Galactic Tech Empire

Chapter 228 Submetallic Hydrogen
The supercomputing center has used a large part of its computing power to calculate the movement of the middle atmosphere.

Although the force of convective weather is much weaker than that in the troposphere due to the very low density of the atmosphere in the mesosphere, this does not mean that the atmospheric motion in the mesosphere can be ignored.

The middle layer does not generate high and low pressure, but because the atmospheric density of the middle layer is very small, long-period fluctuations such as planetary waves will be transmitted from the bottom layer with a large amplitude.

According to such a fluctuation phenomenon, a mechanically unstable part will be formed in a place with an extremely large amplitude, and this fluctuation phenomenon also has a great influence on the atmospheric circulation in its vicinity.

If these problems are not considered, the use of vacuum pipes in the atmosphere will cause major problems.

Although the plan for the first phase of the mass projector system does not intend to erect a vacuum pipeline in the middle layer, the second phase in the future will definitely be erected.

So these issues have to be considered. Since the mass projector system is a system, a little variable may cause a terrible butterfly effect.

In addition to the problem of atmospheric movement in the mesosphere, there is another problem, the problem of the space station.

In the second phase, Huang Haojie plans to build a space station near the Karman line, and the altitude of the Karman line is 100 kilometers, which is generally called ultra-low low-Earth orbit.

Why are the man-made celestial bodies such as artificial satellites or space stations on one side operating at an altitude of more than 300 kilometers, and generally operate at a position of 500-600 kilometers?
That’s because the area at an altitude of 100 to 300 kilometers, although defined by the aerospace industry as an aerospace area, still has a very high atmospheric content (compared to outer space).

In this way, man-made celestial bodies operating in this area will inevitably be affected by air resistance. Although this air resistance seems very small, once time goes by, the height of man-made celestial bodies will definitely continue to drop.

As the altitude of man-made celestial bodies keeps decreasing, they will get closer to the ground, and the closer to the ground, the denser the atmosphere will be, which can only create a vicious circle, and finally fall to the ground.

Of course, no one has tried to use this area. For example, the space agency of the Sun Kingdom launched the "Swallow" ultra-low orbit experimental satellite last year (2017). The operating altitude of the Swallow satellite is between 180 and 250 kilometers. .

In order to offset the atmospheric resistance, the sun people used ion engines.

The working principle of this engine is to ionize the gas first, then use electromagnetic force to accelerate the charged ions and then eject them, and use the reaction force as power to propel.

Ion engines have always been a popular power source that major aerospace powers are keen on researching and developing. They are known as the main force of future aerospace power, and major aerospace powers are constantly researching and developing them.

The primary purpose of Sunman launching this ultra-low orbit satellite is to test the efficiency of ion engines and the durability of materials.

However, the swallow satellite plus fuel, the overall weight is only a few tens of kilograms.

The reason why it is so small is mainly because of a weakness of ion engines, that is, high specific impulse and low thrust. If you want to achieve high thrust, the only way is to use nuclear batteries.

Otherwise, the Karman line space station of Yinhe Technology would not be able to use the ion engine as the vector correction power. After all, in addition to the mass of several hundred tons of the space station, it also needs to bear the mass of cables up to 40 kilometers.

How does a space station with a mass of several hundred tons use ion engines? Unless Huang Haojie points out nuclear fusion generators now, let’s play with chemical energy propulsion obediently!

But chemical energy propulsion is not out of consideration.

There are two kinds of fuels for chemical energy propulsion: one is a liquid substance, the other is a solid substance, and there is also a mixture of liquid and solid.

Liquid fuel: According to theoretical calculations, the best liquid fuel is liquid hydrogen, and the mixed combustion of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen can produce a specific impulse equal to about 350.

The specific impulse is the ratio of the thrust (kilogram force) of the chemical energy engine to the mass flow rate (kg/s) of the ejected particles per second.

If liquid ozone or liquid fluorine is used instead of liquid oxygen, the specific impulse can be increased to about 370, and Mao Xiong has a hydrofluorine generator. The problem is that the product after burning is highly toxic.

Engines in which both the combustion agent and the oxidizer are in liquid form are called liquid fuel engines.

In addition to liquid hydrogen, substances such as methanol, ethanol, high-concentration hydrazine hydrate, dimethylhydrazine, and nitromethane can be used as liquid fuels.

Solid fuel is sodium borohydride, dimer acid diisocyanate, ferrocene and its derivatives, etc. can be used as composite solid fuel.

Some metals or non-metals with low density, such as lithium, beryllium, magnesium, aluminum, boron, etc., especially beryllium can release huge energy during combustion, and the heat released by complete combustion of every kilogram of beryllium is as high as 15000 kJ, which is An excellent chemical fuel that gives off more heat than hydrogen.

These metals are usually made into fuel agents of nanometer-sized particles.

For example, adding nano-scale aluminum or nickel particles with a mass fraction of 1 to the solid fuel propellant launched by a rocket can increase the combustion heat per gram of fuel by about 1 times.

However, the disadvantages of these fuels are that some of the elements are very rare and all involve technical difficulties when burning - smoke, oxide deposits, etc.

If one of the two fuels is solid and the other is liquid, it is called a solid-liquid chemical energy engine or an engine directly called by its substance name; for example, a hydrogen-oxygen engine.

Since the energy generated by the solid combustion agent is higher than the energy emitted by the liquid oxidant, most of the rocket engines developed are solid-liquid rocket engines. The two fuels meet and burn to form high-temperature and high-pressure gas, which is ejected from the nozzle to generate huge thrust. Send the launch vehicle into space.

Huang Haojie was thinking about this question, and suddenly he realized: "Maybe that thing can be used."

He immediately called up the [Hydrogen Curing Catalyst] database, and then thought while calculating.

The hydrogen gas solidified by the hydrogen curing catalyst will appear in the state of metal hydrogen, but the solidified metal hydrogen loses the characteristics of room temperature superconductivity and explosion due to the doping of the catalyst in it.

It can be said that there are gains and losses. The Institute of Materials named this metal hydrogen substance submetallic hydrogen.

Under normal circumstances, submetallic hydrogen is very stable, and only under the stimulation of specific conditions, the metal hydrogen state will be released, and the previously solidified metal hydrogen will be released.

Submetallic hydrogen, on the other hand, is about seven times denser than liquid hydrogen, 94 percent of which is hydrogen atoms, and the remaining 6 percent is the curing catalyst.

1 cubic meter of submetallic hydrogen can produce 6.58 cubic meters of liquid hydrogen.

We can see the gap by looking at the density of the three states of hydrogen: gaseous hydrogen 0.089 kg per cubic meter, liquid hydrogen 70.8 kg per cubic meter, and submetallic hydrogen 497.2 kg per cubic meter.

Among aerospace rockets, the most troublesome thing may be the storage of liquid hydrogen, although the preparation of hydrogen is very simple, and it can be obtained by directly electrolyzing water.

Liquid hydrogen has minimal space requirements, but it needs to be stored at minus 225 degrees Celsius, which takes a lot of energy to maintain that temperature.

Hydrogen is the gas with the smallest molecular weight, lighter than helium, so it escapes very easily.

Therefore, liquid hydrogen is not easy to store, because this thing is not only flammable and explosive, but also needs to be sealed and stored at low temperature. Even if it is sealed and stored at low temperature, if it is not used for a long time, the liquid hydrogen will slowly leak out.

Submetallic hydrogen successfully solved this problem.

Huang Haojie sat on a chair and looked at the information on submetallic hydrogen. It seems that he wants to cooperate with Dongtang Aerospace Systems. It may be too late to rely on Yinhe Technology alone.

(End of this chapter)