Space startup Apollo Fusion might have contaminated the upper atmosphere with the toxic metal
UN banned Apollo Fusion’s business model of using mercury rocket propellant to launch satellites into space::Startup Apollo Fusion was building thrusters that could have contaminated the upper atmosphere with the toxic metal
Mercury would be a denser propellant than xenon/other Nobel gasses used for ion thrusters in orbit. There’s been a ton of other insane fuel types proposed over the years which thankfully haven’t been used (although a lot of rockets have and still use toxic hypergolic fuels like hydrazine)
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A two year old article, but it’s kind of nice to see that this shit was prevented
But we don’t need regulation /s
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Mercury would be a denser propellant than xenon/other Nobel gasses used for ion thrusters in orbit. There’s been a ton of other insane fuel types proposed over the years which thankfully haven’t been used (although a lot of rockets have and still use toxic hypergolic fuels like hydrazine)
Good vid going over some of these fuels: https://youtu.be/_wLk2j7_KB0