Hydrogen space applications

Nickel—hydrogen batteries offer long cycle life that exceeds that of other maintenance-free secondary battery systems and accordingly makes it suitable for many space applications. Three types of separator materials have been used for aerospace Ni—H2 cells— asbestos (fuel-cell-grade asbestos paper), Zircar (untreated knit ZYK-15 Zircar cloth),and nylon. 

In the history of hydrogen, the contributions made by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to develop compact, lightweight engines and energy storage devices for space applications have been important. 

Schlapbach, L., ed. Hydrogen in Intermetallic Compounds II Surface and Dynamic Properties, Applications, Topics in Applied Physics. 1992, Springer Berlin. Bowman, R.C., Development of metal hydride beds for sorption cryocoolers in space applications, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2003, 356 p. 789-793. Panasonic, Available from http //www.panasonic.com/indnstrial/battery/oem/chein/ nicmet. 

Clearly, we need to be able to construct Gaussian approximations to the atomic orbitals of atoms other than hydrogen. For applications in molecular orbital theory, we need, in addition, to make allowance for the evident fact that an atom in a molecule is in a different environment to the isolated atom in free space, since any other atoms in a molecule give rise to extra potentials disturbing the free space electron distribution for that atom. 

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