Advanced Hydrogen Containment
Advanced Hydrogen Containment — Terra Invicta technology. Researchers look for new methods to contain unwieldy forms of spacecraft propellant.
About Advanced Hydrogen Containment
Advanced Hydrogen Containment is a Terra Invicta technology in Materials with a research cost of 20,000.
Researchers look for new methods to contain unwieldy forms of spacecraft propellant.
Every gram counts when it comes to spaceship design - mass is the enemy of movement. Unfortunately, that applies to the propellant itself - a vicious circle that means the more kilos of propellant a ship stores, the more propellant it needs. Past a certain point, this becomes infeasible, which is why the only real solution is to reduce propellant mass. Liquid hydrogen has the lowest mass and provides the best specific impulse - i.e. efficient thrust - of the propellants available to us, but its low density means that it requires enormous storage tanks and extreme refrigeration in order to prevent evaporation. So we must establish how to reduce hydrogen's storage density. New breakthroughs in cryo-compression have finally allowed us to increase a higher energy density without suffering undue boil-off, while magnetic fields enable our hydrogen storage tanks to maintain a much higher pressure without risk of disaster. Hydrogen remains a devilish substance to contain, to be sure, but these discoveries working in tandem will allow our spacecraft to carry far vaster quantities of it than ever before.