Ignition!
Metadata
- Author: John Drury Clark
Highlights
The substance of the article can be summarized in five simple statements. 1. Space travel is possible. 2. This can be accomplished by means of, and only by means of, rocket propulsion, since a rocket is the only known propulsive device which will work in empty space. 3. Gunpowder rockets cannot be used, since gunpowder (or smokeless powder either, for that matter) simply does not have enough energy to do the job. 4. Certain liquids do possess the necessary energy. 5. Liquid hydrogen would be a good fuel and liquid oxygen a good oxidizer, and the pair would make a nearly ideal propellant combination.
(The specific impulse is a measure of performance of a rocket and its propellants. It is obtained by dividing the thrust of the rocket in pounds, say, by the consumption of propellants in pounds per second. For instance, if the thrust is 200 pounds and the propellant consumption is one pound per second, the specific impulse is 200 seconds.)
The Rocket into Planetary Space,
You can’t do that with oxygen, which cannot be kept liquid above –119°C, its critical temperature, by any pressure whatsoever.
I thought one could increase pressure and liquefy any gas at any temperature