Embedded Files
Intro,
Let's face it, we are running out of fossil fuels that are crucial to space travel. In around 40 years we are going to run out of oil in the world, this will also mean the end of fossil fuels including the end of space travel if we do not have fossil fuel alternatives soon. In this report, I will outline why we need to find fossil fuel alternatives to use instead of oil-based liquids to use for space travel, maybe even new types of rocket engines and what fossil fuel alternatives are available or being made.
Why do we need fossil fuels for space travel?
Before we can start talking about fuel alternatives and other ways we can get to space, first we need to know why we need fuel for space travel. The rocket uses fuel in the combustion chamber of the rocket engine. In there it is lit, explodes, and shoots out of the nozzle creating thrust and makes the very iconic flame pillar underneath all rockets. We also have the small RCS thrusters that make it possible to dock with other spacecraft and space stations while in space. So without fuel in this day and age if we run out of fuel space travel is completely cut off.
How long do we have before the world runs out of fuel?
According to researchers from Stanford University and the MAHB -Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere- we have approximately a minimum of 48 years until we run out of fuel in the world. But my research tells me we only have about 38 years until we run out of oil. This means the world's oil reserves might run out between 2061 and 2070. Natural gas will run out by 2072 and coal by the year 2137 as shown below \/. This might seem like a decent amount of time, but time can move very quickly. There are an estimated 1.63 trillion barrels of oil in the world. We use 98 million barrels per day! We need to find a way of making an alternative way of thrust very soon!
What will happen if we run out of fuel?
What will happen if we run out of fuel and the world is not ready? We will fall, and so will the market's low prices. Food will rise in price and people will starve. If electric cars are not fully implemented yet, people will also have no way of transportation and if we have no alternative or sustainable fuels for space travel, then we will be cut off from space. By the year 2061, we will likely have colonies on planets like Mars that we still need to send people to and from, this can be a considerable issue without a way to get the spacecraft there.
What can we do to make sure this doesn’t happen?
Stop using oil and fossil fuels or at least try and use as little as possible. When you get your next car, make it an electric one, electric cars are actually more efficient and sometimes more powerful than fuel cars. Get solar panels on your house, or change to a sustainable energy producer like Mercury or Meridian. Even the small things matter like changing from a gas stove to an electric stove or changing to an electric water heater from a gas one. Save fuel for big machine type use and rockets which in this day and age can only run on fuel.
How could we get to space without fossil fuels and rocket engine alternatives?
There are a surprising amount of rocket fuel and rocket engine alternatives, but very few of them have been tested or made at all, but we could get them to work with our modern technology. Nuclear propulsion, first tried in 1967 didn’t work back then because it would have required too much power to run and was very unstable.
We have Spinlaunch. Spinlaunch launches small aerodynamic capsules into space using a spinning centrifuge system. If you have a ball with a string attached to it you would know that if you spin it and let go it’s momentum makes it shoot forward or the direction you let it go in. Spinlaunch is tried and tested and works amazingly, but it has a large downside. It can only launch small satellites into space, it is not large enough to send humans to space.
What about an Ion thruster? Well an Ion thruster is a great idea and very well could be used far into the future, but at the moment it just uses to much power and has so little thrust to make it worth trying to make a larger one for a spacecraft that it is just unethical.
EmDrive is an experimental rocket engine that NASA is testing. EmDrive uses heated particles that you commonly find in microwaves to heat food, the particles bounce around in a cone-shaped cylinder before getting expelled out the end, it is the bouncing around in the cone that produces thrust, but EmDrive is still being tested at NASA to see if it's even feasible as a rocket engine or to see if it even works.
Or we have something being used currently, liquid oxygen mixed with liquid methane, SpaceX is using this to fuel their mega-rocket Starship, and so is Blue Origin using it with their New Shepard and upcoming New Glen rocket, liquid oxygen and liquid methane can be made without using oil or fossil fuels. Or the most sustainable of them all, Biofuel, as shown below.
What are some spacecraft that will be, or are using some of the alternatives?
There are a few spacecraft -some in development- that I found that are or are going to be using fossil fuel alternatives. We have Blue Origins New Shepard, meant for space tourism and New Glen, their heavy-lift rocket under development, both are using Liquid oxygen plus liquid methane. SpaceX’s Mars rocket Starship will also be using this fuel! -Both are still in development- Stardust 1.0 is used to launch small satellites and runs purely on a sustainable biofuel! We should be using LO+LM (Liquid oxygen plus liquid methane) and in the future, if EmDrive works then that will also be feasible.
Conclusion,
The best alternative to fossil fuels for space travel in the coming future would be Biofuel, LO+LM and to use EmDrive even more in the future. -If it works- We have looked at why we need fuel for space travel, how long we have before we run out of fossil fuels, what would happen if we ran out of fossil fuels, and how we could get to space without fossil fuels, how we can make sure we don’t run out of fossil fuels, and what spacecraft are or are going to use one of the three alternatives. We need to stop relying on fossil fuels to take us to space, we have alternatives we can use, and fossil fuels are eventually going to run out. We can use Liquid oxygen with liquid methane and Biofuel for now and in the future, we can use EmDrive.
Bibliography,
YouTube:Why-SpaceX-is-using-a-new-fuel
-A graph to show how long we have left before oil, gas and coal run out
Page updated
Report abuse