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> space data centers would require the development of a launcher 10 times less emissive over its entire lifecycle to significantly reduce carbon-dioxide emissio

• fragmede 2y ago
  If you look at the overall problem of greenhouse gases rather than CO₂ specifically, and compare Methane (CH₄) to CO₂, Methane traps more heat, per molecule, than CO₂ does, so if you were able to capture methane and prevent it from escaping into the atmosphere by burning it with O₂, which results in CO₂ and H₂O, you'd be trading Methane for CO₂, and a bunch of energy - enough for a rocket, so depending on the numbers, it's possible that a reusable methalox rocket using renewable sources for methane would contribute less to greenhouse gas-related warming on a per-metric ton to orbit basis. Methane capture is still being developed. There are a number of companies working on this but it's not deployed widely at scale, so it's unclear exactly how plausible it is, but the theory is there. Whether we'd want to put datacenters in space is a whole other question though.