SpaceX Will Make Its Rocket Fuel From Thin Air

 

Rocket launches like this one of star link release a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Elon Musk tweeted an intention to balance this by drawing carbon dioxide from the air to make the rocket fuel.

Elon Musk, who was just voted Time magazine's Person of the Year, has announced that SpaceX is launching a programme to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for use as rocket fuel. To say the least, details are scarce, but Musk has stated that this ideal "Will also be vital for Mars," where atmospheric carbon dioxide is one of the only resources that may be used to power the return journey.

Musk tweeted on Monday, "SpaceX is initiating a programme to suck CO2 out of the atmosphere and transform it into rocket fuel." "If you're interested, please join."

SpaceX is starting a program to take CO2 out of atmosphere & turn it into rocket fuel. Please join if interested.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 13, 2021

It's unclear how folks are intended to "join." That's just one of the numerous work-related queries that have yet to be answered.

Even some one-percenters have expressed concern about the damage that such missions are causing to the atmosphere as a result of the rush of joy-flights to the edge of space. Unlike Blue Origin or Virgin Galactic, SpaceX is protected because the help it provides to NASA's research affects more than a fraction of a percent of humanity.

Nonetheless, the massive volumes of carbon dioxide emitted each time a SpaceX rocket takes flight clashes with Musk's attempts through Tesla to wean ground-based transportation off fossil fuels. So Musk's recent tweet wasn't completely unexpected.

The value of the Mars mission concept is undeniable. If a round-trip to another planet requires carrying the fuel to lift off and return home, the outward journey will be much heavier, requiring even more fuel and creating a vicious spiral. Much better to manufacture as much as possible from locally available raw materials. On Mars, this almost definitely refers to some of the 96 percent carbon dioxide that makes up the Martian atmosphere. It would appear that practicing on Earth is required; any carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere would be a bonus.

Making rocket fuel out of thin air in a cost-effective manner to support SpaceX's current launch schedule, let alone its long-term aspirations, will be difficult. Neither Musk nor the SpaceX website have stated whether or whether this is the goal, let alone how they plan to achieve it.

Musk's tweeting "Yup" in response to an engineer who mentioned the Sabatier reaction, in which carbon dioxide and hydrogen are mixed to produce methane, a potential rocket fuel, and water, is the closest thing to clarification we have.

As many people pointed out in response, converting carbon dioxide to fuel necessitates a large amount of energy input - far more than can be used during release. Cheap electricity is a necessary but insufficient input for the idea, hence it doesn't matter if the conversion efficiency is low.

If the Sabatier reaction is used, the downside is that any unburned methane will have a warming effect many times greater than the carbon dioxide consumed to produce it. This isn't an issue for escaping fuel on the travel between planets, but it could be a problem on lift-off. Carbon dioxide might also be transformed into a liquid fuel. It remains to be seen whether any of these alternatives are better than directly using hydrogen or another carbon-free fuel, but those with suggestions for how to do so appear to have a standing invitation from Musk to contribute.