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Chinese astronauts make rocket fuel and oxygen in space

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298 points Teever | 3 comments | 24 Aug 25 17:54 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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kevinmershon ◴[26 Aug 25 22:09 UTC] No.45032976[source]▶
> This is a similar reaction to photosynthesis in plants, which produces glucose instead of rocket fuel.

This is silly, but also begs the sillier question why we aren't bioengineering plants to produce rocket fuel

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andrewflnr ◴[26 Aug 25 22:20 UTC] No.45033082[source]▶
Why aren't we engineering plants to produce automotive fuel? We ought to at least be able to do diesel.
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staplung ◴[26 Aug 25 22:37 UTC] No.45033209[source]▶
Biodiesal is already a thing. Also, we (the US) already blend a portion (about 10%) of corn-derived ethanol to our gasoline. There are problems with it though, one of which is that overall, it probably has a higher carbon footprint (fertilizer, harvesting, processing, etc.) than just not using it.
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dexwiz ◴[26 Aug 25 22:41 UTC] No.45033241[source]▶
Corn ethanol is a farm subsidy. It gets greenwashed as something positive because plant=natural=good.
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QuadmasterXLII ◴[26 Aug 25 23:14 UTC] No.45033496[source]▶
It’s not great for the environment, but it keeps a food surplus available in crisis instantly by just turning off the ethanol production facilities
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1. dexwiz ◴[27 Aug 25 00:31 UTC] No.45034035{3}[source]▶
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2. murderfs ◴[27 Aug 25 01:50 UTC] No.45034584[source]▶
Surely you can make cornstarch from it, and that problem only lasts a year.
3. ofalkaed ◴[27 Aug 25 01:52 UTC] No.45034600[source]▶
They are used for all sorts of things we eat, corn nuts, hominy, grits, corn meal/flour and all the things those are used in. Personally, I find it far more palatable than sweet corn and it is far more useful/versitile/nutritious than sweet corn; it is a traditional cereal grain and can be used for all those things we use wheat and rye for.