[AR] Re: More MAX delays.
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2020 14:24:43 -0500 (EST)
On Sun, 26 Jan 2020, Uwe Klein wrote:
If you can't keep the reaction away from creeping up your piping:
could you do an Orion style propulsion system with that stuff?
just throw fuel bladders behind you, timed ignite.
Boom, Boom, B...
Not unthinkable, although handling the bladders would be a concern. But a
good Orion bomblet is a specialized shaped charge, not just something that
goes boom, and even so it's a fairly inefficient way to build a rocket --
too much energy is lost out to the sides, and you need some heavy handling
and shock-absorbing hardware on the vehicle. The energy loss would most
likely wipe out the gains from using acetylene; the added equipment would
rob the mixed monoprop of its only big attraction: the simpler, lighter
hardware.
Orion is really only a useful concept if you've got an immensely energetic
reaction (which is to say, beyond chemical) that doesn't lend itself to
confinement in a conventional chamber. Lacking that, a plain old biprop
rocket engine burning some ordinary fuel with some ordinary oxidizer (NOT
premixed!) is distinctly superior, if less exciting. :-)
Henry
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