This Startup Thinks It Can Make Rocket Fuel From Water. Stop Laughing

There’s been this hand-wave, this assumption, this yada yada astatine the halfway of our semipermanent abstraction programs. If we tin instrumentality astronauts to the moon, we’ll find crystal there. And if we find that crystal successful capable quantities, we’ll interruption it down into hydrogen and oxygen, and yada yada, we’ll usage that substance to alert deeper into the star system, possibly adjacent to Mars. And if we get to Mars, we’ll find adjacent much crystal connected the Red Planet. We’ll excavation that, harvester it with the c dioxide successful the atmosphere, and yada yada, we’ll usage that to alert the astronauts back.

It’s an thought that’s been astir since the Apollo epoch and has been touted successful caller years by the likes of erstwhile NASA head Bill Nelson and SpaceX’s Elon Musk. But here’s the thing: No 1 has ever successfully turned h2o into rocket fuel, not for a spaceship of immoderate important size. A startup called General Galactic, led by a brace of twentysomething engineers, is aiming to beryllium the first.

This fall, General Galactic plans to alert an 1,100-pound satellite, utilizing h2o to proviso its lone propellant in-orbit. If it works, it not lone could commencement to lick the yada yada problem, it could marque US satellites much maneuverable astatine a clip erstwhile there’s a increasing anticipation of a struggle successful space.

“Everybody wants to spell physique a satellite basal oregon a Mars basal oregon whatever. Who's going to wage for it? How does it really work?” asks Halen Mattison, CEO of General Galactic. “Our imaginativeness is to spell physique a state presumption connected Mars,” helium adds, “but besides yet physique retired the refueling network” successful between.

That’s the very, very semipermanent plan, astatine least. For starters, Mattison, a erstwhile SpaceX engineer, and his CTO, Luke Neise, a seasoned of Varda Space, person purchased a spot connected a Falcon 9 rocket launch. Scheduled liftoff is October oregon aboriginal successful the fall.

There are, to broadly oversimplify, 2 main kinds of engines that you tin usage successful your spacecraft. You tin instrumentality a substance similar liquid methane, possibly harvester it with an oxidizer, and pain it. That’s called chemic propulsion, and each large rocket you’ve ever seen instrumentality disconnected uses immoderate saltation of that method, due to the fact that it provides a batch of thrust, adjacent if it’s not terribly efficient.

Or you tin instrumentality a state similar xenon, zap it with electricity, and sprout it retired of the spacecraft, either arsenic an ionized state oregon a plasma. That’s called electrical propulsion—again, I’m mode oversimplifying. And “it's very, precise debased thrust. People jokingly similar to telephone it a burp successful space,” Mattison says. “But it lasts forever. The ratio is crazy.” Enough burps implicit clip tin really beryllium rather effective. Electric propulsion is utilized to support satellites successful their due orbit and to powerfulness abstraction probes similar Dawn, which NASA sent to research the asteroid belt.

Water isn’t perfect for either electrical oregon chemic propulsion. But it mightiness beryllium conscionable bully capable for both. Unlike, say, liquid methane, you don’t request to interest astir h2o accidentally blowing up your spacecraft oregon keeping it cooled astatine -260 degrees Fahrenheit oregon having it boil disconnected erstwhile your outer faces the sun.

General Galactic plans to show the 2 methods during its Trinity mission. For chemic propulsion, it’ll usage electrolysis to divided the h2o into hydrogen and oxygen, past pain the hydrogen, with oxygen arsenic the oxidizer. For the electrical propulsion system—this one’s called a “Hall thruster”—it’ll divided the water, past use capable electrical vigor that the oxygen becomes a plasma. From there, you usage a magnetic tract to signifier the plasma and sprout it out.