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the overall pressure in the combustion chamber and slowing down the
rate of reaction, however the reaction still continues.
In the past black powder has been used for very primitive solid fuel
booster designed however due to the explosive nature of gunpowder its
range is limited to very low thrust motors; never exceeding 40N of thrust
(M.D Black 2010). The current solid fuel booster being used by NASA
involves a mixture of ammonium perchlorate and aluminium powder. This
has an average specific impulse at sea level of 285.6Ns-1(A. Ponomarenko
2016). This is less than the specific impulse of any bipropellant liquid fuel
engines, in addition to this they also cannot be used outside the
atmosphere, including their uncontrollable burn rate they cannot be used
for manoeuvring in orbit for fine adjustments meaning they're limited only
to the lift-off stage of flight and nothing else (George P. Sutton et al 2004).
Using this mix of solid fuel and catalyst can also be self detrimental to the
efficiency of the solid rocket fuel motor. The products of this reaction
between aluminium and ammonium perchlorate results in a residue that
can block the nozzle of the solid fuel booster decreasing efficiency of the
motor.
Hybrid Fuel
Hybrid fuels overcome the issues of solid fuels such as an ammonium
perchlorate booster by using a liquid oxidiser with the solid fuel. This
allows the engine to be throttled up or down which solid fuel boosters
alone cannot perform, in addition to this the motor can also be restarted
because the supply of oxidiser can sealed stopping the reaction in an
emergency such as a structural failure or if the spacecraft is moving too
fast in the atmosphere and wasting fuel because it has reached the
terminal speed for its design.
An example of a hybrid fuel is hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB)
and nitrous oxide. The HTPB binds the nitrous oxide (which is the oxidiser)
into an elastic solid which can also be mixed with traditional ammonium
perchlorate fuel and aluminium powder in the ratio 3:17:5 allowing the
hybrid fuel to produce a specific impulse of 210Ns-1. This combination is
used by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) in the M-5 rockets' 2nd 3rd and
4th stage however this is still a lower specific impulse than that of the
cryogenic fuel LOX and therefore has a lower efficiency (M.D Black 2010).
This hybrid fuel however also negates the limitations of other hybrid fuels
due to the fact that the vessel containing the fuel does not have to be as
strong as others if they were housing other hybrid fuel such as ammonium
perchlorate and thiokol. This problem is overcome because the
combustion chamber when using HTPB does not have to be as large as
others because the amount of the fuel needed is less because it has a
relatively high specific impulse. In other hybrid fuel systems the
combustion chamber must be able to endure the full force of combustion
and very high temperatures created by the alternative hybrid fuel (M.D
Black 2010).
The reason that the specific impulse is generally lower than that of the
hybrid fuels' counter parts is due to the mechanism in which the fuel is
used. In traditional liquid motors the oxidiser and fuel are mixed at the
uppermost point of the combustion chamber whereby controlled streams
of the mixture ignite. On the other hand in a hybrid motor the combustion
occurs along the evaporation gradient of the fuel and therefore large
swathes of fuel is un-combusted and therefore decreases the specific
impulse. Because of this hybrid fuels are not usually used for stages
requiring large amounts of thrust such as lift-off or boost stages. One
method of counteracting this problem involves increasing the surface area
for the evaporation to occur on because this will increase the rate of
combustion so there is a lower probability for fuel to be left unburned. This
can be achieved by allowing the fuel to enter the combustion chamber
through multiple entry points but by doing this will increase the size of the
combustion chamber, increasing the total mass of the spacecraft,
something that is needed to be kept to a minimum. There is an upper
bound to how much you can increase the area of evaporation though; too
higher a surface area will result in local flameouts along the
evaporation gradient decreasing the efficiency of the motor yet again by
leaving unburned fuel.
Due to many factors such as: limited funding for development, the fact
that solid fuel has much better attributes, especially when tasked with a
similar task like lift-off due to higher efficiency and specific impulse.
Including the fact that solid fuel is easier to store and handle, it is
definitive that hybrid fuels are not a strong contender to be a good
propellant to achieve a geosynchronous orbit.
Nuclear Propulsion
There are many different types of nuclear propulsion that have been
proposed and some have even been developed such as Project Orion
which takes advantage of a series of nuclear explosions at a set frequency
behind the spacecraft to propel it. If the problems of nuclear propulsion
are overcome they will be significantly more powerful than traditional
chemical rocket fuel and will enable for manned deep space missions (C. J
Everret et al 1955). The problems engineers face depends on the type of
nuclear propulsion. A fusion rocket will produce the highest specific
fuels. Liquid oxygen and kerosene was used in the most powerful rocket
engines ever made by man on the Apollo missions but technology has
advanced since then and a combination of liquid hydrogen and liquid
oxygen always supports a higher specific impulse and therefore using the
cryogenic fuel liquid oxygen with liquid hydrogen is the best method to
achieve a geosynchronous orbit. Liquid hydrogen and fluorine and other
such more reactive reagents produce a higher specific impulse but, due to
their high toxicity and huge issues storing them because of their
instability and tendency to explode this means they are not suitable as
fuels to use when attempting a geosynchronous orbit.
It must be taken into consideration however that all modern spacecraft
use a plethora of these fuels during different stages of their journey to
achieve maximum possible thrust and to use fuels flourish in the
environment that they are performing in. During lift-off for example large
amounts of thrust are needed to accelerate a very heavy object to escape
velocity so solid rocket boosters are used in conjunction with the first
stage cryogenic engines. Due to all mass adding to the force needed to
attain escape velocity once the solid rocket boosters have expired they
are jettisoned. When in orbit though fine adjustments are needed to
ensure they are at the correct attitude and eccentricity. To make these
corrections a less powerful fuel such as a cryogenic monopropellant or
hypergolic mixture are used. All rocket have their purpose but choosing
the correct fuel for the mission is paramount.
References
MARSHALL C. BURROWS (June 1968). Mixing and reaction studies of
hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide using photographic and spectral
techniques p. 6-18.
GEORGE C. MARSHALL (April 1968) Saturn V Flight Manuel p. 21-31
R.B. ADAMS, R.A. ALEXANDER, J.M. CHAPMAN, S.S. FINCHER, R.C.
HOPKINS, A.D. PHILIPS, T.T. POLSGROVE, R.J. LITCHFORD, AND B.W.
PATTON (November 2003) Conceptual Design of In-Space Vehicles for
Human Exploration of the Outer Planets p. 6-19
C. J. EVERETT AND S. M. ULAM (August 1955) A method of propulsion of
projectiles by means of external nuclear explosions part I p. 14
GEORGE P. SUTTON (2003). History of liquid propellant rocket engines in
the united states".Journal of Propulsion and Power. p. 9781007.
ANDREW PONOMARENKO (2016). RPA Standard Edition. Rocket Propulsion
Analysis.
Propellant combinations
Low-energy monopropellants:
-Hydrazine
- Ethylene oxide
-Hydrogen peroxide
High-energy monopropellants:
- Nitromethane
Low-energy bipropellants:
-Perchloryl fluoride
-Analine-Acid
-JP-4-Acid
-Hydrogenperoxide-JP-4
Medium-energy bipropellants:
-Hydrazine-Acid
- Ammonia-Nitrogen tetroxide
High-energy bipropellants:
- Liquid oxygen-JP-4
- Liquid oxygen-Alcohol
- Hydrazine-Chlorine trifluoride
Very high-energy bipropellants:
Isp
Range(Ns-1)
160 to 190
190 to 230
200 to 230
230 to 260
250 to 270
270 to 330
300 to 385