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Summary
A British rocket scientist has developed a fuel made from carbon dioxide that could make a future manned-mission to Mars viable. The fuel burns aluminium powder in carbon dioxide, using the oxygen and leaving carbon as the waste product. Ray Wilkinson teaches rocket propulsion at the University of Hertfordshire in England and he's about to teach the space industry how to fuel future missions to Mars with a greenhouse gas.Ray Wilkinson said, So what we're looking at is that if we can burn something with carbon dioxide then that allows us to turn the carbon dioxide back into carbon and take energy out of it in the process and that is where the carbon negative bit comes from. This is a hybrid rocket motor - burning solid fuel with the help of gas - normally nitrous oxide. What Wilkinson has developed is a way of using CO2 instead.Ray said, It does seem too good to be true but the science is there. It works. We can burn it with aluminium powder and we can produce carbon from it, we can remove the oxygen from the carbon dioxide and turn the carbon back into carbon. Burning carbon dioxide with aluminium powder works fine in the laboratory but the powder has to be in suspension - not so easy during a rocket launch. So, while the chemistry is not new -- the technique is. The atmosphere of Mars is 95% CO2 - so a visiting space ship could refuel for the return trip. A manned mission to Mars is generally regarded as the next big step in space exploration...a huge challenge that Ray Wilkinson says might now be one step closer to reality.
