How about a density of 0.868 kg/l and 410-420 sec. vacuum Isp (@100:1
expansion)?
You can do that with LOX-ammonia and some laser power to heat the ammonia and
turn it into H2 and N2.
Takes about 1/4 the laser power of a pure laser rocket. I talked about it at
the last Space Access meeting:
the Liquid Oxygen - Laser Cracked Ammonia Thruster (LOLCAT :-))
Jordin
On Jun 1, 2017, at 12:33 PM, William Claybaugh <wclaybaugh2@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Just my view, but well worn: what we need are new propellants. A fuel with
the density of kerosene and the performance of hydrogen and SSTO becomes
economic.
That said, I imagine nobody would object to a 1200 sec. ISP mono
propellant....
Bill
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 1, 2017, at 1:10 PM, Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
(This is a bit off the beaten track for Arocket, but the subject has come up
here before...)
For those interested in in-situ fuel production elsewhere in the solar
system, there's long been an annoying snag in that easily-made fuels have a
bad habit of being cryogenic. In the 5 May issue of Science, there's an
interesting paper (Sushkevich et al) on a simple catalytic process that
converts methane to methanol: CH4 + H2O -> CH3OH + H2. It can be found at
<http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6337/523>, although the full
paper unfortunately is paywalled. (Mind you, any university library will
get Science.)
(Be warned, the end notes mention that they do have a patent in the works!
They're thinking of terrestrial applications: being able to easily turn
natural gas into a room-temperature liquid fuel could be a Big Deal -- the
main existing process for this is a complex, energy-intensive hassle.)
Now, we just need an easy way to make HTP... :-)
Henry
