we're working on that, no politicians should be allowed to run for administrative office who are connected in any way with the petroleum industry.
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...no politicians should be allowed to run for administrative office who are connected in any way with the petroleum industry.
Or are lawyers.
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