Friday was propellant day, I was out at FAR all day.
- I received an order of 85% from XL Space.
- I built the forms for the base of the generator that will complete my processing facility.
- I fixed a leaky valve on the safety water supply pump.
- I built a frame to hold the Refrigerated air dryer up on a shelf off the ground to give more floor space.
- I cleaned up around the site a little bit.
One more long day to finish my processing facility and I’ll have three sources of propellant.
180 second status: I’ve put together both an order and a RFQ for stainless versions of the regen biprop motor to replace the dead aluminum one. After examining the dead motor its really clear that something bad happened in the region of the pressure port. It was more than a a bad weld. We either had the port through the wall leak fuel rich stuff into the cooling jacket or we have some kind of contamination there. On the next motor this is going The new motor will have an uncooled section thats identical to the top of the blue ball motor and will weld to a cooled lower section. There will be no joints through the cooling jacket wall.
Realistically we get one more shot at the 180 second motor and the way rockets go that has to be considered a hail mary.
5 comments:
Good news on the propellent source issues. It will be interesting to see the results of the home processed propellent.
I am hopeful that this new SS engine performs well enough and is reliable enough. Fingers crossed. My gut tells me your going to be in a far better place with it than with the alloy version.
Time flies so I am looking forward to the test firing of this second generation engine in the near future.
It sounds like you're doing your pressure port like the LR101... it doesn't breach any of the regen passages. In fact, it is very close to the injector face.
Will this SS version be identical to the Al? i.e. billet SS with machined grooves?
I was just thinking. Your rocket is green. It produces water. (and burned camerss) ;)
Selling propellant is definitely a way to make money in commercial space travel.
You wrote that the big companies supplying fuel were concerned about lawsuits from greedy people. How cautious are you about selling it? Or would you sell to another company which could offer it for sale and manage risks? I would Hate to see the steady progress hurt by other's greed.
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