According to foreign media reports, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are currently studying a salt-based propellant that could potentially power a dual-mode rocket that is used both as an internal combustion engine and an ion engine. This opens up the possibility that the rocket has both the advantages of a liquid fuel rocket and the advantages of ion-driven rockets for space missions.
One of the most basic questions when relevant agencies are planning a space mission is what kind of propellant to use from point A to point B. Under extreme conditions, liquid fuel rockets can provide a large amount of thrust in a short time, while electrostatic or ion engines can provide a small amount of thrust in a long time.
Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Among them, the liquid engine rocket can put the payload into orbit, but it is not efficient for long-distance interstellar travel. The ion engine is very suitable for powering the probe from Earth to Pluto, but this engine is rubbish under any gravity.
One way to solve this problem is to create a dual-mode rocket that can generate a lot of thrust by burning two propellants, and then continue to use these propellants when the engine switches to ion mode.
It is understood that the working principle of the ion engine is to give the propellant atoms a charge and then accelerate the atoms in the electric field. The thrusters currently used in space missions rely on heavy atoms such as xenon or cesium, but the focus of Illinois research has been changed to electrospray or colloidal propellants. This is a system developed by the biology and chemistry laboratory technology, in which droplets are sprayed into an aerosol and then charged and accelerated.
To do this, the liquid needs to be transported by a capillary pump with a small diameter. When the liquid reaches the top of the pipe, it encounters a strong electrostatic field and then pulls out small droplets and sprays them out. In this scenario, the liquid selected for the system will be used for dual-mode rockets. However, the tricky issue is how to select the correct two propellants so that they can operate in two modes.
In this regard, Joshua Rovey, an associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois Granger School of Engineering, said that they have created a propellant, which is a mixture of two commercial salts-hydroxylammonium nitrate and emim ethylsulfate-in addition They have published other research papers showing that salt propellants work in a highly accelerated combustion mode. Now, they know that this unique combination of salt will also operate in an electric energy-saving mode.
"The two substances are mixed together in the propellant and then continuously combined with each other. The system is chaotic in nature. It is unclear how the interactions inside these liquids propagate and appear in the spray. (Because) no chemistry occurs. Response. It's just that we start with A and B respectively, and when they are ejected, A and B are combined together. "
Rovey also pointed out that this study will allow people to better understand how these salts interact with electrospray and how this interaction affects the output of the spray, which is very important for more mature rocket designs.
Related research reports have been published in "Journal of Propulsion and Power".
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