Thermal Cycling for Development of Hybrid Fuel for a Notional Mars Ascent Vehicle

Farias, Edgardo; Redmond, Matthew; Karp, Ashley C.; Shotwell, Robert; Mechentel, Flora S.; Story, George

doi:10.2514/6.2016-4563

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The longer the rocket can handle the cold cycles without requiring heat, the more science that can be done since that energy won't be required to keep the MAV warm. Thermal cycling testing has been done on representative samples and the fuel survived, however there was some debonding of the fuel to case 11 . Flexible cold temperature insulation materials are needed and is an area of future work.…”

Section: Fuel Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This paper will discuss the process development in going from early development melting (Figure 1) to large mixers, from hockey pucks to monolithic grains ( Figure 2). After the thermal testing was complete 12 , it was noted that the Coefficient of thermal expansion effects on the grain would be the worst in the longest dimensions. It was proposed that instead of stress relief flaps used in solid rocket motors, a segmented grain would be used.…”

Section: Fuel Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Low Temperature Hybrid Mars Ascent Vehicle Concept Development and Planning at MSFC

Story

Prince

Chaffin

et al. 2018

2018 Joint Propulsion Conference

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Return of samples from Mars has been a goal of NASA's for decades. The current Mars Sample Return mission concepts have a multiple launch rocket from the earth, where one mission delivers a caching rover to collect and package the Martian soil samples. Another rocket sends the Mars Ascent Vehicle that takes those samples to orbit. Another rocket sends an orbiter, that also meets up with the samples in orbit, and brings them back to earth. Our tasks have been focused on the Mars Ascent Vehicle. To leave the Martian surface, it requires a two burn trajectory, one to get off the planet and another to circularize the orbit. Recent studies have led to the investigation of a hybrid rocket solution. That technology has been under development for several years 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7. This paper will discuss some of the work going on at MSFC to understand how to process the fuel, some test firings done to characterize some design features and some planning done to scope out what it would take to qualify a hybrid rocket motor for this application[Depending on length, etc, this may move to Ashley's paper 8 ].

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Section: Fuel Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fuel Processingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low Temperature Hybrid Mars Ascent Vehicle Concept Development and Planning at MSFC

Story

Prince

Chaffin

et al. 2018

2018 Joint Propulsion Conference

Self Cite

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“…1) The largest reasons cited for the selection of HRMs in such applications are safety, low cost and throttealbility, 2,3) however the storability and durability of solid fuel grains on the Martian surface were also reported to be crucial to the decision making process for the JPL MAV project. 4,5) In whichever example used, the selection of HRMs over alternative propulsion systems in recent development projects is a testament to eight decades of dedicated research and development at universities and industrial laboratories around the world.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Over the past two decades, solid propellant grain designs that enhance heat transfer and mixing through clever geometries and improved liquid propellant injection methods, such as in vortex HRMs and Cascaded Multi-stage Impinging-jet (CAMUI) HRMs, have succeeded in significantly improving solid propellant regression rates. 5) However, as these designs deviate from the simple tubular and planar fuel grains used to test burning rate theory, quantifying and comparing relative performances of these new designs has also been limited. To elaborate on this point, every fuel block in a CAMUI-type HRM has three major regressing surfaces, each of which has a separate empirical correlation for regression rate.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tubular Equivalent Regression Rate in Hybrid Rockets with Complex Geometries

Kamps

Nagata

2019

AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY JAPAN

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A new performance parameter titled "tubular equivalent regression rate" is introduced to evaluate burning rates in hybrid rockets with geometrically complex solid propellant grains. Tubular equivalent regression rates are calculated for eight previously reported CAMUI-type hybrid rocket firing tests and compared with extrapolations of previously reported empirical correlations for classic, swirl and vortex hybrid rockets. A non-dimensional number titled "CAMUI Number" is introduced to evaluate how CAMUI-like a solid propellant grain is. The CAMUI Number ranges from 0-1: 0 means no CAMUI-type blocks are used, 1 means only CAMUI-type blocks are used. The results show that the tubular equivalent regression rate increases logarithmically with CAMUI Number, and approaches a value of around 3 [mm/s] for a CAMUI Number of 1. This increase in tubular equivalent regression rate is shown to correspond to an increase in performance range from a classic (tubular) hybrid rocket at low CAMUI Numbers (0.1) to surpassing a vortex hybrid rocket for high CAMUI Numbers (>0.7). Furthermore, through the block-by-block analysis of tubular equivalent regression rate in a fuel grain with a CAMUI Number of 0.71, it is shown that maximum burning rates were achieved in blocks under slightly oxidizer rich conditions.

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