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Dangerous_Dac t1_iy95kem wrote

And even with all that volume and insulation, they're still constantly topping off the tanks until t-0, and all that gas you see billowing out from rockets on the pad is boiloff from large amounts seeping out from various junctions and connections because keeping that shit in one place is hard.

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jg727 t1_iy9abwl wrote

A lot of that is intentional release of hydrogen and oxygen.

They cryogenic fuels in rockets, stored at their freezing point. As they slowly warm up/boil off the liquids, the tanks have to hav a way to vent the excess pressure

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Prophet_of_Entropy t1_iydg0az wrote

hydrogen also leaks out or most seals and will even infiltrate metals and make them brittle, hydrogen isnt the new new miracle fuel.

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jg727 t1_iydu28q wrote

Yes, you're right. But I was referring to the obvious plumes of off gassing

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kr0kodil t1_iybuxan wrote

Yes, you’d run into the same issues with hydrogen-powered jets. You need to compress and refrigerate the hydrogen in order to store it in liquid or supercritical form, and you’d need to constantly vent off excess hydrogen when tank temperatures rise.

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