Eco-Friendly Rocket Runs On Cow Manure

RECENTLY there was a Virgin Atlantic aircraft that made its journey using 100 per cent sustainable aviation fuel. Now it seems a pioneering Japanese company may have trumped it by producing a rocket engine that runs on cow manure.

Interstellar Technologies (IST), a trailblazer in the Asian aerospace sector, ignited a rocket engine using biomethane derived from cow dung.

This ground-breaking event took place on Hokkaido island, Japan. IST, known for launching the first suborbital rocket in Japan back in 2019, is now focusing on biomethane as a sustainable rocket fuel.

The successful test, posted on social media earlier this month, saw the rocket’s engine burn for a powerful ten seconds. IST’s footage of the event showcased a distinctive blue flame, a result of the methane fuel, marking a departure from traditional rocket fuels.

ZERO, the name of IST’s biomethane-powered rocket, stands as a 32-meter-tall, two-stage orbital launcher. It boasts a payload capacity of 800 kilograms.

Its design includes nine Cosmos engines, each featuring a concentric pivot injector akin to SpaceX’s Merlin engines. The prototype engine achieved a 60 kN thrust, with IST aiming for 130 kN in the final version.

A Leap In Rocket Technology What sets the Cosmos engine apart is its fuel, liquid biomethane sourced from dairy cow faeces. This approach not only makes the rocket eco-friendly but also enables the use of manure to cool the combustion chamber.

Interstellar Technologies champions this as an ecological alternative to methane derived from liquefied natural gas.

The development and testing of ZERO spanned five years, following the success of IST’s MOMO, a 10-meter-high vehicle, and the first of its kind launched by a private company in Japan. Post-MOMO’s achievements, IST commenced ZERO’s development in 2020, anticipating its maiden flight in 2025.

January 2024 will see further ignition tests, crucial in determining the feasibility of a 2025 flight.

With a Ford 460 that’s an engine pretty mean
Shittin’ out bolts and pissin’ gasoline
7 and 1/4 tons of pure mule power
Rollin’ down the road at 8 miles per gallon
Hit the hammer lane and mash the engine to the floor
The CD is cracklin’ with a truck stop whore
Hard to hear her 20 when the engine valves rattle
Rollin’ down the road at 8 miles per gallon
To you boys all deployed if its me your fightin’ for
I need: Democracy, Gasoline and world wide rock n’roll
I’m praying everyday that you can make it through the battle...
So I don’t feel so guilty ‘bout 8 m.p.g.
So I invent a big engine
Make it run on bullshit
Put in on a chasse
Buddy, it’ll never quit
Invent a big engine
Make it run on bullshit
Put it on a train track
Buddy, it’ll never quit
Invent a big engine
Make it run on bullshit
Put it on the highway
Buddy, it’ll never quit
From Washington to Arlington to the House of Saud
They’ll all be buying shovels so they can have a job
And I’ll be living happy in the Shenandoah Valley
Rollin’ down the road on 8 miles per gallon

I love how the author conveniently confuses cow manure the source of the biomethane to actual ice manure. You can ferment pretty much any organic materials into biogas via anaerobic digestion. Manure makes great digestion material, so would any human sewage treatment smudges. You could also use garbage, left over food wastes, even algae, water hydrilla, and the dreaded kudzu weed. Digesters are just large tanks with insulation cheap as all get out this is why nearly every municipality has them at their sewage treatment plants it’s free fuel effectively since you have the sludge already and must treat it anyways.

SpaceX is also using biomethane to fuel it’s massive starship. Biomethane when liquefied is nearly pure CH4 chemically identical to.natural gas from the ground liquefied in to the same cryo temps. The advantage of CH4 over kerosene is it can cool your engines without coke formation, it’s ISP is also significantly higher than kero/LO2 rockets meaning more payload for a equal mass of fuel. CH4 is clean burning hence the pretty blue flames makes reusing engines much easier than the sooty mess that kerolox engines make. CH4 is also self pressurised, totally eliminating the expensive helium pressure system for the fuel tanks. LOX is also self pressurised in the same way at nearly the same temps. If.you are already dealing with liquid oxygen you have the temp range and the material science tech to deal with LNG the two pair up like peas and carrots.

You can expect every next gen reusable rocket system to use CH4/LOX tech the cost benefit curve heavily favors it. Only high energy supper stages need LH2/LOX and the nightmarish technology to tame that beast. Methane comes close enough in isp that just build a bigger third stage and brute force it out of the C3 gravity well. This is what falcon heavy does sacrifice the middle booster and use it’s massively oversized second stage to throw ridiculous amounts of payloads to high energy orbits or C3 escape.

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