jedcline

Also wondering (maybe too far off-topic re the diesel tree?) if injected hydrogen peroxide has been tried as the oxidizer in a small fuel injection internal combustion engine, instead of burning air, possibly useful in some applications.

Are there online resources where I can find numbers as to energy density for various hydrocarbon fuels such as ethanol, gasoline, methane, diesel fuel, vegetable oils, "diesel fuel tree" oil, animal fats, coal, blown particulates such as corn starch and pulverized switchgrass, and a variety of woods, combusted theoretically optimally with air? Also for outline descriptions as to how these values were measured. And sites showing efficiency of hydrocarbon fuels conversion into mechanical and/or electrical energy, for various constant-rpm engines, fuel cells or other means. Also the processes for conversion, by man or nature, of each of their combustion byproducts back into the fuel forms by use of sunlight's energy by photosynthesis by various kinds of plants or other means, so as to close the energy cycle. Maybe this needs to be a separate thread but as a newbie to the forum I cannot post new threads yet.

Thanks for the welcome, Mercedez-Benzene. Re "I would suggest checking out Hypography's very own sci-fi epic, found here: We haven't done much in a while, but it was a fun thing while it lasted!" Indeed will be interesting to read beyond the first several pages I have quickly looked at. Reminds me of the 2005 paper by Anthony Zuppero "Propulsion to moons of Jupiter using heat and water without electrolysis or cryogenics" using a nuclear rocket, the idea being to pick up water along the way in the solar system for use as reaction mass. His presentation of the paper also included the vision of a nuclear powered interstellar adventure, which he speculated that might be done by his grandkids. A bit of discomfort for me was that he also was a somewhat adversarial reviewer of the concept I presented in the same conference session.

Ah, "free star" now it is clear. Still evocative tho. Hmm ... am not sure re the term "hard sci fi" but probably yes since it is fairly technical and has little of the classical "Fantasy&SF" component. Most staid conventional folks would call it all sheer fantasy, of course. I wrote most of them in participation with the annual NanoWriMo online novel writing activity occurring each November; that is, written for the fun of creative writing per the event's time-constrained rules. Are you familiar with the nanowrimo.org (National Novel Writing Month) annual writing activity ... is a great way to write for fun.

Thanks for the reply! An evocative nickname, that of Freezetar, and I wonder its inspirational source. It would be encouraging if some here on the forum read and commented on my sci fi efforts. The better written ones (practice makes perfect ...er, better) are "Building Up" and "It's Down to Earth". Being a newbie I can't post the links in this message, but with some digging they can be found starting at escalatorhi.com and selecting the science fiction link. I had submitted one of them in hardcopy to Analog Sci Fi magazine but was rejected because I had put it first on my website, so that is the only place it can be read, like the others. The novels take place in the relatively near future and fairly near the earth using unconventional uses of conventional technology.

A generalist? Jack of all trades and master of none? A scientist wannabe past his time? Usually so far off the beaten track that rarely do the tracks cross? On the way to being a physicist, I tried to fly too high first go, and crash landed so hard that it has been hobbling around ever since. Several times I thought I had found the way for accessing space in a big way, but was easily out-shouted by others hawking their different kind of wares. I console myself by putting my ideas on my web pages that nobody sees, and by writing science fiction novels freely available in the same places, also which nobody reads. In retirement from a career in electronics, I have taken up a new part of science, marine biology, volunteer work doing nitty gritty stuff re Isopods, little insect-like critters that live on the bottom of the sea. I'm ever at the task of trying to figure out why people did what they did, in hopes of avoiding being in their way the next time. And I wonder, is there some way, some routine technique or tool, that would that would enable one to strive determinedly toward a worthy scientific goal by focusing on that best-fit connective path, yet also frequently look up and see the surrounding terrain's potentials without getting lost up there? And how to far more efficiently catch the sunlight's energy to use it to more abundantly diversely power life's great engine before re-radiating the energy back out into the darkness of space as low energy heat? And if we could engineer the means for economically building a highway to space up to high earth orbit in the near future, so as to enable building a second story to civilization there, is there some way that humans could be kept aware we are all on the same ship that needs all our efforts to stay afloat, forming a threshold to the bickering level? I've a thirst for knowledge that has become matched with the imagination of what one could do with it. But ah, time is running out, getting lots older and wiser?