Re: Alternative Fuel Storage
In reply to #1258 Why we don't see methane or ammonia-fuel starships by George William Herbert
[I changed the subject line to be more meaningful -- James] George William Herbert writes: >Ok, went home and thought about it and cranked some numbers. Figured out why >you don't want to use different fuels. [shows why you need LH2 for jump fuel] Quite true. I did a similar analysis. I think that in my original posting it was stated that the method wouldn't work for jump fuel. >The average starship has much if not most of its fuel volume as jump fuel. That depends. A scoutship has jump-2 and, if memory serves, a 864Mw powerplant. It needs 202.5 kl of jump fuel, and 311.04 kl to power the fusion plant for a month. Storing the power plant fuel as water would save about 100 kl, which would more than triple the cargo capacity. Any ship with a purification plant must have segmented fuel capacity, so storing some fuel as water and some as LH2 works. (although you probably want to adjust the temperature in a segment before switching fuel types :-) W. Dow Rieder When the only tool you have is a hammer, all your problems start to look like nails...