[ExI] SpaceX launch

[spike]

... On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes
...

>I wonder if there's a chemical reaction that can take its reactants up to
plasma phase, without need of external input? Adrian

No.  The ionization energy and Gibbs free energy numbers for all the
elements are enough to prove there is no magic chemical reaction waiting to
be discovered.  Those numbers show that hydrogen and oxygen is waaay good,
with only wacky hard to control stuff like hydrogen and fluorine being
better.  If we could handle liquid fluorine we could do *a little* better
than the hydrogen and oxygen reaction, but we might have complaints from the
local proletariat should we leave behind huge clouds of hydrofluoric acid
etching to opacity the windshields on their Detroits and so forth.  {8^D

You could theoretically make plasma with a self contained chemical reaction
if you superheat the reactants before you combine them, but I don't think
that is what you meant.  That would wreck the nozzle in any case.

spike