What kind of residues leaves that kind of engine? is it gas or solid? because small solids at that speed will surely make the earth orbit in a quite dangerous shooting range in no time. What is the expected coherence of a gas cloud flying that fast? Is it going to be dangerous? or will simply dissolve in to space.
Would the material expelled fly away from earth orbit?.
Sorry, too many questions..
My guess would be that the products would be gases. Pinching a little ball of deteurium would make it very hot, and vaporise the metal that squishes it.
Are gases dangerous at 30km/sec?. I mean, of course they are, but are they still dangerous in space?. Will the cloud keep more or less cohesive or will it disperse?
It will disperse. Gas is made up of atoms going in many different different directions; even if some gas doesn't seem to be moving that's just a statistical average.
Thus, in space all those different particles will fly off in different directions at 30km/sec. They'll be harmless in microseconds.
Even if it was solid, it's moving at 30 km/s - it won't stay in earth orbit - it won't even stay in solar orbit.
But it's not a solar - way way too hot. It's a gas, mainly helium, and it's highly charged so it will just join the solar wind (which is moving at 400km/s).
