On Sat, Mar 30, 2019 at 8:19 PM Thomas Jones-Low <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote:

The original story I saw this in was Seveneves. In that story the ship was in free fall or under thrust. No artificial gravity. But even dust sized pieces of salt can float in the air, especially if they have their own thrust.

The best comparison I could get from a quick google search is that regular table salt masses 2.19 grams per cubic centimeter, while plutonium salt (as used in fast breeder reactors) masses 3.6 grams per cubic centimeter (assuming 50% composition). I'm thinking that dried fuel crystals on the "military" (e.g. weapons-grade and thus very rich) end of the spectrum would likely be too heavy to float. Maybe the ship in the story used civilian-grade fuel of fairly low richness?

Richard Aiken

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