I've always thought an Enzmann ship uses a ball of heavy water ice, maybe with some
hydrogen slush.
I can't believe anyone ever thought solid hydrogen would be strong enough.
The ship's T/W would be very low but the ice has to withstand friction with
interstellar matter.
BTW I think I've read that solid H is very strong, but exists only under extreme
pressure or temperatures.
I still think an Enzmann ship is feasible, with a few tweaks.
The Isp of the engines will be lower then with pure hydrogen but the mass ratio could
be very high.
Yossi
PS Danger, danger, we're veering off topic ....
> > an article that described a plan to freeze a big ball of hydrogen at Jupiter
> > and attach it to a ship that would use it for fuel. Or perhaps it was
> > deuterium so they could use fusion...
>
> Deuterium, as I recall. That's an Enzmann starship. Unfortunately, that
> design doesn't work: solid hydrogen/deuterium is the prime example of an
> ice which is *not* physically strong. (It has roughly the consistency of
> warm butter.) Enzmann apparently didn't know that.
>
> (For quite fundamental reasons, hydrogen essentially acts as if it was
> considerably warmer than it is. Liquid hydrogen is halfway to being a
> gas: light, quite compressible, very low viscosity -- less than that of
> room-temperature air! -- and easily boiled. And solid hydrogen is halfway
> to being a liquid: soft, amorphous, and easily melted.)
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