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Chinese astronauts make rocket fuel and oxygen in space

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298 points Teever | 2 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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awesome_dude ◴[26 Aug 25 23:20 UTC] No.45033545[source]▶
It's my understanding that corn produces the most (edible) calories per square metre of any of our farmed plants

edit: Looked it up - Rice has the highest number of calories per square metre of farmland, just that it requires marshy/swamp land to grow.

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1. lovemenot ◴[27 Aug 25 00:32 UTC] No.45034046[source]▶
There are many varietals of rice. Most do not grow in marsh land. Farmers often do flood the fields at the beginning of a rice growing season in order to drown out any competing plants. Flooding is not necessary though. Rice will grow with normal irrigation.
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2. phanimahesh ◴[27 Aug 25 04:27 UTC] No.45035458[source]▶
Yes. Rice tolerated flooding better than weeds so it is used as a cheap and easy weed control. Also some places grow fish alongside rice in the same land, getting some extra pest control and fertilizer for free.