What do I use methane for?

[Senkoau]

I thought it would be a source of the nitrogen for plants but neither the green house nor my workshop has a methane socket and the oxygen one doesn't change like on a pumping station inlet. May as well scrap my sabatier unit if I can't use it for this as short term more O2/Water would be more useful till I get the resources to bring my pumping station fully online but if there's a way to get methane to supply the plants it'd be worth working on instead.

Did try googling but only got results on actual methane being found on mars not the game.

[Dallas]

I use it to refuel my Jetpack, but i was also wondering if there's any other uses for it?

[Captain T1]

Originally posted by Dallas:

I use it to refuel my Jetpack, but i was also wondering if there's any other uses for it?

That's all I use it for too. I'm guessing in future patches though we may have an ITS visit our base and require refuelling of O2 and methane.

[Dallas]

Originally posted by Captain T1:

That's all I use it for too. I'm guessing in future patches though we may have an ITS visit our base and require refuelling of O2 and methane.

One useful thing i've figured out with the jetpacks is that if you create a number of them in your inventory, they are all fueled up and you can travel very long distances without having to refuel.

[Senkoau]

Thanks, in that case I'll scrap them and use the materials on more water and o2 till I have the resources for them to sit there.

[mololkins]

Nitrogen for the greenhouse is obtained through composter from vegetation, including withered

[MikeDH]

I think if the chemical workbench comes into the game and chemicals in particular there is maybe a use for methane. A possible reason to have methane is also rocket fuel for "Methalox" engines where methan is used in liquid form. All SpaceX Raptors are methalox based. Maybe there will also be a power generator which you can operate with methane / oxygen. Maybe also in the future you can fill up rockets which are used for transporting materials between bases which are all over the planet.

[CursedXistence]

Currently you need methane for the jetpack and also for fueling the launchpad for the home preparedness mission.

[amon]

Flying and the new launch platform require methane and oxygen.

[Junaio]

I'm guessing that the "chemistry" branch is part of making fuel in the future (rather than just use Methane) and a possible route towards adding terraforming to the game in the future MaybeTM since we'd need to generate a ton of gasses from the available resources.

Methane would be part of that, you'd release methane to get a greenhouse effect going to heat things up, but can't do that the whole way as you could create a runaway greenhouse effect with it.

For actual atmosphere we'd first need to also extract a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of nitrogen (which is 78% of air) from the soil to create atmosphere in combination with converting more Methane into the 1ish% CO2/watervapor/argon/othergasses and 21% O2 we already produce.

We can't go do that without also setting up a satellite and/or surface based magnetosphere generator system so that the atmosphere doesn't just leak into space.

I'm already well enjoying this game as it is, so I hope they stick with it and keep adding content towards making Mars a livable place.

Getting to a point where you can take of your helmet would be the most satisfying endgame. And you could go well beyond that.