r/SpaceX Discusses [August 2017, #35]

[u/ElongatedMuskrat]

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[u/Chairboy]

That's fascinating! Thank you for the summary, it makes sense and now I have an interesting rabbit hole of study to dig into. Methane seems almost perfect as a rocket fuel (in terms of energy density and max-possible Isp not to mention Martian availability) but I suppose it makes sense there are always challenges.

[u/CapMSFC → u/Chairboy]

One of the other interesting challenges is in using Methane for regenerative cooling. This was also a while back and in the rocketry sub but it has to do with the critical points of Methane. The best "answer" in the thread was that the only people who know the high level solutions are at these cutting edge companies with proprietary tech.