Air Company secures funding from NASA to further its carbon negative rocket fuel

In New York state, AIR COMPANY has seen its collaboration with NASA further strengthened with direct funding through a NASA Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) award.

With this funding, AIR COMPANY will make integral strides towards its carbon-negative rocket fuel for space applications on Earth, Mars, and beyond.

Both the practical requirements and physics of fueling space travel have made extensive space exploration largely unviable, which this research aims to answer. Every kilogram of any material, including food, water, people, or fuel, sent to space burns hundreds of kilograms of fuel. This leaves limited resources for a return trip to Earth or space travel beyond Mars. Beyond Earth, it enables production of stable and storable RP-1 (Rocket Propellant-1) on Mars using only the Martian atmosphere (which contains 95% CO2), water, and solar photovoltaic electricity.

The technology allows for the concept of interplanetary fueling stations that not only let astronauts refuel in space, but also power Martian habitats as a chemical feedstock for further resource utilization to create the essentials needed to survive away from Earth. More specifically, AIR COMPANY has won top prizes in NASA’s CO2 Conversion Challenge to produce sugar molecules from CO2, to feed bioreactors and enable a form of ‘farming’ on Mars. This technology could allow astronauts to produce food, medicine, vitamins, and construction materials using only local resources on Mars.