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See NASA's Hot, New Moon Lander Thruster Glow-Up During Testing

posted by Fnord666 on Thursday March 26 2020, @04:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the get-the-thrust-of-it dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Thrusters are the unsung heroes of the engine world. They make the small adjustments that help orient a spacecraft. NASA is testing out some next-gen thrusters for its future lunar landers, and they are glowing. 

NASA and Frontier Aerospace, which is developing the thrusters, put two prototypes through 60 hot-fire tests in a vacuum chamber in March. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted an animated GIF on Wednesday of one of the prototypes glowing during a test. It looks like the world's most awesome night light.

We’re developing next-gen thrusters to be used on @Astrobotic's Peregrine lunar lander. The vacuum chamber hot-fire tests of a thruster prototype were the first in a series of tests to ready this lightweight, cost-saving technology for space: https://t.co/0gYfRzJC3K pic.twitter.com/Nud3Qq2Vum

— Jim Bridenstine (@JimBridenstine)

The thrusters, which are part of the agency's Thruster for the Advancement of Low-temperature Operation in Space (TALOS) project, use a propellant called MON-25, which should work well in the extremely low temperatures in space. NASA said it will make spacecraft systems smaller, lighter and less expensive. 

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 26 2020, @05:23PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 26 2020, @05:23PM (#975980)

    Google found this on pros and cons of MON-25
    https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20190033329.pdf [nasa.gov]
    10 slides, ending with:

    Conclusions

    For deep-space missions, spacecraft often faces extreme temperature environments throughout its flight duration. In comparison with its MON family, such as widely used MON-1 and MON-3, oxidizer MON-25 can offer a capability of operating at lower temperature and a wider temperature range. Subsequently, MON-25 benefits the reduction of heater power requirement and robustness in operation.

    High vapor pressure of MON-25 can hinder a desire of its use in a practical application, especially for a mission on which a large environmental temperature swing is anticipated. Although oxidizer MON-25 and its companion fuel MMH have a similar freezing point, an exponential increase in viscosity of MMH when reducing in temperature below 0oC [32oF] poses a unique hallenging in propulsion system and engine designs. A way of overcoming these disadvantages is to operate the system at optimal pressure and to limit the temperature, particularly at the low end of the temperature.

    Overall, a comprehensive trade study should be conducted when selecting MON-25 as a propellant for spacecraft. Depending missions, MON-25 can be attractive for certain missions while it may be not a great payoff for others.