3 ms·
If you squint at it the right way, the UK's Black Arrow launch vehicle was steam-powered; it used HTP (85-98% hydrogen peroxide) as an oxidizer, which decompose
by cstross 7y ago
If you squint at it the right way, the UK's Black Arrow launch vehicle was steam-powered; it used HTP (85-98% hydrogen peroxide) as an oxidizer, which decomposes to oxygen plus superheated steam on its way into the engine (the oxygen was then combusted with RP-1 fuel). The steam contributes a fair amount of reaction mass:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arrow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Arrow
... And the (one) satellite it successfully launched is still in orbit, nearly 50 years later.
- justin66 7y agoYou probably know this, but one can quite successfully skip the kerosene entirely and just use peroxide as a monopropellant with a silver catalyst. Presumably Hughes's belief system demanded that all his silver exist in coin form, hoarded and buried in the backyard, or something.
- wolf550e 7y ago117 seconds specific impulse [1] is miserable. It is possible [2] to reach orbit with that, but not efficiently. 1 - http://www.astronautix.com/h/h2o2.html http://www.astronautix.com/h/h2o2.html 2 - https://space.stackexchange.com/a/8720 https://space.stackexchange.com/a/8720
- mhh__ 7y agoI believe that we (the UK) are the only nation to develop and test a orbit-capable launch vehicle and then scrap it?
- thesaint 7y agoThank the EU?