[AR] SSTO fuels (was Re: SSTO)
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2018 14:39:52 -0500 (EST)
On Tue, 13 Feb 2018, William Claybaugh wrote:
Is anyone aware of a careful comparison of LH2 vs. Propane fueled SSTO?
James Martin (of Langley) looked at this in some detail back in the 1980s,
generally concluding that propane showed a small advantage. I'm not aware
of a more recent equivalent.
One issue he noted is that the outcome is rather sensitive to assumptions
about things like combustion efficiency.
Hydrogen tanks generally weigh around 10% of the fuel mass whereas
Propane tanks are closer to 1%....
Some years ago, Jordin Kare was describing some NASA-funded studies of
laser launch that he'd been involved in, and he said that there actually
seemed to be considerable disagreement about just how much a hydrogen tank
weighs. (Probably people making different underlying assumptions.)
Henry
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