Well, thanks! I’ve been following spacex since grasshopper. I started really paying attention as they started to attempt landings and I watched every launch. I followed starship development super close. The first full stack launch I watched with great excitement, but when I saw it lift off I felt this hole in my stomach, this was meant to happen as often as an airplane taking off? Looking at Falcon 9 and starlink you just know they’re going to get it working. So this “rounding error” is about to become a gigantic industry.
I thought “yay! They’re going to use methane! That just turns to water! Huzzah!” but it only turns to water if it combusts. Otherwise it’s just methane. And it turns out, it’s really terrible as methane. I already didn’t think too highly about RP1 exhaust in the high atmosphere, but that’s already happening with airplanes. But that has a kind of cooling effect on the planet, during 9/11 the lack of plane exhaust led to a measurable decrease in temperature. What does injecting methane into the high atmosphere? We’ll find out I guess, but certainly nothing good. The good news is they’ll stop blowing up every launch but there’s always leakage at ECO.
I’m rambling a little, but thank you for the discussion! Any other time I’ve brought anything like this up I usually get attacked. I also wonder if this kind of argument I’m making is why Elon suddenly became such a right wing petro-state dickwad instead of the “no Planet B” guy I thought he was.
Well, thanks! I’ve been following spacex since grasshopper. I started really paying attention as they started to attempt landings and I watched every launch. I followed starship development super close. The first full stack launch I watched with great excitement, but when I saw it lift off I felt this hole in my stomach, this was meant to happen as often as an airplane taking off? Looking at Falcon 9 and starlink you just know they’re going to get it working. So this “rounding error” is about to become a gigantic industry.
I thought “yay! They’re going to use methane! That just turns to water! Huzzah!” but it only turns to water if it combusts. Otherwise it’s just methane. And it turns out, it’s really terrible as methane. I already didn’t think too highly about RP1 exhaust in the high atmosphere, but that’s already happening with airplanes. But that has a kind of cooling effect on the planet, during 9/11 the lack of plane exhaust led to a measurable decrease in temperature. What does injecting methane into the high atmosphere? We’ll find out I guess, but certainly nothing good. The good news is they’ll stop blowing up every launch but there’s always leakage at ECO.
I’m rambling a little, but thank you for the discussion! Any other time I’ve brought anything like this up I usually get attacked. I also wonder if this kind of argument I’m making is why Elon suddenly became such a right wing petro-state dickwad instead of the “no Planet B” guy I thought he was.
I appreciate the discussion!