Quote:
Originally Posted by malloyd
T
The real kicker is metallic hydrogen, which, giving that stuff actually labeled "superdense" is available in stable enough form to use as armor, should be *easy* with Traveller tech. And totally destructive to canon ship designs, with theoretical densities *starting* at over 10 times that of liquid hydrogen and going up to like 60 times for some phases.
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Yes, especially since Traveller LH2 tanks almost have to invovle superscience to keep that hydrogen without it leaking away. NASA simp;ly always ordered twice as much LH2 as it needed knowing half of it would just seep out of the tanks before it could be used.
My personal speculation is that the fuel tanks are lined with repulsor projectors so the hydrogen never touches the walls of the tanks. compressing the hydrogen to the metallic phase would take lots of energy but fusion power is cheap.
Of course as you hint using metallic hydrogen tankage means everyone maxes out their J-drive to the limits of their TL (J-6 for the 3rd Imperium). They might even carry fuel for 2 J-6s.