NEW-GENERATION OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE ENGINES FOR SPACECRAFT PROPULSION

The technology readiness for a new class of high-performance storable bipropellant engines has been demonstrated at three different thrust levels, i.e., 5-, 15-, and 100-lbf thrust. Improved high-temperature materials and combustion chamber design permit the removal of fuel film cooling and its associated contamination and performance losses without compromising pulsing duty cycle flexibility. The iridium/rhenium composite chamber material greatly increase the thermal margin over existing engine designs which use disilicide-coated columbium thrust chambers by increasing the allowable operating temperature to 2204-degrees-C (4000-degrees-F). The companion technologies for providing metallurgical joints between the different materials used for the injector, chamber, and high area ratio skirt have also been demonstrated and incorporated into flight type engine designs.