ROCKET ENGINE PLUME IMPINGING OVER DIFFERENT DEFLECTOR SURFACES

The Blacklight Rocket Engine

Executive Summary This report summarizes the final project results for the period of May 1, 2002 through November 30, 2002 for the NIAC CP 01-02 Phase I study, "The BlackLight Rocket Engine". The objective of the Phase I study was to assess the potential of low pressure, mixed gas hydrogen plasmas (i.e. the BlackLight Process) toward the development of high performance space propulsion systems.

Based on Fluent Numerical Calculation of Refractive Index on Rocket Engine Nozzle Plume

Numerical 2D simulation and research on internal flow field and external flow field of rocket motor nozzle using FLUENT software. Analyze the flow condition of internal flow field and external flow field, and according to add in the amount of the different gas components, obtain the clear distribution of contour of density flow field, pressure flow field and various material components and so o...

A Reusable Rocket Engine Intelligent Control

Multi-Wavelength Laser Opacity Study of a Hybrid Rocket Plume

An instrumentation system was developed to measure the opacity of a hybrid rocket plume as a function of optical wavelength. The source consisted of collineated beams from two lasers, providing seven wavelengths in a single probe beam. Detection was accomplished with a spectrograph equipped with a photodiode array. Previous work with a two-wavelength system demonstrated the ability to follow th...

Electric Rocket Engine System R&D

1. Pulsed Plasma Thruster Pulsed plasma thrusters (PPTs) are expected to be used as a thruster for a small satellite. The PPT has some features superior to other kinds of electric propulsion. It has no sealing part, simple structure and high reliability, which are benefits of using a solid propellant, mainly Teflon (poly-tetrafluoroethylene: PTFE). However, performances of PPTs are generally lo...