WSPC Invents Martian Jet Engine
That Burns Carbon Dioxide
- 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
Wickman Spacecraft & Propulsion Company has successfully tested a jet engine that burns carbon dioxide. The jet engine would "breathe" and burn the Martian atmosphere as it flies along, just like airplane jet engines breathe the air on earth. What makes this Martian jet engine unique is that the Mars atmosphere is 95% carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is commonly used in fire extinguishers to put out fires on earth. Wickman engineers have developed a system where magnesium powder can be burned directly with carbon dioxide. Magnesium is believed to exist in the soil of Mars and is abundant on earth. This new jet engine would be ideally suited for the Mars Airplane.
The development program was sponsored by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory under Phase I and II SBIR contracts. During the program, a rocket engine, thruster and turbojet engine were built and tested by WSPC. The rocket engine had a thrust level of 40 lbs. The thruster produced a thrust level of one pound and was fired in pulses simulating a thruster firing on a deep space mission. The turbojet engine was designed to just overcome drag forces of a flying rover on Mars. The small engine was operated at less than a pound of thrust to compensate for these drag forces. The jet engine was operated for a few seconds at a time and then torn down and inspected by engineers. Low pressure combustion tests were also successfully done. These tests simulated the low pressure environment on Mars.
August 31, 2007 - Click on the link below to see a video of one of the jet engine tests. You will hear the turbine being spun up. After the turbine reaches speed, the magnesium powder is slowly injected into the engine burner. You will see the smoke increase out the engine exhaust as the powder flow rate is increased. The engine then goes from start up to idle speed. This is noted by the change in pitch of the turbine as you can hear it go up to about 30,000 rpm. The engine was at idle for a few seconds before the turbine blades became clogged with carbon, shutting the engine down. The carbon clogging was due to stripping all of the oxygen off the carbon dioxide leaving only carbon behind. A redesign of the burner will fix this problem.
Video of jet engine test (Windows Media Player)
Shown below is a video of the jet engine burner can being tested in the open air. A series of open air tests were done to make sure the stainless steel burner would survive before being tested in the Mars jet engine.