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US Air Force explores space-based cargo operations, confirms talks with SpaceX
JF Mezei wrote on Sun, 28 Oct 2018
14:02:38 -0400: On 2018-10-27 17:51, Alain Fournier wrote: BFS will burn liquid methane. I'm not sure what would happen if you replaced the methane with LNG. Possibly it would fly, possibly it would go kaboum. Even if LNG is mostly liquid methane, there typically is near 10% of ethane, propane, butane and small amounts of other stuff. In some cases the difference can have consequences. Are rocket engines extremely sensitive to fuel density? or do they allow for a range of density so that the turbines don't go kablooey if fed with slightly different fuel? The density difference between liquid methane and LNG is (at most) around 10%. It's typically much less. Navy fighter planes use JP-8 ashore and JP-5 at sea. The two fuels vary in density by about 5% and have different properties. Given that, I wouldn't expect a rocket, which is a much simpler machine than a jet, to have problems over minor differences in fuel density. -- "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." --George Bernard Shaw |
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