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Nitrogen Fullerenes - Powerful Chemistry

Posted by michael on from the where's-the-kaboom dept.

wildsurf writes "A post in sci.energy points to recent confirmation of the stable existence of N60 , through supercomputer simulation. Large-scale synthesis of this material could form the basis for tremendously powerful rocket fuel. Here is an in-depth article on the subject. What would you do with a few million liters of this stuff?"

2 of 30 comments (clear)

  1. What would i do? by President+Chimp+Toe · · Score: 5, Funny

    What would you do with a few million liters of this stuff?

    Give up smoking and try real hard not to fart.

  2. Economics by aburnsio.com · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The key is not so much whether you can sythesize N60, since this will probably be possible in the future. The key is the economics of such an operation.

    Economics, not pure technology, is what's driving the next generation of space travel. A primary goal of NASA's next generation launch vehicle to replace the shuttle is to bring down costs for moving payload to low-earth orbit. In particular, NASA wants to reduce the current cost of $10,000/kg by an order of magnitude to $1000/kg.

    Making this possible will require technological innovations within economic constraints, such as using kerosene fuel or nuclear engines. If you've been following Mars human exploration plans recently, you'll know that methane engines are one of the most promising plans for synthesizing fuel on Mars. In fact, any long-term Mars mission is likely to require some sort of production of fuel from the Martian surface, and methane can be produced quite readily given an external power source such as a nuclear reactor.

    Sure, N60 may provide a higher thrust/weight ratio, but then again, so does antimatter. Antimatter/matter combustion, in fact, has the highest thrust/weight ratio theoretically possible given current physics. We can even sythesize and store it, unlike N60, so we're ahead of the game there. And yet, you don't see antimatter engines because the costs are even more astronomical than the thrust/weight ratio. To get enough antimatter to launch just one LEO mission could very well bankrupt the world.

    In conclusion, although N60 has promising potential, the future of rocket propulsion is likely to lie with more conventional and cheaper fuels. Hydrocarbons such as methane and kerosene are still the king of fuels.