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    UK Avalon Member Kevin_Hall's Avatar
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    Default Rocket propulsion

    I would like to share with you a bit of information I've found on this topic.
    To begin with, I'd like to say that it would be so great if you reply to this topic with interesting facts you have found. I think all of us are here to exchange knowledge

    What is rocket fuel?

    It is a type of high power engine supply for creating thrust. Rocket fuel can be chemical (liquid and solid), nuclear and thermonuclear.

    Liquid type of fuel usually consists of two components: oxidizer and fuel. These components are located in the rocket in different tanks. Then they are mixed in the combustion chamber via injectors.

    Solid rocket fuel also consists of an oxidizer and fuel, but they are in the form of a mixture of solids.

    I've also found a good video on how the liquid rocket engine works.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y3fG-YrIII&t=218s
    Watching it is required for better understanding of the theme.

    A couple of interesting facts, that do not seem to be reality, but they are actually real


    According Elon Musk's tweet, where he says that SpaceX is going to use CO2 to create rocket fuel.
    At the first sight it may seem to be unique, but a Canadian company Carbon Engineering has already made this idea come into reality.

    I have also found another curious solution on rocket fuel. Skyrora, the company that makes each of its rocket in UK has come up with Ecosene. It is a type of propulsion that is made of plastic wastes. This solution solves 2 problems at the same time.

    Thanks for reading. Waiting for your replies!
    Last edited by Kevin_Hall; 4th February 2022 at 14:17.

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    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rocket propulsion

    Three good videos (for rocket engine enthusiasts!) from The Everyday Astronaut:

    Is SpaceX's Raptor engine the king of rocket engines? (May 2019)


    The Entire Soviet Rocket Engine Family Tree (Nov 2021)


    Why don't rocket engines melt? How engineers keep engines cool (Jan 2022)


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    Costa Rica Avalon Member
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    Default Re: Rocket propulsion

    One more should be mentioned, since it can get us to Mars in 39 days!

    It's ready and has been tested, and it outperforms expectations. NASA
    funded it with several million dollars, and it has been built in relative
    secrecy here in Costa Rica for the past several years. It's being built by
    a Costarican, born in San Jose, who later went to MIT and became a NASA
    astronaut, but is primarly a plasma physicist. He works with a team of
    locals here from the University of Costa Rica, among others.


    Ad Astra Rocket plasma engine breaks power record
    Ad Astra Rocket Company of Webster, Texas and Guanacaste, Costa Rica

    founded and run by Franklin R. Chang-Díaz
    Costa Rican-American engineer

    Franklin Ramón Chang Díaz is a Costa Rican American mechanical engineer, physicist and former NASA astronaut. He is the sole founder and CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company as well as a member of Cummins' board of directors. He became an American citizen in 1977. He is of Costa Rican Spanish (maternal side) and Chinese (paternal side) descent.

    He is a veteran of seven Space Shuttle missions, tying the record, as of 2021 for the most spaceflights (a record set by Jerry L. Ross). He was the third Latin American, but the first Latin American immigrant NASA Astronaut selected to go into space.[6] Chang Díaz is a member of the NASA Astronaut Hall of Fame.

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he earned a Ph.D. degree in applied plasma physics in 1977.[14] For his graduate research at MIT, Chang Díaz worked in the field of fusion technology and plasma-based rocket propulsion

    After leaving NASA, Chang Díaz set up the Ad Astra Rocket Company, which became dedicated to the development of advanced plasma rocket propulsion technology. Years of research and development have produced the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR), an electrical propulsion device for use in space.[15] With a flexible mode of operation, the rocket can achieve very high exhaust speeds, and with a sufficiently powerful electrical supply even has the theoretical capability to take a crewed rocket to Mars in 39 days.


    COSTARICA – The Ad Astra Rocket, a company founded by Costa Rican astronaut c, broke another record for long-life/high-power firing of its VASIMR VX-200SS plasma engine.

    An electric rocket like the VASIMR VX-200SS, which operates at more than 50 kilowatts (kW) / booster, is considered “high power.”

    On Wednesday, June 30, based on a succession of tests earlier this year, of increasing duration and power, the company completed a record test of the engine, operating at a power level of 82.5 kW for 28 hours, far more than any other high-powered engine to date.

    Testing is ongoing at the company’s research facility in Houston, Texas.

    The VASIMR engine is unique in that it has the high power of a chemical rocket, but is ten times more fuel-efficient.

    As such, it has multiple applications, ranging from high payload solar-electric robotic commercial payloads and resupply missions in cis-lunar space, to fast nuclear-electric human missions to Mars and beyond.

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    Ireland Avalon Member aoibhghaire's Avatar
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    Default Re: Rocket propulsion

    Besides conventional chemical rocketry with planned future missions taking 9 months to get to Mars, assumes a close conjunction of Mars and Earth. (35M)
    The problem here for the astronauts is the significant duration of time for health issues. Long duration's on the ISS of 8 months have created deterioration of the immune system and bone contraction for the astronauts. In addition, the 9 month duration to Mars is the unavoidable radiation from X rays when you are outside the protection of the magneto sphere of the Earth. Outside the magneto sphere the radiation will trigger and accelerate cancer besides the other deteriorations as mentioned above. I think all the hype of going to Mars must address these long duration's.

    The plasma propulsion system of Ad Astra Rocketry, as another means for transportation to Mars, taking 39 days is still too long for astronauts. Again similar affects as mentioned above, in particular X ray radiation. The immune system may be less so.

    There are many new fundamentally new concepts for future advanced propulsion systems in development. Chemical rocketry technology IMO is old and has been around for at least since Goddard's time nearly 100 years. The one I like that takes 2 to 4 days to Mars. (APEC) Alternative Propulsion Energy Conference,by Dr Hugh Deasy, December 2021, (Deasy Lorentz system). Now with ESA (Space Solutions). No info as its under private contract with ESA.
    I think we will need disruptive technologies like the Deasy Lorentz system for future transportation to Mars and beyond to address the health problems as mentioned above.

    In conclusion I would be in favour of the last propulsion system (Deasy Lorentz) for human health. The duration is so short that arriving, landing and take off for Earth from Mars makes more sense. At 'Opposition': 4 days to Mars, 1 day stay, 4 days back to Earth. The 2 days duration is at closest conjunction. The 4 days is at Opposition.

    aoibhghaire

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