this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2024
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Futurology

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[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Special exception maybe for aviation and rocketry. But even then, methane (if made using green energy and the Sebatier process).

[–] huginn@feddit.it 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You can get comparable isp with methalox engines without any of the weight required to keep the hydrogen inside the rocket, right?

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 3 points 2 months ago

Hydrogen ISP is still king by a significant margin, but ISP isn't the whole story -- hydrogen comes with additional tank weight (due to lower density) and storage issues (pesky molecular size...). So that trade-off for ISP only really makes sense for an upper stage like Centaur. I'm not sure it makes sense for New Shepherd even...