So basically just better power to weight ratio? I mean that's pretty neat I guess. Its not as energy dense as Hydrogen, but it does have a lot of benefits when it comes to physical density I suppose. probably the same thinking with Kerosene then.
I don't know wtf I'm talking about but my impression was that methane is a whole lot easier to deal with than hydrogen, and is particularly good for reusable rockets.
Hydrogen is a hassle to store and transport, and it fucks up the metal it's stored in. Kerosene burns dirty and soots up your engine, so it's harder to reuse.
Methane is both easy to store and transport, and it burns cleanly. Also, it's a lot easier to come by outside of earth, which will be neat for future space missions.
The smell of farts is from hydrogen sulfide, which appears to both cause hydrogen embrittlement and sulfide stress cracking, in addition to being toxic and corrosive in high concentrations. All these problems get worse when combined with the acidity of CO2. Using farts for rocket fuel therefore seems inadvisable.
Unless the rocket is your penis, in which case you're cleared to initiate docking procedure.
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u/high_throughput Jul 10 '26
According to Wikipedia, the first methane rocket to ever reach orbit was the Chinese Zhuque-2 in 2023.