John Carmack wrote: > > > > >My chief mechanic, Mike Laughlin, did much of the HTP loading and > >unloading for the propulsion testing for the Roton ATV; his assistant, > >Johnny Hernandez, operated the peroxide concentrator plant. They didn't > >like those jobs *at all*, involving hundreds of pounds of 85% HTP. > > Ok, but *WHY* didn't they like those jobs at all? Did it just creep them > out? Personally, I wouldn't want to run the concentrator, but I don't see > what the big deal with loading the propellent is. BTW, what was the > loading methodology? Pump/vacuum from drums, or a single mid-sized tank?
Ken Doyle filled in the details, and I stand corrected on several points. Johnny was very much aware of the hazards of running the concentrator due to the presence of heated peroxide and a large inventory in a confined space of the stacked shipping containers. > >LOX is cheap, readily available, high performance, and is routinely > >handled safely by thousands of workers around the world every day. HTP > >is not. > > Doug is trolling. :-) Kinda sorta... but my points are true, aren't they? HTP is an okay monoprop (certainly far easier to obtain and use than other monoprops), but the Isp with practical fuels is lower than for LOX with the same fuels, and the rho-Isp product is not so much greater that simply using more cheap LOX doesn't make up for it. LOX is cheap, readily available, and routinely handled in huge quantities. For small to medium size applications, peroxide has a strong niche; for large or high flight rate applications, LOX wins. We chose to bite the bullet and go straight to LOX to get the routine operational experience sooner rather than later- although it might have been more difficult to get FAA approval to fly a peroxide-based EZ-Rocket with 400 lbs of HTP on board near an airshow crowd, we probably could have done it. > However, the availability is an issue. I finally talked to FMC again > today, and they are pretty skittish sounding. Steven Rhine commented that > *ALL* of their customers are government contractors, and they will have to > decide if they want to sell to a commercial customer. > > I will be rather perturbed if they decline to sell to us. > > John Carmack I can get 40,000 pounds of LOX delivered in two days with a phone call. On account. No cooking, sparging, freezing, folding, spindling, or mutilating is required before loading it into a vehicle and lighting it off. Peroxide enables productive work at a convenient scale and has a very useful niche, and I respect the good work that has been done with it. On the other hand, I feel that designing a new vehicle to use tons of it at a time, several times a day, is not reasonable. -- Doug Jones _______________________________________________ ERPS-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.erps.org/mailman/listinfo/erps-list
