NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/sci/space/18556

Text File | 1993-01-01 | 1.5 KB | 31 lines

Newsgroups: sci.space
Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!utcsri!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!aurora.physics.utoronto.ca!hall
From: [e-mail] (Chris Hall)
Subject: Re: Aluminum as rocket fuel?
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail] (News Administrator)
Organization: University of Toronto Physics/Astronomy/CITA
References: <[e-mail]>
Date: Fri, 1 Jan 1993 20:02:08 GMT
Lines: 19

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Bruce Dunn) writes:
>
>        Paul Deitz has pointed out in E-mail to me that molten aluminum would
>be an ideal candidate for pressure feeding.  Relative to normal fuels such as
>hydrogen (density 70 kg/m^3) and RP-1 (density 800 kg/m^3), aluminum with a
>density of about 2700 kg/m^3 will require small tanks.  The tanks are very
>hot, meaning that little mass of pressurization gas will be needed.  A useful
>technique might be to have the molten aluminum stored in a spherical steel
>tank pressurized by injecting liquid nitrogen into the tank (which because of
>the heat will immediately vaporize).  Is nitrogen available from the moon?
>
A better choice of pressurizing gas might be helium or argon. Both are inert
and helium is present in reasonable quantities from the solar wind impacting
in the lunar soil. But argon is also present, particularly in old KREEP
deposits, since there has been a considerable length of time for 40K to
decay into 40Ar.

Chris Hall
[e-mail]