Can methane be used as a fuel to launch space vehicles?

Question

Methane is apparently the most easily available hydrocarbon. It is also a flammable, and highly combustible fuel; does burning methane provide sufficient power-weight to be used to launch artificial satellites and their ilk into Earth Orbit?

Martin Beckett · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-23T20:13:13.137

6

Probably possible, rockets have been built that used kerosene and even Hydrogen peroxide. Liquid natural gas stores a lot of energy per volume, but hydrogen is very light and so offers a huge amount of energy per kg. And in trying to accelerate your rocket vertically upward at several 'g' it's kg that matter.

Energy density plot

Note: data from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density

edited Jul 23 '12 at 20:13

answered Jul 22 '12 at 19:41

Martin Beckett

30,766

2

Really frustrating that rechargeable batteries are almost at the origin of that diagram... – Alexander Jul 22 '12 at 21:36
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@Alexander and diesel is near the top for anything that doesn't need a cryostat ! – Martin Beckett Jul 22 '12 at 21:40

Can methane be used as a fuel to launch space vehicles?

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