Published By National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Issued about 9 years ago
Summary
Description
Firestar Engineering has developed a set of Nitrous Oxide Fuel Blend monopropellants that are: 1) Non-toxic, 2) Specific Impulse> 310 s, 3) Freezing point < -77 C, 4) Self Pressurizing, and 5) Highly throttleable. A monopropellant with these characteristics and with bipropellant performance has the power to revolutionize both private and government space initiatives. Applications which will benefit from these monopropellant blends are wide spread and system level studies have indicated competitive overall performance with everything except cryogenic bipropellants. Phase II efforts will concentrate on thruster development and monopropellant UN/DOT transportation classification. Thruster development will concentrate on a 25 lbf RCS thruster and performing a number of tests required for flight certification.