Liquid Methane Rocket Fuel
In a highly refined form, liquid methane has been investigated as a rocket fuel. A number of Russian rockets have been proposed to use liquid methane since the 1990s, and US companies Orbitech and XCOR Aerospace developed a liquid oxygen/liquid methane rocket engine in 2005 and a larger 7,500 pounds-force (33,000 N)-thrust engine in 2007 for potential use as the CEV lunar return engine. More recently the American private space company SpaceX announced (in 2012) an initiative to develop liquid methane rocket engines, including initially, the Raptor second stage rocket engine.
As of 2009, research was being conducted by NASA regarding methane's potential as a rocket fuel. The assembly of a 5,500-pound-thrust liquid oxygen/liquid methane rocket engine was completed. Methane propulsion technology was under consideration as a technique for refueling rockets and departing the Moon for human explorers.
One advantage of methane is that it is abundant in many parts of the solar system and it could potentially be harvested on the surface of another solar-system body, providing fuel for a return journey. Current methane engines in development produce a thrust of 7,500 pounds-force (33 kN), which is far from the 7,000,000 lbf (31 MN) needed to launch the Space Shuttle. Instead, such engines will most likely propel voyages from the Moon or send robotic expeditions to other planets in the solar system.
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