OT of an OT: Ethanol

[Atrocities]

What would happen to a planet who's atmosphere is hydrogen/whatever, and you tried to land a rocket on it? would it not ignite the atmosphere?

[Renegade 13]

Atrocities said:
What would happen to a planet who's atmosphere is hydrogen/whatever, and you tried to land a rocket on it? would it not ignite the atmosphere?

Only if there was an oxidizing agent also present to fuel the combustion. Ignition requires fuel source (in this case the hydrogen), heat (rocket exhaust) and oxygen.

[Renegade 13]

Thermodyne said:
What about when you fuse hydrogen into helium? That gives you energy. And fuel is just stored energy, so wouldn�t hydrogen be fuel? I guess deuterium would be high test and cost more too

Ah why don't we just jump straight from fossil fuels to fusion! Deuterium-Tritium fusion should produce a lot of energy. Just never mind the really bad induced radioactivity of the fusion plant materials from the high neutron flux!

[Renegade 13]

Phoenix-D said:

Hydrogen isn't an energy source. You have to produce it, either by cracking water or other slightly more complicated methods. Either way you need power to do it, which leads right around to the same problem..

True, but the same can be said of all energy sources. They all came straight from solar energy at one point or another. Well, you also have some energy produced by the decay of radioactive materials within Earth's crust plus a little bit of tidal heating, but those are minor considerations. What we really need is more efficient ways of gathering and harnessing all the massive amounts of solar energy that just goes flying by. Would large solar collectors in orbit work? Make them a few thousand kilometers wide and you'd capture a hell of a lot of energy. I'm sure the logisitics of getting something that large up there and maintaining it would be horrendous, and it might be hard to get the power down to Earth in a usable form, but imagine the sheer power!

[Thermodyne]

Renegade 13 said:

Just never mind the really bad induced radioactivity of the fusion plant materials from the high neutron flux!

That�s why we plan to put them all in Canada

[StarShadow]

Well...we certainly have enough un-used land. Then the question becomes...would you be able to afford it when we sell it back to you?

[parabolize]

Thermodyne said:
I guess I�ll play the smart ***.

What about when you fuse hydrogen into helium? That gives you energy. And fuel is just stored energy, so wouldn�t hydrogen be fuel? I guess deuterium would be high test and cost more too

From what I know the best we got right now is a magnetic tokamak that uses way more energy to contain the reaction then what the steam turbines get out of the thermal energy produced.

Fission on the other hand is productive but puts out a lot of radioactive waste.

Wait, I take that back. The sun is a productive fusion reaction with are solar collectors, windmills and plants.

[Glyn]

I'm suprised no one has brought up Helium 3 fuel.

"Researchers and space enthusiasts see helium 3 as the perfect fuel source" He3 link

The only draw backs: Its rare on earth and there is no working reactor.

[Phoenix-D]

We can't even do regular fusion yet and Helium 3 is harder, so its out of the woods for now.

[Glyn]

from what I have read the Helium 3 is in theroy easier to fuse and with a lot less radioactive waste.