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    Chemists create new high-energy compound to fuel space flight
    Space

    Chemists create new high-energy compound to fuel space flight

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    1. Pharisaeus on

      > 20% more energetic by weight and about 150% more energetic by volume compared to the aluminum currently used in solid rocket boosters

      Interesting, but probably more for military and making smaller ICBMs than for spaceflight.

    2. wdwerker on

      I didn’t see any mention of how toxic the combustion products might be. Or how safe and stable it is long term before the rocket is flown ?

    3. Sweet_Lane on

      Billion Buck Boron Booboo

      >
      Fifteen years ago people used to ask me “What is an exotic fuel anyway?” and I would answer “It’s expensive, it’s got boron in it, and it probably doesn’t work.” I had intended, originally, to entitle this chapter “The Billion Buck Boron Booboo,” but decided against it on two grounds. The first was that such a title might conceivably be considered tactless by some of the people who authorized the programs concerned. The second reason is that it would not be completely accurate. Actually, the boron programs did not cost a billion dollars. It just seemed that way at the time.