Space boffins are kicking up a stink with a new hi-tech rocket fuelled by cow dung.
They have already tested the manure-powered engine on their 105ft Zero Earth orbiter, dubbed Dr Phew.
And the combustion chamber successfully burned for 10 seconds – demonstrating liquid biomethane can be a sustainable rocket fuel.
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Start-up Interstellar Technologies Inc, based at the Hokkaido Spaceport, in Japan, said its first scheduled flight in 2025 will use manure from local dairy cows.
Boss Takahiro Inagawa added their new-generation rocket system "will be replicated all over the world".
He continued: "We are doing this not just because it is good for the environment but because it can be produced locally, it is very cost-effective, and it is a fuel with high performance and high purity."
With the Japanese space industry suffering a few setbacks this year, their finest boffins believe it will be farmland creatures which power them back into the lead in the space race.
It comes as speedy tests elsewhere in the world are conducted, with an 11,000mph rocket ship shot off to Mars. Said flight did not have any brakes included on it.
European Space Agency chiefs are hoping to test out a new "aerocapture" strategy which would be used to prevent the ships from launching without being able to brake on their own.
The Daily Star reported the wild endeavour, with an ESA statement confirming plans to start "piggybacking" test crafts onto larger missions as a way of seeing if spaceships could maintain propellants fast enough to create space travel.
An ESA statement said: “We are venturing towards putting a spacecraft into orbit around Mars using a technique that engineers have studied for over half a century.
"This idea, known as 'aerocapture', is not a new one. It has been tempting engineers since the mid-1960s for two main reasons. Firstly, it would reduce the amount of propellant that the spacecraft needs to carry.
"Secondly, it would mean that we could choose to arrive at a planet with a higher speed, cutting cruise time. The idea has so far been perceived as too risky for its first use in a scientific mission, and sending a spacecraft to Mars with the sole aim of demonstrating aerocapture had been thought too expensive."
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