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Aluminum Fuel Could Power Future Space Trips

Thursday, Nov 05, 2009
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Nov. 3, 2009 -- Aluminum and water is usually a boring combination, but light a mixture of nanoaluminum and ice and the results are explosive. Scientists from Purdue University have created a new, environmentally friendly solid rocket fuel that recently sent a rocket screaming 1300 feet into the air using seven inches of nanoaluminum and ice. The new fuel could power missions to the moon or Mars while dramatically reducing the amount of on-board fuel. "Theoretically you can get very high temperatures using aluminum and water, but the kinetics would be so slow and it would be so hard to ignite that it's very hard to actually make the rocket work," said Steven Son, a professor at Purdue University in Indiana who helped develop the new fuel. Breaking solid aluminum into very tiny, nanoscopic pieces however, "increases the kinetics to the point where this actually works."Aluminum already comprises a small percentage of the solid rocket booster used by the space shuttle. The difference between the old aluminum fuel and the new aluminum fuel is the size. Existing aluminum fuel is microns across. The new aluminum fuel is even smaller, averaging 80 nanometers across. Nanoaluminum can before formed in several ways, all chemical. "There isn't a fine enough blade to just chop it up," said Son. "We use a hot plasma to create an inert aluminum vapor, and then carefully condense that while slowly allowing some to create an oxide."The final product is a loose and fluffy black powder. Aluminum ice, or ALICE for short, can be compressed into a solid bar for safe and easy shipping. Nanoaluminum smaller than 80 nanometers can be created, but it doesn't allow enough oxidation to occur on the surface of each particle, which means not as much thrust. Eighty nanometers, say scientists, appears to provide the maximum amount of thrust.

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