What is the Best Rocket Fuel?
Rocket engines are run on Hydrogen, Kerosene and lately Methane. Is there a best fuel?
Modern rocket building companies such as SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Blue Origin and Isar Aerospace are almost exclusively opting for rocket fuels such as methane, natural gas or propane. Does that mean methane is the superior rocket fuel? And if that is the case, why has methane been entirely ignored in the rocket industry for close to 70 years? Was it not technologically feasible before, or were rocket companies in the past plain stupid or ignorant?
No, there is no perfect rocket fuel. Instead, we have numerous pros and cons to weigh against each other. The reason why fuels such as methane and propane have become so popular lately is because the industry is transitioning to reusable rockets. To better understand why that makes methane popular, it makes sense to start with the two fuels which still dominate the industry: Kerosene (RP-1) and Hydrogen. But before jumping into that discussion, we need to clarify some important terminology.
Understanding Rocket Fuel Terminology
When discussing rocket fuel you will hear about terms such as propellant, oxidizer, LOX, hydrolox, kerolox, methalox, monopropellant and bipropellant. What does it all mean?
