• @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    1117 hours ago

    the fucking Natural Gas rocket company

    What does this mean? Starship uses methane too, you know?

    • @finitebanjo
      link
      38 hours ago

      SpaceX uses natural gas on anything equipped with a Raptor engine, this is true, but it wasn’t the company’s primary accomplishment or field of research like with Blue Origin.

      It looks like starting with BE-7 Blue Origin started using Hydrogen and are now researching potential nuclear fuel options, I hadn’t even heard of these engines before today, it looks like they’ve never been used outside of testing phase, so I suppose I might have been overly critical.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        0
        edit-2
        7 hours ago

        So what were you trying to say when you said “fucking natural gas rocket engine company?”

        • @finitebanjo
          link
          -27 hours ago

          If you read my comment you will see that Blue Origin has primarily developed and sold Natural Gas rocket engines. Blue Origin is the Jeff Bezos owned Fucking Natural Gas Rocket Engine Company. What part about this is unclear to you?

          • @[email protected]
            link
            fedilink
            -16 hours ago

            The part where your not calling Elon Musk’s fucking natural gas rocket engine company a Fucking Natural Gas Rocket Engine Company

            • @finitebanjo
              link
              -16 hours ago

              SpaceX also had the Merlin, Kestrel, and Falcon series which were LOX/RP-1 fueled and they also had the Draco series which were Hydrazine fuel.

              Fuck both of them, but Blue Origin is most well known for their Natural Gas rocketry.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      514 hours ago

      Importantly they use methane because you can generate methane on Mars(especially if you bring some spare hydrogen).

      • @finitebanjo
        link
        06 hours ago

        We’ve never launched from mars much less have an entire manufacturing plant and refueling station built, so it doesnt really seem pertinent at this juncture to be launching Vulcan rockets and frequent satellites that that technology.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          16 hours ago

          They use methane because it’s cheap and light. Any other justification is just bullshit greenwashing.

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          06 hours ago

          We have flown this experiment on the ISS. It is a chemical process that is over 100 years old and is well understood.

          It’s also the only way to lift any significant mass off of mars, because as you said we have no manufacturing or refueling there. So the rocket must refuel itself.

          It then follows that if Mars is the next major target of exploration, and methane is cheap and abundant, why not get started now? The alternative is to spend a decade qualifying an engine for human space flight after the green light for a crewed mission.

          • @finitebanjo
            link
            -1
            edit-2
            4 hours ago

            Alright cool but we’ve never used these rockets anywhere other than earth. Their development for future use isn’t an excuse to use them over other types currently.

            Also, Mars has lower gravity and little to no atmosphere, there are definitely other ways in that pointless hypothetical.

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        07 hours ago

        They say this a lot, so I expect they have some machinery running to demonstrate the technology here on earth? We have plenty of hydrogen here after all.

            • @[email protected]
              link
              fedilink
              06 hours ago

              Oddly enough when the process was demonstrated by French scientists in the 1800s they did it in space, so the earth has yet to see this advanced technology.