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Chinese astronauts make rocket fuel and oxygen in space

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298 points Teever | 1 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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1. ReptileMan ◴[27 Aug 25 01:04 UTC] No.45034263[source]▶
>corn-derived ethanol to our gasoline

Stupidest possible thing to do with food. Especially since in some operations you put in more diesel than take ethanol out.