Researchers have found a new way to convert methane into rocket fuel on Mars – giving future astronaut missions on the Red Planet essential flexibility, according to a recent blog post on the University of California, Irvine (UCI)’s official website.
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Scientists create new way to convert methane into rocket fuel on Mars
Elon Musk and other engineers at SpaceX theorized such a method while looking for ways to combine water from ice on Mars with carbon dioxide to obtain enough carbon and hydrogen for methane production.
Once astronauts reach Mars, they can use this method to convert local Red Planet matter such as carbon dioxide and ice into rocket fuel – ready and ready to send humans on a return trip to Earth.
Although it is only a ‘proof of concept’ as it is written, the new method is successful in laboratory tests. “[L]engineering and research are needed before it can be fully implemented, “University of California Irvine physicist Huolin Xin said in a statement. But the results are very promising. “
To reduce the two-step process to one
To design the new method, the team used an existing two-step method to convert water into breathable oxygen at the International Space Station (ISS) – and is working to reduce it to one step. A single-atom zinc catalyst made this happen.
“The zinc is fundamentally an excellent catalyst,” Xin said in the statement. “It has time, selectivity and portability – a big advantage for space travel.”
By reducing the two-step process to one, the researchers created a more portable and compact method – stripped for transportation and use on the Red Planet, Xin said.
New process must play away with future propulsion technology
In the new methodology, atomic dispersed zinc plays a catalyst for the same reaction, which forges methane from carbon dioxide. This reaction via a specialized catalyst “converts CO2 efficiently into methane,” Xin adds.
Modern vehicles do not usually use methane-based rocket fuel, which means that this new process must be compatible with the propulsion technologies of the future.
SpaceX, Blue Origin, is already working on methane-based rocket fuel
However, the advantages that methane-based fuel has over liquid hydrogen – the fuel for Boeing and Lockheed – are several in number. Liquid hydrogen fuel, for example, leaves a carbon residue on rocket motors that must be cleaned before the next use, and on Mars it will not always be easy to step out at the proverbial front door to remove the debris.
However, some companies are already endorsing the new method – and committing themselves to the methane-powered rocket fuel. SpaceX’s Raptor engines on Starship, Firefly Alpha and Blue Origin’s BE-4 all have the focus on methane based rocket fuel, to name a few.