A Tall Tail: A Tor.Com OriginalFrom the author of Rule 34 and Halting State, a tale of deception, engineering, and the most unlikely rocket propulsion technology imaginable. |
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anti-shipping missile artificial river Atom City Nine battery beryllium bright idea build a starship burn caught my eye CHARLES STROSS chemical rockets Chernobyl chlorine trifluoride cocktail Cold War conference corrosive crazy cryogenic D-SLAM declassified dimethylmercury Dinitrogen tetroxide e-book efficient Elemental fluorine else’s energy exhaust stream explosive FOOF gamma emission gamma radiation going Greg hand happened Happy fun hard SF hydrofluoric acid irradiated Jim Benford Jim waved Langley launch pad leak Leonard lime margarita liquid fluorine liquid oxygen look mercury doesn’t exist NAIL SPIKE nastier nasty stuff neurotoxin North Korean nuclear isomer nuclear thermal nuclear-thermal Number orbit Orlando oxidizing agent personal devices PLUTO poisonous poolside powdered aluminum Pripyat Project reactor complex red mercury rocket exhaust rocket fuel rocket motor rocket scientist shook his head shuttle main engines someone Soviet spies space shuttle main special additive specific impulse SRBs talking hafnium TALL TAIL tell there’s trying wouldn’t