Such catalysts work by increasing the surface area for reactions to take place, making it easier for them to occur at lower temperatures, or possibly by adding in a compound like a metal to increase reactivity. ‘At the very beginning in the ’60s they were not able to fire at room temperature, but then they developed a catalyst that was good enough,’ Dr Negri said. Hydrazine followed the same path of early development. To tackle the problem of easy ignition, the project looked at developing a better, more reactive catalyst so that the fuel could react at room temperature. 'ADN was an oxidiser salt first found in the Soviet Union, but was rediscovered in Sweden in the 1990s where they had the idea to develop it into a liquid propellant.' Dr Michele Negri, German Aerospace Centre, Lampoldshausen, Germany The RHEFORM project looked at the ADN-based propellant LMP-103S used by a Swedish space company called ECAPS, which was a project partner and has already launched 13 propulsion systems based on the compound. On the other hand, with an ADN thruster if you just open the valve the blend would come out in liquid form. ‘Hydrazine thrusters do not require pre-heating, if you just open the valves then they start firing. While it can be dissolved into other fuels like methanol or ammonia, it takes a high temperature - more than 1500✬ - to ignite it. The problem is that ADN is a salt, so it is solid. ‘ADN was an oxidiser salt first found in the Soviet Union, but was rediscovered in Sweden in the 1990s where they had the idea to develop it into a liquid propellant,’ said Dr Michele Negri, leader of a space propulsion project called RHEFORM. The efforts are centred around a compound known as ammonium dinitramide (ADN), which when heated decomposes into only nitrogen, oxygen, and water. That’s why scientists at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) in Lampoldshausen are working on new, greener fuels that can future-proof space exploration methods and make them environmentally friendly. It is also the suspected cause of abnormally high rates of hormonal and blood disorders around the Baikonur rocket launch site in Kazakhstan. Space exploration may have given us pictures of our pristine, blue planet Earth and raised awareness to protect our environment, but that’s no good if the rockets that get us to orbit are based on old, toxic propellants.įor decades, the most common rocket propellant has been hydrazine, a toxic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen that is on the EU’s list of substances of high concern.
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