There are today plenty of “rubbery” thermoplastics available. If we accept
somewhat lower performance then a professional propellant, it seems—in
principle—that making and casting solid propellant using a thermoplastic
binder should be relatively simple, as previous RRI experience w/ asphalt
suggests.
The problem for me has been figuring out a relatively safe process:
Dry mixing the ingredients and then melting seems—again, to me—too sporty.
Dry mixing the Al and binder seems safe enough; melting that and breaking
into pellets for later processing also seems safe up to the point that AP
is added.
Any thoughts as to how to cast a thermoplastic grain w/o having to mix dry
fuel and oxidizer before melting?
Bill