Exotic Fuel for Aircraft and Rocket

[Michel Van]

i understand publiusr Idea,
but combine electric reaction wheels with electric Turbopump is not best option.
you need set of reaction wheels in different orientation for orbital use,
here the wheels rotate in different speeds for orientation change.
Turbppumps are either vertical or horizontal in Rocket long axe.
and run on fixed speed to feed the engines.

 

[publiusr]

Thank you for the kind response--it can be good to look for dual use in equipment...a small toroidal tank in a tri-propellant set up might be a crushable structure to soften a landing when empty---a nozzle extension dropped before landing leaving the smaller nozzle for an ascent stage.

 

[Byeman]

Thank you for the kind response--it can be good to look for dual use in equipment...a small toroidal tank in a tri-propellant set up might be a crushable structure to soften a landing when empty---a nozzle extension dropped before landing leaving the smaller nozzle for an ascent stage.

no. Crushable means none reuse, Toroidal tank hard to manage the fluids for a lander and no advantage for volume saving, what is the point of dropping the nozzle? And why tri-propellant? What is the point of all of it? There is no dual use in tank as a crushable structure, it would vent propellants

This is not how you throw stuff against the wall to see if it sticks. Suggesting random techniques to see if they help. First you have a baseline design with a set performance , then you tweak with specific changes that have a purpose in mind such as increase landed mass or reduce cost. each change has to be traded.

ISP, performance and lightweight are no longer drivers. Cost is everyting. That means nothing exotic, complex or expensive. Think mass production.

 

[Michel Van]

a small toroidal tank in a tri-propellant set up might be a crushable structure to soften a landing when empty--
-a nozzle extension dropped before landing leaving the smaller nozzle for an ascent stage.

why ?
small toroidal tanks are hard to empty, see issue the Soviets had with Block D on Proton rocket...
Loosing the nozzle is bad special if you on airless moon in solar system.
this is like Firefly Alpha 6th flight, were nozzle blow off the engine try it best,
but with out or litte nozzle the performance of Engine is dramatic reduce.
SpaceX use short nozzle were Payload is low mass, ULA used Nozzle extension for more Performance on RL-10

i understand you idea, publiusr
but this would only work for heavy cargo lander, that not need to return.

 

[amadolabonte]

I found in Robert L. Forward novel "Saturn Rukh"
this Synthetic Fuel: metastabil Helium NHe64*

know someone about this is a real proposal or is this pure Sci-Fi ?
(Forward had Habit to put proposals in his novels)

the idea of metastable helium is this:
Three helium atoms are aligned in a metastable state.
When it reverts to normal state it releases Fox News 0.48 giga joules per kilogram.
only problem is that it tends to decay spontaneously, with a lifetime of a mere 2.3 hours.

in "Saturn Rukh" they solve those problems.
by aligned 64 helium atoms around one nitrogen atom with laser
the Fuel look like blue mercury with densty of 13.5 tons/m3
heat up to 2200° kelvin, NHe64* disintegrated and release energy
isp is 3058 sec

Forward quote a George Phillips from
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado
and his paper "The Properties of NHe64*"

NHe64* is a fictional concept created by Robert L. Forward for Saturn Rukh. There is no scientific evidence or real paper by George Phillips from NIST on this compound. While based on speculative science like metastable helium, the idea of aligning 64 helium atoms around a nitrogen atom is pure science fiction.

 

[aim9xray]

When it reverts to normal state it releases Fox News 0.48 giga joules per kilogram

Fox News??? (Seriously, not sure where to go with this one.) What did the Lieutenant mean to say?

 

[publiusr]

Cost is everyting. That means nothing exotic, complex or expensive. Think mass production.

I don't think JPL would agree with you.

To aim9...that's probably auto-correct

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[Byeman]

I don't think JPL would agree with you.

Yes, they do. They have cost constraints. Nobody has an open checkbook anymore. And also, there is no need for it. There is no rush from the government POV. Commercially, there is because early bird gets the worm.