MrSpArkle

magical machine bullshit ruse to trick us into funding the launch of capitalism into space

Your ideology begets your conclusions. You are a troll, intentional or not.

They were running everything on a single rack during the first big rush.

Are you being obtuse or do you have a point? A Sabatier reactor has flown on the ISS, so they exist clearly. Audi had a pilot plant producing methane using this method as recently as 10 years ago.

It’s obvious the technology exists, and has been tested in space, and is viable on mars according to numerous studies dating back from the 80s to current day.

Do you have any proof to the contrary? I’m a huge space nerd so if there’s a fatal flaw in this plan I’d like to know.

Oddly enough when the process was demonstrated by French scientists in the 1800s they did it in space, so the earth has yet to see this advanced technology.

We have flown this experiment on the ISS. It is a chemical process that is over 100 years old and is well understood.

It’s also the only way to lift any significant mass off of mars, because as you said we have no manufacturing or refueling there. So the rocket must refuel itself.

It then follows that if Mars is the next major target of exploration, and methane is cheap and abundant, why not get started now? The alternative is to spend a decade qualifying an engine for human space flight after the green light for a crewed mission.

Correct. It’s called the Sabatier reaction and it’s over 100 years old.

Importantly they use methane because you can generate methane on Mars(especially if you bring some spare hydrogen).

When they’re rich they just let you do it.