New answers tagged fuel
3
votes
What is the best chemical rocket fuel from a purely specific impulse standpoint?
Very theoretically, metallic hydrogen has a predicted Isp of 1700 s.
(Or lower if it has to be diluted to not melt a rocket engine with a 6000 K reaction temperature.)
Under extremely high pressure, ...
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13
votes
Accepted
What is the best chemical rocket fuel from a purely specific impulse standpoint?
From the historical NASA document Space Handbook: Astronautics and Its Applications, by Robert W. Buchheim (1959).
Super high-energy bipropellants
300 to 385, ISP
Fluorine-Hydrogen
Fluorine-Ammonia
...
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10
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What is the best chemical rocket fuel from a purely specific impulse standpoint?
TL;DR: Pentaborane or LH2/LOX
From a purely specific impulse standpoint, pentaborane is perhaps one of the most potent rocket fuels, providing excellent specific impulse (about 340/365 seconds in atm/...
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4
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When would the density Isp product be an important performance metric of a propellant?
While it isn't precisely space exploration per se, John Clark mentions this being important in Ignition for missiles, especially in cases when it is desired to meet a performance goal while having a ...
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2
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Accepted
Will mining water on Bennu for travelling to Mars not be more economical than mining it at the lunar south pole?
That's a really complex question, I would say that in the way you phrased the question, no it's not, most of the time... Let me explain.
First, to simplify, you can roughly translate how "...
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