New answers tagged fuel
1
It's a fair question - and unfortunately the answers here circle around but don't quite aim straight at the nail of what I think the OP is after, which is fundamentally about rocket fuel. Because, no matter how many resources you have on Earth, when it comes to the specific question of launching rockets, you pretty much have to do that from Earth-bound ...
1
The problem that you have to 'waste' matter to travel to space is one that is simply not solvable for the current rocket technology. There are technologies that will allow acceleration in space, like a light sail which makes use of the momentum of photons to move a space vehicle, but to escape the gravity of a planet, there is just no way it would cut it.
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-1
Respectfully, I see the question as limited at origin.
We are trying to construct a "plan b" for massive extinction events, that even the Permian has annihilated 96% of life, the last, more discussed has influenced more than 70% of species.
Allowing US to evolve.
You know we have no defense against some types of these extinction level events.
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11
There is far more material to be gained from space exploration than will be lost from Earth in collecting it.
A primary reason to explore space is to exploit mineral and organic resources that occur in abundance off earth. Within the "few centuries" you mention, the net change of mass on Earth may very well be positive due to an influx of precious ...
4
Eventually, NASA is planning on making a moon base and they will then make rocket fuel out of the water there. We could also make fuel out of the oceans which would solve this problem.
Here are some links for this:
https://theconversation.com/making-space-rocket-fuel-from-water-could-drive-a-power-revolution-on-earth-65854#:~:text=Water%20is%20a%20way%...
45
Most of the propellant expended in sending a spacecraft to Mars immediately returns to Earth -- the fuel and oxidizer are combusted, combining into (typically) water vapor, CO2, and other simple compounds -- and ejected out the back of the rocket at high speed. The six month trip to Mars is "coasting", with only very small amounts of fuel used for ...
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