One estimate for oil is 1350 Billion barrels left. The human world consumes 80 million barrels a day. The USA has enough natural gas to last around 100 years and fracking open shale gas deposits could mean more gas is available. Then there's Nuclear, Wind, Solar and so on.
But just how much fuel does NASA need? They quote that each of the two Solid Rocket Boosters on the Space Shuttle carries more than one
million pounds of solid propellant. The Space Shuttle's large External Tank is
loaded with more than 500,000 gallons of super-cold liquid oxygen and liquid
hydrogen, which are mixed and burned together to form the fuel for the orbiter's
three main rocket engines.
NASA is building the biggest solid-fuel rocket ever, the SLS. It will be 10% more powerful than the Saturn V. The fuel will be composed of ammonium perchlorate, powdered aluminum, iron oxide, a polymer (such as Polybutadiene acrylonitrile (PBAN) or hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB)) and an epoxy curing agent.
So, looking at the constituents of rocket fuel, the amount of oil and gas on Earth may not affect future deep space missions, particularly if fuel is added en route from other moons and planets like Mars. Titan appears to be one huge petrol station!
But just how much thrust can we produce on Earth for the deepest of missions: one final mission to save Humanity SWORD style, in other words, an 'ark'? Could such a launch destroy Earth itself: an Extinction Level Launch?
Blimey, how did I get here from that kid asking me how much fuel was left on Earth? Phew! I need a beer!
oh good grief Woodsy - it's Sunday morning here in Lost Wages, I haven't even had my first cup of coffee, I'm half asleep in the chair and here I am trying to figure out how much fuel is left - not counting the gas from the beans I ate yesterday I'm guessin' we got more than a few days worth! LOL
ReplyDeleteHouz about we start with sumthin' more simple like, 'How far do little bunny rabbits hop?' LMAO
Just kidding of course - it's an inneresting question but I'm just gonna have to get back to it later :-)
I remember asking a rocket scientist (I think, it was a long time ago!) why we didn't just accelerate to the maximum, wait half a second (in weightless 'free fall') then accelerate the same amount again and keep on doing so until we reached the speed of light (or a little bit faster... His answer was troubling to a small mind;
ReplyDelete1 - all the fuel on earth including all the oxygen would be required.
2 - You still wouldn't be able to hit the magic speed as half the fuel would be burned getting the other half into orbit so you'd not have enough left.
3 - if you somehow catapulted it all up there, there would just be enough to reach the speed, but none left to slow you down as you approached something that looked like it was worth slowing down for.
Bugger!
Hugh
Your mass increases with your velocity, at close to the speed of light, the amount of energy needed to give you that little bit more of a boost would be more than the universe could easily provide!
ReplyDeleteKevin...no one likes a smart-arse...even if he's right!!!
ReplyDeleteThat's a total non-starter then?!!
H
True, not that that usually stops me!
DeleteLight speed would be too slow anyway, we're gonna need warp drive to go places.