Lunar Soil Propellant
LSP
LSP
- PSAN-I Ammonium Nitrate & Propellants
- SHARP Spaceplane
- Small Launch Vehicle
- Sounding Rockets
- Liquid Oxygen Monopropellants
- Lunar Soil Propellant (LSP)
- Lunar Bases & Lunar Concrete
- Small Launch Vehicle
- Pintle Nozzle With Thrust Vector Control
In the late 1980's, John Wickman was searching for propellants which could be made entirely from materials known to exist in lunar soil. Most of the compounds are oxides which could be broken down to yield oxygen. The next task was to find a fuel to burn with the oxygen. He looked at a variety of metals and found aluminum would yield the best performance and had the best chance of working successfully in a rocket engine.
The problem was to find a way to inject the aluminum powder into the combustion chamber in a steady, controlled manner. He came up with the idea of mixing the aluminum powder into the liquid oxygen (LOX) to form a monopropellant. Under NASA contract, the safe mixing and storage of aluminum/LOX monopropellant or LSP was demonstrated.
Aluminum/LOX Monopropellant or
LSP Inside a Beaker
The use of this new propellant was successfully demonstrated in a small rocket engine. The engine was fired several times without incident or any flashback of the flame front from the combustion chamber to the propellant tank. For more information on Lunar Soil Propellants, click here.
LSP Rocket Engine Test Firing
- Wickman, J.H., "Design of a LOX/Aluminum Lunar Propellant Rocket Engine", AIAA 94-2842, 30th Joint Propulsion Conference, June 1994.
- Wickman, J.H. and James, E., "Gelled Liquid Oxygen/Metal Powder Monopropellants", AIAA 92-3450, 28th Joint Propulsion Conference, June 1992.
- Wickman, J.H., Oberth, A.E. and Mockenhaupt, J.D, "Lunar Base Spacecraft Propulsion with Lunar Propellants", AIAA 86-1763, 22nd Joint Propulsion Conference, June 1986.