It was a response to the Space Shuttle, which uses LOX/LH along with boosters (largely aluminum powder and ammonium perchlorate). In the Vulcan configuration, it would have delivered notably more LEO payload than the Saturn V, although A) it only flew twice and never in that configuration, B) it delivered less thrust, and C) it was notably smaller in overall size because of the higher ISP (even with the low LH density). The most powerful Soviet rocket ever built, in for example (the Energia booster to the Buran shuttle) was pure H2/O2 (LOX/LH). Oxygen is found not just in organic molecules and rockets, but in a whole lot of inorganic compounds and minerals as well: Notice how many minerals are listed below, all containing oxygen bound into them in some form.Īlert reader Karen Pease saw me saying that 'All' very large rockets burn kerosene, and points out that this is incorrect: This isn't really correct. Just imagine the pumps that could do that! (And don't forget it's at -183C, just to make things interesting.) How much liquid oxygen? The Saturn V rocket, the largest ever built, burned two thousand gallons, almost eight cubic meters, of liquid oxygen per second. It will be the one thing that you absolutely, positively can't do without, not even for a minute, not if you want to live.Īll very large rockets are based on burning kerosene with liquid oxygen: This is the only practical way to get a huge amount of controllable thrust. But I think that when and if large scale space colonies are established, oxygen is going to take on almost mythical connotations. Here on earth we take oxygen for granted because it's everywhere. Technically oxygen is the oxidizer of life.) (Actually, the term 'fuel' is often used to refer to the thing that is burned by an 'oxidizer', so I'm speaking metaphorically when I say oxygen is the fuel of life. The reactivity of oxygen, its ability to 'burn' just about anything, is responsible for a lot of what goes on in living things, not to mention what goes on in cars and furnaces. If carbon is the foundation of life, oxygen is the fuel.

My periodic table poster is now available! Facts, pictures, stories about the element Oxygen in the Periodic Table

Oxygen periodic table