Re: Lunar dust rocket fuel

On 18 Sep, 17:31, Frogwatch <dboh...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I was reading here:

http://pdf.aiaa.org/preview/CDReadyMSEC05_1205/PV2005_2510.pdf

That a lot of the lunar dust is very fine elemental iron particles.
So, all we have to do is to combine it with an oxidizer to form a
cheap rocket fuel for lift-off from the moon.
Can you imagine a device to feed dust into a rocket engine to burn
it? There is a lot of oxygen in the lunar dust too.....

Some studies have been done on Aluminium / Oxygen rockets. Performance
is poor but may be good enough for lunar launch. I doubt if Iron /
Oxygen will have the performance. Besides, the Oxygen has to come from
somewhere, so you might as well use Aluminium. Calcium / Magnesium and
Oxygen could be worth looking at.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Lunar dust rocket fuel
    ... That a lot of the lunar dust is very fine elemental iron particles. ... cheap rocket fuel for lift-off from the moon. ... Can you imagine a device to feed dust into a rocket engine to burn ... frozen or relatively safely boiled to death, making the likes of h2o2 ...
    (sci.space.policy)
  • Lunar dust rocket fuel
    ... I was reading here: ... That a lot of the lunar dust is very fine elemental iron particles. ... cheap rocket fuel for lift-off from the moon. ...
    (sci.space.policy)