Abstract

The advent of the space age with its ever-increasing demands for placing hevier payloads into orbit has led to an increased interest in the high energy, high density propellants. The need for high-performance propulsion system to transfer payloads into highenergy trajectory has renewed interest in the addition of metals to traditional liquid propellants. The focus of past efforts with metalized propellants was the maximization of specific impulse to achieve payload advantages. However, the importance of the mass fraction in achiving payload gains has placed new emphasis on the potential of high-density metals as additives to liquid propellants. The areas which need to be addressed initially are the development of a storage, transport, and injection system for the metal ; ignition and combustion of the metal; cooling; and overall assesements of the performanced of the metarized propellant systems. One of the important technologies that should be considered for advanced vehicles is high-density hydrocarbon rocket propulsion. The desirable features for such hydrocarbon fuels are high specific impulse, high density and low cost. The results of the advanced hydrocarbon fuels analysis indicate that high energy pure compounds can be synthesized either modifying existing compounds to include high energy groups or by designing new, highly strained molecules. However, costs for such new fuels would be prohibitively high for the curent state.

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