[AR] hybrids (was Re: List of universities ...)
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2017 13:38:59 -0400 (EDT)
On Mon, 20 Mar 2017, Anthony Cesaroni wrote:
State of the art, staged combustion, gas generator hybrids outperform
solid rocket motors and rival many bipropellant engines in terms of
specific impulse. They also excel in density impulse. They do not suffer
from combustion instability or shifting O/F ratio and realize excellent
combustion efficiency.
And if you have money and want to buy a bunch of them, Anthony will be
happy to talk to you about it! :-)
Alas, for *reusable* vehicles like DreamChaser, even the Cesaroni advanced
hybrids suffer from a fundamental snag: you have to clean remains of
insulation etc. out of a big chamber, and then insert and mate a big heavy
new fuel grain. And for a gas-generator hybrid, the new grain isn't inert
like a classical hybrid's, which ratchets up safety precautions and
handling issues (although not as badly as a solid, I'd expect). Not an
impossible problem, but definitely a complication; reusable ops really
prefer systems you can "refurbish" by just pouring more liquid into tanks.
Henry
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