this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2024
31 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

59374 readers
3169 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
31
UN banned Apollo Fusion's business model of using mercury rocket propellant to launch satellites into space (spectrum.ieee.org)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
7 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

UN banned Apollo Fusion's business model of using mercury rocket propellant to launch satellites into space::Startup Apollo Fusion was building thrusters that could have contaminated the upper atmosphere with the toxic metal

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (3 children)

It's a bit shitty that anyone would even think of doing this to begin with IMO, especially considering that mercury's harmful nature is no secret!

Mercury is otherwise found as a by-product of other processes, such as the burning of coal

Actually susprised that it's even viable to use a byproduct of burning something else as a fuel

Apollo Fusion [...] insisted that the composition of its propellant mixture should be considered confidential information.

Good thing it wasn't considered in this scenario. Racing fuel using nitrous oxide and whatever is one thing, but spraying mercury everywhere into the atmosphere with a rocket honestly sounds like a sick joke

"[...] It would give you a competitive advantage in what I imagine is a pretty tight, competitive market"

Launching rockets is a competitive market? TIL, I thought there were only a handful of companies operating with very generous margins

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

It's an ion thruster, not a rocket per say. You cannot use it in lower atmosphere at all (well you can but it doesn't do much), unfortunately some of the propellant would still find its way to the atmosphere.

The market of small thrusters for steering satellites is much larger than building actual rockets that take those satellites to orbit.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There's been various desktop-grade plans regarding use of nuclear rockets, both in the atmosphere and not. Never underestimate what engineers can come up with.

I think what they were trying to argue is that the mercury emitted would be no worse than the mercury already emitted as a byproduct of power plants.

Most rocket operators/manufacturers run on razor thin margins or at a loss, sustained by state subsidies or wishful venture capitalists.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

I completely forgot about coal power plants 🤦‍♂️ now it makes sense as to why mercury was even considered a viable rocket fuel.

Very interesting, thanks for the info!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Actually susprised that it's even viable to use a byproduct of burning something else as a fuel

Isn't charcoal that?