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asdfftoday at 8:19 PM1 replyview on HN

Any chemical bond is a potential source of energy. Plenty of sources of potential energy too able to be converted to work.


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saulpwtoday at 9:28 PM

That's the source, but for chemical reactions you also need a sink. For instance gasoline is not usable as an energy source without an oxidant. Take away the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere (an asteroid has no atmosphere at all) and now gasoline has no potential energy available. Asteroids have no available oxidants (regolith was already fully oxidized long ago).

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