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Chinese astronauts make rocket fuel and oxygen in space

(www.livescience.com)
298 points Teever | 2 comments | 24 Aug 25 17:54 UTC | HN request time: 0.541s | source
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habibur ◴[26 Aug 25 22:08 UTC] No.45032963[source]▶
This won't enable perpetual space travel in case anyone thought so.

Rockets need to eject particles to generate force. And to eject 1 kg of fuel, its photo synthesis system has to lose 1 km of mass in one way or another.

The solution is to find a way to generate thrust without rocket fuel ejection.

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Buttons840 ◴[26 Aug 25 22:22 UTC] No.45033094[source]▶
Can we "swim" through space? Collect particles from space, add energy, expell them backwards to generate a net thrust.
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1. grues-dinner ◴[26 Aug 25 22:42 UTC] No.45033248[source]▶
That's called a Bussard ramjet: collect hydrogen and fuse it for power to energise the collection mechanism and thrust to overcome the drag. I think the current consensus is that the interstellar medium round these parts is too thin to make it work in deep space.
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2. LargoLasskhyfv ◴[27 Aug 25 11:23 UTC] No.45038104[source]▶
And if it would be dense enough it would work as a brake instead.