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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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chairmansteve ◴[27 Aug 25 00:11 UTC] No.45033909[source]▶
True. But it might be cheaper to store the corn for a year and then dispose of it, replace it with fresh corn.
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1. dragontamer ◴[27 Aug 25 04:21 UTC] No.45035430[source]▶
If you are disposing of the corn anyway, why not turn it into Ethanol and then burn it as car fuel?

The only real issue with Ethanol IMO is that corn Ethanol is preventing progress in advanced synthesis made out of, ex: switchgrass cellulose. There are better sources of ethanol if we invest into them.

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2. chairmansteve ◴[30 Aug 25 01:43 UTC] No.45071210[source]▶
"If you are disposing of the corn anyway, why not turn it into Ethanol and then burn it as car fuel?"

It costs more money and has a higher carbon footprint than simply using gasoline.

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3. dragontamer ◴[01 Sep 25 10:57 UTC] No.45091622[source]▶
More money yes.

The carbon footprint thing doesn't past review of the overall literature. There's one outspoken guy who has to bend over backwards and publishes media articles rather than keeping things academic who tries to make the public believe what you say, but I'm not convinced he's arguing in any serious manner.