Gentlefolk,
For your information, here is a table based on some of Dr. Bob Frisbee's
(yes, he's related to the Frisbee Pie Plate company family which used to
throw the pie plates that evolved into the toy) work at JPL. Bob Frisbee is
still doing his thing at JPL. I added to the table and included it in a
paper "Rocket Fundamentals: A Brief Review/Tutorial" incorporated into an
NSS "White Paper" boosting space in the early nineties. The paper is pretty
basic, but I'll send it on request (It's a Word 5.1 doc, but I can translate
to other formats). The table should be viewed in a non-proportional font,
such as courier or monaco. "Field" refers to actual engine firing data. I
probably have Bob's paper around here somewhere, but it would take days of
digging to find it...(sigh).
At the AF Rocket Lab (still at Edwards, but I've lost track of
management-ego-trip name changes), we spent considerable time and money
looking at ways of incorporating even a little monatomic hydrogen into
anything with even a little stability. Lots of ab-initio quantum chemistry
calculations on big computers went into this. Null Set. Some folks are
probably still looking. At a more mundane level, when I was there, there
were still some oldtimes at the lab who had lost fingers playing with tiny
quantities of liquid ozone.
--Best, Gerald
Table (Isp For Selected Propellants (adapted from Frisbee, 1983)
PROPELLANT ! SPECIFIC IMPULSE m/s
! Ideal(1) ! Field (2)
__________________________!___________!___________
Solids: (IUS(3) ≈ 3.0 m/s)
10CH2 + 72NH4ClO4 + 18Al ! (4) ! 3.33
10CH2 + 52NH4ClO4 + 20Al ! (4) ! 3.40
14CH2 + 72NH4ClO4 + 14Be ! (4) ! 3.40
__________________________!___________!___________
Monopropellants ! !
H2O2 (Hydrogen peroxide) ! 2.40 ! 1.88
N2H4 (Hydrazine) ! 2.64 ! 2.59
__________________________!___________!___________
Bipropellants ! !
ClF5 + N2H4 ! 3.79 ! 3.65
N2O4 + N2H4 (5) ! 3.96 ! 3.47
O2 + RP-1 (6) ! 4.52 ! 3.73
O2 + H2 (SSME) ! 4.97 ! 4.61
F2 + N2H4 ! (4) ! 4.28
F2 + H2 ! 5.18 ! 4.91
__________________________!___________!___________
Tripropellants ! !
F2 + H2 + Li(7) ! 6.89 ! (4)
O2 + H2 + Be(7) ! 6.91 ! (4)
__________________________!___________!___________
Free Radicals (Unstable) ! !
O3 + H2 ! 5.95 ! 5.01
H + H ! 20.89 ! (4)
__________________________!___________!___________
Nuclear Thermal (≈3500K) ! !
CH4 ! 6.00 ! (4)
H2 ! 11.00 ! (4)
__________________________!___________!___________
(1) All chemical energy converted to kinetic energy
(2) Modeled for optimum expansion from 6894 kP to
1.379 kP (1000 psia to 0.2 psia, 0.014 atmosphere)
(3) Inertial Upper Stage -- a solid fuel upper stage
(4) No Data Provided
(5) Ignites on contact. Typical of Titan main engines
(6) Typical of Atlas and Delta main engine
Reference: Frisbee, Robert, Ultra High Performance Propulsion for Planetary
Spacecraft, JPL D-1184, Pasadena, CA, 1983
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