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I've heard of other small rocket companies using alcohol and lox as the fuel/oxidizer. Does anyone know if that is a stand-in for "real" fuels (e.g. RP-1 or H2)
by hoorayimhelping 11y ago
I've heard of other small rocket companies using alcohol and lox as the fuel/oxidizer. Does anyone know if that is a stand-in for "real" fuels (e.g. RP-1 or H2) that they'll switch to after getting contracts or if they plan on using an alcohol-fueled engine as part of their strategy?
- avmich 11y agoI've heard of planning to use alcohol - ethyl alcohol - as fuel for Kliper spacecraft in RKK Energiya. Reminding that Soyuz capsule still uses hydrogen peroxide as its RCS fuel. So alcohol isn't that much of "non-real" fuel.
- jccooper 11y agoProbably they will switch as vehicles get into higher performance requirements. Alcohol's a great fuel to work with: clean burning, room temp, good cooling properties, but it'll be tempting to switch to something else when you need more performance--and have the money and experience to deal with the extra complexity. (And RP-1 isn't that much worse, unless you have a particular problem with coking and a reusable engine, while it gives a noticeable increase in ISP. If you can handle the low density, methane's nice and clean.) But part of the new wave of space development is to optimize for cost and simplicity instead of performance, and you certainly can do real stuff with alcohol; many early rockets used it. It's possible someone will keep using alcohol; Masten's suborbital stuff might certainly stay that way. Doubt they'll land on the Moon with alcohol, though.