The combustion characteristics of a staged cycle engine with an oxidizer-rich preburner were experimentally studied at different momentum ratios multi-element injectors. Propellants simultaneously supplied as liquid–liquid–liquid system, and injector was designed in which swirl coaxial jet is sprayed. burned the propellants inner chamber had temperature greater than 2000 K. To cool gas, liquid ...

Measurements were made of a 40 cm ion-thruster plume as part of the single-string-integration-test (SSIT) activity of Phase I of the NASA’s Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) project. The NEXT ion engine incorporates design improvements that extend NSTAR power levels and efficiencies. During SSIT, an engineering model (EM2) 40 cm engine was operated using an advanced xenon propellant system in ...

Abstract The most common solutions for rocket engines are the single operation point (thrust level) units. Oxidiser and fuel mass flow rates oxidiser-to-fuel rate ratio (OFR) some of determinants thrust level. Based on these, planetary ascent descent; space rendezvous; orbital manoeuvring, including orientation stabilisation in space; hovering, hazard avoidance during landing; ballistic missile...

This work describes the modeling and control of a proposed actuation system that is capable of pressurizing a chamber volume via the catalytic decomposition of a liquid monopropellant controlled by a binary on/off propellant valve. Two design configurations of the actuation system are presented and common portions of both are energetically modeled. The parameters of the resulting dynamic model ...

Imbibition of liquids into porous media has significant importance to many processes. For example one application is the propellant management device (PMD), or liquid acquisition device (LAD), located within spacecraft tanks [1, 7]. The PMDs are designed to ensure gas free delivery of propellant during all mission accelerations. This is done by using a porous medium, a metallic mesh, which prev...

This paper presents the results of an effort to optimize a conceptual design of a conical (wingedcone) single-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle. The vehicle employs a rocket-based combined-cycle (RBCC) engine capable of four different operating modes ejector, ramjet, scramjet, and rocket. The RBCC engine offers higher engine thrust-to-weight ratios than competing airbreathing engine cycles while ma...

A new dual-fluid concept was studied that could eventually find application for cold-gas propulsion for small space satellites or other constant flow applications. In basic form, the concept uses two different refrigerant working fluids, each having a different saturation vapor pressure. The higher vapor pressure refrigerant remains in the saturation phase and is used to pressurize the lower sa...

This paper describes the design of a liquid-propellantpowered hot-gas actuator appropriate for human-scale power-autonomous robots. A prototype of the actuation system is described, and closed-loop tracking data is shown that demonstrates good motion control. Experiments to characterize the energetic performance of the actuation system indicate that the proposed system with a diluted propellant...