Researchers have found a new way to turn methane into rocket fuel on Mars – adding vital flexibility to future astronaut missions to the Red Planet, according to a recent blog post on the University of California’s official website. Irvine (UCI).
LOVE: LIFE ON MARS: SCIENCES CLOSE LITTLE TO INCLUDE METHANE MYSTERY ON MARS
Scientists are inventing a new way to turn methane into rocket fuel on Mars
Elon Musk and other engineers at SpaceX escaped such an approach while finding ways to combine water from ice on Mars with carbon dioxide to get enough carbon and hydrogen for methane production.
As soon as astronauts head to Mars they may use this technique to turn Red Planet’s local business such as carbon dioxide and ice into rocket fuel – primed and ready to launch on a mission back to Earth.
Although only “proof of concept” as written, the new method has been successful in laboratory experiments. “[L]ots engineering and research are needed before this can be fully implemented, “University of California Irvine physicist Huolin Xin said in a statement.” But the results are very promising. “
Cutting the two-step process down to one
To innovate the new method, the team turned to an existing two-step method that has been proven to convert water into breathable oxygen on the International Space Station (ISS) – and worked to improve it. reduced to one step. A single-atom zinc catalyst caused it to occur.
“The sink is basically a huge catalyst,” Xin said in the statement. “It has time, selectivity and carrying capacity – which is a huge advantage for space travel.”
By cutting the two-step process down to one, the researchers created a more portable and complex method – sculpted for transport and use on the Red Planet, Xin said.
A new process needs to square away with future mobility technology
In the new method, an atomically dispersed zinc plays a catalpa to the same reaction, creating methane from carbon dioxide. This reaction through a specialized catalyst “efficiently converts CO2 to methane,” Xin said.
Today’s vehicles do not usually use methane-based rocket fuel, which means that this new process must be similar to future propulsion technologies.
SpaceX, Blue Origin is already working on methane-based rocket fuel
However, there are several advantages of methane-based fuels over smelting hydrogen – Boeing and Lockheed fuels. For example, smelting hydrogen fuel leaves carbon scraps on rocket engines that need to be cleaned away before use afterwards, and on Mars, it will not always be easy to step out of the front door. proverb to remove the flask.
Some companies, however, are already embracing the new method – and are promising methane-based rocket fuel. SpaceX’s Raptor engines on Starship, Firefly Alpha, and Blue Origin’s BE-4 have all added views to methane-based rocket fuel, to name a few.