The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Silvera, Isaac F. and John W. Cole. 2010. Metallic hydrogen: The most powerful rocket fuel yet to exist. In International Conference on High Pressure Science and Technology, Joint AIRAPT-22 & HPCJ-50 : [proceedings] : 26-31 July 2009, Tokyo, Japan. Journal of Physics Conference Series 215(1): 012194.
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Metallic Hydrogen: The Most Powerful Rocket Fuel Yet To Exist
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Citation
Silvera, Isaac F. and John W. Cole. 2010. Metallic hydrogen: The
most powerful rocket fuel yet to exist. In International Conference
on High Pressure Science and Technology, Joint AIRAPT-22 &
HPCJ-50 : [proceedings] : 26-31 July 2009, Tokyo, Japan. Journal
of Physics Conference Series 215(1): 012194.
Published Version
doi:10.1088/1742-6596/215/1/012194
Accessed
January 29, 2017 9:39:25 PM EST
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http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:9569212
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Metallic Hydrogen: The Most Powerful Rocket Fuel Yet to Exist
Isaac F. Silvera1 and John W. Cole2
1Lyman Laboratory of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge MA 02138
2NASA MSFC, Retired, Huntsville, AL 35801
E-mail: silvera@physics.harvard.edu
Abstract. Wigner and Huntington first predicted that pressures of order 25 GPa were
required for the transition of solid molecular hydrogen to the atomic metallic phase.
Later it was predicted that metallic hydrogen might be a metastable material so that it
remains metallic when pressure is released. Experimental pressures achieved on
hydrogen have been more than an order of magnitude higher than the predicted
transition pressure and yet it remains an insulator. We discuss the applications of
metastable metallic hydrogen to rocketry. Metastable metallic hydrogen would be a
very light-weight, low volume, powerful rocket propellant. One of the characteristics
of a propellant is its specific impulse, Isp . Liquid (molecular) hydrogen-oxygen used
in modern rockets has an Isp of ~460s; metallic