An “aircraft” would be useful to do detailed surveys of the surfaces of Mars and Venus. The “aircraft” needs a propulsion engine which can work in the planet atmospheres, mainly consisting of CO
2. The purpose of this paper is to assess the feasibility of the CO
2-breathing engine using metal fuels for the planet use. The heats of reactions between metals and CO
2 were reviewed. Equilibrium compositions and temperatures of the metal-CO
2 flames were calculated. It was confirmed experimentally that Al and Mg could burn in CO
2. Thermodynamic cycle calculations were carried out to evaluate the performance of a CO
2-breathing turbojet engine. With these results, we conclude that it is capable of developing the metal fueled CO
2-breathing turbojet engine with a practicable performance.
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