• Gladaed@feddit.de
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    9 months ago

    Hydrogen is not sustainable while electric power could be used for other things. Only when there is a massive excess of renewables(+Batteries) this becomes remotely viable.

    • Sonori@beehaw.org
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      9 months ago

      You can’t exactly use electricity directly to power a rocket, and fuel represents such a small cost compared to everything else that governments can afford the dedicated production.

      Honestly though, the spacecraft themselves are such a tiny emitter compared to things like manufacturing, transport, and electrical generation that they can basically be ignored untill we have basically eliminated thouse emissions.

        • Sonori@beehaw.org
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          9 months ago

          Ion and Hall effect thrusters have high efficiencies, but absurdly small thrusts. They work in situations where you can burn for months on end to get the same change in velocity a few minutes worth of a chemical rocket, but would never be able to lift even their own weight off earth.

          I also don’t the think that you can even get one to function as deep into the atmosphere as ground level as the would just ark across the potential instead.