Elon Musk Says SpaceX Plans To Extract Carbon Dioxide From Atmosphere And Use As Rocket Fuel, Invites Talent

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk-owned SpaceX has a plan to draw carbon dioxide from the earth’s atmosphere and use it as rocket fuel.

What Happened: Musk tweeted to his 66.3 million followers on Monday about the new program and invited those interested to join the company.

 

SpaceX is starting a program to take CO2 out of atmosphere & turn it into rocket fuel. Please join if interested.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 13, 2021

Musk later added that the program would be important for Mars, without revealing more details.

Why It Matters: Billionaire Musk dreams of colonizing Mars and founded SpaceX with the mission to make humanity multiplanetary. He has in the past said he remains “highly confident” that SpaceX would land humans on Mars by 2026.

See Also: Elon Musk Says SpaceX's Starship Fleet Can Deliver 1,000 Times More Payload Than All Rockets On Earth Combined

Musk had in July said SpaceX is developing a fully-reusable Starship that can deliver a payload of around 150 tonnes to low Earth Orbit and about 250 tonnes when expendable.

SpaceX aims for Starship to replace its existing rockets — Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon 2 — and be able to carry much more mass into orbit.

The ambitious transportation system can also carry humanity to the moon, Mars and make interplanetary travel possible.

The Starship system was selected in April to assist NASA with its Artemis moon-landing program.