Electrolysis propulsion systems at the CubeSat scale combine the best elements of liquid chemical and electric propulsion systems to create a system that is well-suited for this scale, providing over 800 m/s V while conforming to standard CubeSat specifications. The operations concept for the proposed spacecraft architecture is based on passive spin stabilization, and several factors that dete...

Hydroxylamine nitrate (HAN) is an important member of the hydroxylamine family and it is a liquid propellant when combined with alkylammonium nitrate fuel in an aqueous solution. Low concentrations of HAN are used primarily in the nuclear industry as a reductant in nuclear material processing and for decontamination of equipment. Also, HAN has been involved in several incidents because of its i...

An internal ballistics model has been developed for performance prediction of a solid propellant rocket motor. In this model a 1-D unsteady Euler equation with source terms is considered. The flow is assumed as a non-reacting mixture of perfect gases with space and time varying thermo physical properties. The governing equations in the combustion chamber are solved numerically by using the Steg...

An unprecedented combination of high propellant fraction and small size is required for affordable-scale Mars return, regardless of the number of stages, or whether Mars orbit rendezvous or in-situ propellant options are used. Conventional space propulsion technology is too heavy, even without structure or other stage subsystems. The application of launch vehicle design principles to the develo...

This year’s efforts were devoted to extending the Rocstar version 3 rocket simulation package in several mission-critical areas: time zooming, surface propagation, and mesh modification. These capabilities were verified and applied to several large-scale simulations, including slumping in the Titan, complete propellant burn-out in a tactical motor, and substantial propellant burn-back in the RS...

A method for the simulation of flows involving a disperse particle phase and a rarefied gas is extended for increased accuracy and efficiency in modeling the high altitude plume flow from a solid propellant rocket. First, a procedure is presented so that calculations involving the interphase transfer of momentum and energy may be avoided in regions where these calculations will have negligible ...