M-Hyd

[kilemall]

In the fleet forum I postulated that Metallic Hydrogen would be the material used in HG capacitors, as it is available at low tech levels and doesn't get 'better', and given it's formation a logical consequence of being able to use gravitics for materials technology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metallic_hydrogen

Well, recently scientists have claimed creating some (and of course doubts)-

https://www.neowin.net/news/this-we...-doubts-a-holographic-universe-study-and-more

But the part that caught my attention and had not considered was rocket fuel.

They are saying M-Hyd would contain 4x the usual propellant impulse due to the 'stored' energy involved in making the metallic hydrogen in the first place.

https://phys.org/news/2017-01-metallic-hydrogen-theory-reality.html

So, if that proves out, and if the metastable aspect also proves out which makes me think 'leaky' hydrogen would be less of an issue, is a rethink about M-Hyd being what fills our ship and grav vehicle tanks in order?

 

[Carlobrand]

Wouldn't it require a rather large amount of energy to maintain it in that state?

 

[kilemall]

The scientists are claiming it might be metastable at room temperature or so without the need for maintaining pressure.

As such, it might be usable for power lines, an engineering issue for the larger ships in Traveller that have 250 gigawatt plus power to deliver to spinal weapons, drives etc.