Of course, Hydrogen is not necessarily the most well behaved fuel (witness the Hindenberg disaster, although in that case there is concern that doping the skin of the Hindenberg with a mixture resembling gunpowder was also a problem...) but the possibilities of having a reasonably clean environmentally friendly fuel ready to take over from Crude oil derivatives is something we should be thankful for.
Actually, in many respects, hydrogen is no more dangerous than gasoline. In some cases, it is actually less dangerous. Since hydrogen is such a light element, any tank rupture is going to result in rapid dissipation of the hydrogen gas. Gasoline, in comparison, is much heavier in its gaseous form.
The major problem in using hydrogen as a fuel source is in storing it. It takes much more complex tanks to store hydrogen gas than regular gasoline.
I remember reading about something like this in a book by Marshall Savage (How to Colonize the Galaxy in 8 Steps or something like that.)
The idea was to accelerate a launch vehicle down a mag-track and up the side of a mountain. When the capsule emerged, the rest of the propulsion force would come from large, earth-bound lasers vaporizing a block of super-frozen ice on the back of the capsule and expelling it out a rear nozzle.
While I'm not sure about the strength of the actual science behind this idea, it sounded pretty interesting. More info about it is probably available at Savage's site (http://www.fmf.org).
A bit offtopic, but how does a database such as Postgres compare to Oracle, DB2 and Sybase? I'm looking to develop an application requiring high-volume, high-performance database access (primarily information 'look-ups') and I was trying to figure out what would be the best route to go as far as a database-backend was concerned.
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Damn that Joker for unplugging the overlord!
Of course, Hydrogen is not necessarily the most well behaved fuel (witness the Hindenberg disaster, although in that case there is concern that doping the skin of the Hindenberg with a mixture resembling gunpowder was also a problem...) but the possibilities of having a reasonably clean environmentally friendly fuel ready to take over from Crude oil derivatives is something we should be thankful for.
Actually, in many respects, hydrogen is no more dangerous than gasoline. In some cases, it is actually less dangerous. Since hydrogen is such a light element, any tank rupture is going to result in rapid dissipation of the hydrogen gas. Gasoline, in comparison, is much heavier in its gaseous form.
The major problem in using hydrogen as a fuel source is in storing it. It takes much more complex tanks to store hydrogen gas than regular gasoline.
>All they need is a car lot to complete the shopping experience.
Done. The GM Test Track ride concludes by dumping you in an auto showroom.
I remember reading about something like this in a book by Marshall Savage (How to Colonize the Galaxy in 8 Steps or something like that.)
The idea was to accelerate a launch vehicle down a mag-track and up the side of a mountain. When the capsule emerged, the rest of the propulsion force would come from large, earth-bound lasers vaporizing a block of super-frozen ice on the back of the capsule and expelling it out a rear nozzle.
While I'm not sure about the strength of the actual science behind this idea, it sounded pretty interesting. More info about it is probably available at Savage's site (http://www.fmf.org).
Thanks for the info!
A bit offtopic, but how does a database such as Postgres compare to Oracle, DB2 and Sybase? I'm looking to develop an application requiring high-volume, high-performance database access (primarily information 'look-ups') and I was trying to figure out what would be the best route to go as far as a database-backend was concerned.