JohnDelvfar

FleshJeb thank you for the information. For some reason i did not see your post until i refreshed the whole page. that is indeed exactly the information i was looking for. i have been searching the net for diagrams or plans of a working piece of equipment without success as of yet. From this table i can see that just a simple flow system of the reactants over the catalyst will easily scale to what is needed

thank you that is the kind of information i am looking for! do you have any more information on the physical process? i take it that the energy to accomplish the transformation comes from the heating of the catalyst but is there any other place energy is needed to further the reaction. I understand the cryonic's and pressurization process necessary to turn gaseous methane to liquid methane fuel and the energies required there. it is the making of the Methane from h2o and co2 that i am trying to get a handle on. the equipment necessary and the energies that need to be supplied. Thanks everyone for your comment so far. I am looking forward to finding out more!

I am very interested in finding out more details of the Mars physical generation plant that will make the Methane fuel' for the return journey. How Efficient is the sabatier process? will it take years to generate the amount of fuel necessary for a return journey? what are the power requirements of the process? Will you need acres of solar panels or just a few square feet. What amounts of regolith are necessary to produce the required amount of Fuel? volume of water/cubic meter? Does anyone know who (what company) is working on this hardware? are there already working prototypes? I know that the ISS has one working now but it is small not the size necessary to produce the fuel for a return from mars mission . I have been following the discussion about mars missions for years and i have not seen any answers to these questions. I hope someone out there can point me in the correct direction! thanks