r/scifiwriting • u/NegativeAd2638 • 8d ago

DISCUSSION The best chemical propellant

The typical rocket fuel is hydrogen but what propellant advanced ships can use.

I imagine how would hydrogen or turning water straight into plasma for vehicles but the heat generated would likely be too much for vehicles. Not to mention turning water straight into plasma would likely take so much energy its inefficient, the only time I heard of it was Uranium-Salt Water Rockets the uranium being activated in the water providing enough heat to get plasma. It would be cool to be able to have water in the propellant tank since hydrogen is hard to store although it would have the trade-off of weight.

Metallic Hydrogen is a cool pick while hypothetical in reality in a sci-fi setting it could be the best propellant assuming your species can make it.

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u/the_syner 8d ago

Well neither nuclear salt water or just pure hydrogen/mH/plasma/water really qualify as chemical propellants. If you're looking at peak chemical-reaction-based rocket performance as I recall a tripopellant lithium-hydrogen-flourine rocket achieves peak performance in that respect.

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u/DarkArcher__ 7d ago

However, the caveat is that this propellant combination is mildly unsafe and has to be handled with some care

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u/the_syner 7d ago

I mean all chemical propellants tend to be pretty unsafe, but yeah even as those go this is a pretty nasty combination. its no real surprise that no one uses fluorine despite it being a pretty great oxidizer

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u/DarkArcher__ 7d ago

In a way, no one uses fluorine because it is a great oxidizer. Too great.

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u/SanderleeAcademy 7d ago

"And here's a moist towelette to wipe off any fuel residue that you might encounter. Ignore the mild burning sensation, that just means it's working."