For steering in space, we'll use atomic hydrogen rockets, storing the atomic gas by the Wade method in tanks in the hold.
Rubidium-87 was the first and the most popular atom for making Bose-Einstein condensates in dilute atomic gasses.
These are very dilute atomic or molecular gases, cooled first by laser cooling and then by evaporative cooling.
Below you is plasma; above you atomic gas - matter cool enough for electrons to stick to nuclei.
The photons emerging from the fusing core just bounce off the plasma, but they dump all their energy into the atomic gas.
Her engines had the power to change the course of stars and turn planets into glittering nebulae of atomic gas just by passing too close to them.
But you can see what I mean: an atomic gas will not remain atoms, and it will not remain at room temp.
The scientists observe that this discrepancy appears to be universal-it occurred under a variety of different experimental conditions and for different atomic gases.
They'll be dead and dispersed into thin atomic gas long before they get there.
The interest in the "universal phenomena" of cold atomic gases is still growing, especially because of the long awaited experimental results.