New Aluminum-Water Rocket Propellant Promising For Future Space Missions

Oct. 8, 2009 Researchers are developing a new type of rocket propellant made of a frozen mixture of water and "nanoscale aluminum" powder that is more environmentally friendly than conventional propellants and could be manufactured on the moon, Mars and other water-bearing bodies. The aluminum-ice, or ALICE, propellant might be used to launch rockets into orbit and for longdistance space missions and also to generate hydrogen for fuel cells, said Steven Son, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University. Purdue is working with NASA, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and Pennsylvania State University to develop ALICE, which was used earlier this year to launch a 9-foot-tall rocket. The vehicle reached an altitude of 1,300 feet over Purdue's Scholer farms, about 10 miles from campus. "It's a proof of concept," Son said. "It could be improved and turned into a practical propellant. Theoretically, it also could be manufactured in distant places like the moon or Mars instead of being transported at high cost." Findings from spacecraft indicate the presence of water on Mars and the moon, and water also may exist on asteroids, other moons and bodies in space, said Son, who also has a courtesy appointment as an associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics. The tiny size of the aluminum particles, which have a diameter of about 80 nanometers, or billionths of a meter, is key to the propellant's performance. The nanoparticles combust more rapidly than larger particles and enable better control over the reaction and the rocket's thrust, said Timothe Pourpoint, a research assistant professor in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. "It is considered a green propellant, producing essentially hydrogen gas and aluminum oxide," Pourpoint said. "In contrast, each space shuttle flight consumes about 773 tons of the oxidizer ammonium perchlorate in the solid booster rockets. About 230 tons of hydrochloric acid immediately appears in the exhaust from such flights." ALICE provides thrust through a chemical reaction between water and aluminum. As the aluminum ignites, water molecules provide oxygen and hydrogen to fuel the combustion until all of the powder is burned. "ALICE might one day replace some liquid or solid propellants, and, when perfected, might have a higher performance than conventional propellants," Pourpoint said. "It's also extremely safe while frozen because it is difficult to accidentally ignite."

The research is helping to train a new generation of engineers to work in academia, industry, for NASA and the military, Son said. More than a dozen undergraduate and graduate students have worked on the project. "It's unusual for students to get this kind of advanced and thorough training - to go from a basicscience concept all the way to a flying vehicle that is ground tested and launched," he said. "This is the whole spectrum." Research findings were detailed in technical papers presented this summer during a conference of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The papers will be published next year in the conference proceedings. Leading work at Penn State are mechanical engineering professor Richard Yetter and assistant professor Grant Risha. The Purdue portion of the research is based at the university's Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories, where researchers created a special test cell and control room to test the rocket. The rocket's launching site was located on a facility maintained by Purdue's School of Veterinary Medicine. "Having a launching site near campus greatly facilitated this project," Pourpoint said. Other researchers previously have used aluminum particles in propellants, but those propellants usually also contained larger, micron-size particles, whereas the new fuel contained pure nanoparticles. Manufacturers over the past decade have learned how to make higher-quality nano-aluminum particles than was possible in the past. The fuel needs to be frozen for two reasons: It must be solid to remain intact while subjected to the forces of the launch and also to ensure that it does not slowly react before it is used. Initially a paste, the fuel is packed into a cylindrical mold with a metal rod running through the center. After it's frozen, the rod is removed, leaving a cavity running the length of the solid fuel cylinder. A small rocket engine above the fuel is ignited, sending hot gasses into the center hole, causing the ALICE fuel to ignite uniformly. "This is essentially the same basic procedure used in the space shuttle's two solid-fuel rocket boosters," Son said. "An electric match ignites a small motor, which then ignites a bigger motor." Future work will focus on perfecting the fuel and also may explore the possibility of creating a gelled fuel using the nanoparticles. Such a gel would behave like a liquid fuel, making it possible to vary the rate at which the fuel is pumped into the combustion chamber to throttle the motor up and down and increase the vehicle's distance. A gelled fuel also could be mixed with materials containing larger amounts of hydrogen and then used to run hydrogen fuel cells in addition to rocket motors, Son said.

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Purdue is working with NASA, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and Pennsylvania State University to develop a new type of rocket propellant made of a frozen mixture of water and "nanoscale aluminum" powder. The propellant, called ALICE, is more environmentally friendly and could be manufactured on the moon, Mars and other water-bearing bodies. Holding a rocket launched earlier this year using the propellant, from left, are: mechanical engineering undergraduate student Cody Dezelan, mechanical engineering graduate student Tyler Wood, mechanical engineering professor Steven Son, aeronautics and astronautics graduate student Mark Pfeil, mechanical engineering doctoral student Travis Sippel, aeronautics and astronautics research assistant professor Timothe Pourpoint, and postdoctoral researcher John Tsohas. (Credit: Purdue University photo/Andrew Hancock)

New Breed of Space Vehicle: Researchers Developing Conceptual Design for a Mars 'Hopper'
Nov. 18, 2010 Scientists and engineers at the internationally acclaimed Space Research Centre at the University of Leicester are developing a conceptual motor design for a Mars 'hopping' vehicle which should lead to a greater understanding of the 'Red Planet'. Their research findings have been published this month by the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. Robots exploring Mars can carry scientific instruments that measure the physical and chemical characteristics of the Martian surface and subsurface, analyse the environment and look for evidence of past or present life. Wheeled rovers have made extraordinary discoveries despite only exploring a small fraction of the planet. The research has an international flavour. The University of Leicester has been working with a number of collaborators including Astrium Ltd in the UK and Center for Space Nuclear Research, Idaho, USA. The focus in the UK has been the development of a large-scale (400 kg) Mars Hopper concept that can fly in 1km 'hops'. This is an exciting concept that should be considered further as a complement to rover and orbital missions. The Hopper can collect fuel between hops by compressing gas from the Martian atmosphere and can fly quickly between sites, powered by a long-life radioisotope power source. It could therefore study hundreds of locations over a lifetime of several years. The Leicester research focused on the rocket motor, looking at its size and materials. Dr Richard Ambrosi, at the Leicester Space Research Centre, commented: "The improved mobility and range of a hopping vehicle will tell us more about the evolution of Mars and of the Solar System and may answer questions as to whether there was life in the past, whether Mars was wetter in the past and if so where that water went." Dr Nigel Bannister added: "The Hopper is different from other rovers because of its power source. In one mode the heat source generates electric power to drive a compressor to gather the carbon dioxide propellant from the Martian atmosphere. The heat source then stores thermal energy and injects it into the propellant, which is accelerated out of a rocket nozzle to provide thrust." Dr Hugo Williams said: "At Leicester we have concentrated on the motor and design features which translate into the performance of the vehicle. "Our findings have resulted in a hop range of 1km, for a relatively large vehicle with a large suite of scientific instruments on board. We also looked at the geometry and the best materials for the motor core.

"Our interest in the materials aspect is particularly relevant because we are also engaged in collaborative research with our colleagues in Materials Engineering here at Leicester, and Queen Mary University of London to explore how material properties of materials for use in the space nuclear systems of the future can be enhanced through novel processing and manufacturing techniques." A Royal Society interview with Dr Richard Ambrosi, Dr Hugo Williams and Dr Nigel Bannister is available online at: http://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/11/11/rspa.2010.0438/suppl/DC2 A video illustrating the concept of the Mars vehicle is available on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grffBimdwUg Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:

Screenshot from a simulation showing an 85-hop mission segment on Mars (145 km total traverse with one week between hops). (Credit: Hugo Williams, Richard Ambrosi and Nigel Bannister, University of Leicester)

http://petersengroup.tamu.edu/documents/facilities/Facilities_propellant_mixi ng.swf

Discovery of new molecule can lead to more efficient rocket fuel

Published: Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - 10:06 in Physics & Chemistry

KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology Sweden

Trinitramid that's the name of the new molecule that may be a component in future rocket fuel. This fuel could be 20-30 percent more efficient in comparison with the best rocket fuels we have today. The discovery was made at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden. "A rule of thumb is that for every ten-percent increase in efficiency for rocket fuel, the payload of the rocket can double. What's more, the molecule consists only of nitrogen and oxygen, which would make the rocket fuel environmentally friendly. This is more than can be said of today's solid rocket fuels, which entail the emission of the equivalent of 550 tons of concentrated hydrochloric acid for each launch of the space shuttle," says Tore Brinck, professor of physical chemistry at KTH. Working with a research team at KTH, he discovered a new molecule in the nitrogen oxide group, which is not something that happens every day. It was while the scientists were studying the breakdown of another compound, using quantum chemistry computations, that they understood that the new molecule could be stable. "As mentioned, what is specific to this molecule is that it contains only nitrogen and oxygen. Only eight such compounds were previously known, and most of them were discovered back in the 18th century. This is also clearly the largest of the nitrogen oxides. Its molecular formula is N(NO2)3, and the molecule is similar to a propeller in shape," says Tore Brinck. The research team, consisting of Martin Rahm and Sergey Dvinshikh as well as Professor Istvan Fur , besides Tore Brinck, has now shown how the molecule can be produced and analyzed. The scientists have also managed to produce enough of the compound in a test tube for it to be detectable. "It remains to be seen how stable the molecule is in a solid form," says Tore Brinck. It was during work to find an alternative to today's solid rocket fuel that the researchers found the new molecule. The findings are now being published in the respected journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.