I’ve always understood that hydrogen was the lightest element on the periodic table. However last night when I was watching the television show The Universe, I could have swore they said a statement that was something like “methane is lighter and more dense than hydrogen”. And they went on to elaborate how NASA was looking into using it as an alternative fuel instead of hydrogen gas to fuel space shuttles.
Does something happen to the chemical composition of methane when it becomes liquid that causes it to become lighter but more dense than it’s counterpart liquid hydrogen?
I don’t have TIVO so I couldn’t backup and listen to the statement again.
Could someone possibly clarify what they meant?
One Response
Methane is definitely more dense in gaseous form, but that’s not what nasa is looking at as far as i know…Im pretty sure nasa is considering using methane as thrusters once already in space or as propulsion from a moon based launch. Methane only produces thousands of pounds of thrust whereas hydrogen produces the necessary millions to propel a shuttle from the earth. The thing about methane though, is that it is prevalent all around the solar system/universe meaning that it could possibly be harvested, making a return trip possible. Think of a mars rover being able to return to earth with rocks or even an asteroid from the asteroid belt. Even further a sample of the supposed water found on one of Jupiter’s moons.