In my opinion, ammonia is the unsung hero of non-combustion rockets. By
decomposing into N2 and H2 (no fouling), the molecular weight drops to
8.5. lower than anything but helium and hydrogen. Yet at 200K & one bar
the density is 728 kg/m3, and at 2200K the vac Isp can hit about 3900
m/s. That rho*isp is hard to beat.
Doug Jones
On 12/1/2015 3:43 PM, Jonathan Goff wrote:
On a note somewhat related to stable, high-performance monopropellants,
Kevin Parkin just announced the start of a San Francisco-based startup
to pursue his previous Microwave Thermal Rocket launch technology (which
I think we discussed a bunch on aRocket back in the day). Hard to get
more stable than inert, and even with Methane or Ammonia, the
performance is still very respectable...
~Jon