Deinonychus 1 D

A liquid methane/oxygen engine uses methane as the propellant instead of more traditional rocket fuels like Liquid Hydrogen or Kerosene. This is of interest to real world space programs at present because Methane is fairly readily available, it is far safer to handle than many alternative fuels and is stored at both much higher temperature and much higher density than Liquid Hydrogen.

Another advantage of Liquid Methane it can be easily produced on planets with atmospheres rich in Carbon Dioxide, such as Duna or Eve. This done using the Sabatier Process using the Sabatier ISRU option of the ISRU Refinery,