Space travel companies are looking to adopt different fuels for their rockets in order to cut emissions.
Currently, most rocket fuel is made from a mix of kerosene and oxygen, known as kerolox, or hydrogen and oxygen, known as hydrolox. While effective, the fuels are infamous for the vast amount of carbon emissions they produce — a fact that has come under increased scrutiny following global calls to cut back on emissions. Space companies are aware of the calls and have turned their attention toward developing new fuels that are capable of propelling massive rockets into space while cutting back on their carbon footprint.
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China has taken the lead on the issue, with its Landspace’s Zhuque-2 rocket making history in July by being the first rocket to successfully reach space while using methane fuel, Space News reported. Methane is much cleaner than traditional rocket fuels, leading other companies to look to follow China’s lead.
According to Axios, SpaceX’s Starship rocket, RocketLab’s Neutron, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, and ULA’s Vulcan Centaur all use methane fuel. However, none have successfully reached space yet. Starship, the largest rocket ever launched, infamously exploded a few minutes into launch.
Aside from being more environmentally friendly, methane is also more efficient and easier to store than its counterparts.
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Stephen Heister, professor of engineering at Purdue University, told the outlet that methane produces 10% more thrust than kerosene, and it has increased in availability in recent years due to advances in natural gas extraction.
“We’ve seen over the past two decades just a huge increase in interest in using methane as a rocket fuel,” he said. “In most instances, it’s replacing kerosene, which was used in the Apollo program.”
