Low Mass, Aluminum NOFBX Combustion Chamber Development

Our team proposes to define a diffusion bonding process for aluminum as an enabling step to ultimately develop an innovative, lightweight, long life, aluminum combustion chamber technology for Non-toxic NOFBX<SUP>TM</SUP> monopropellant In-Space 100 lbf rocket thrusters and rocket engines in general. In a companion proposal, we are investigating aluminum injectorheads: the results from these two efforts will ultimately allow us to produce an entire NOFBXTM aluminum engine. On a strict density basis, this aluminum engine would be ~30% of the mass of a nickel engine which already has a 22:1 T/W. Optimizing the design for aluminum will drive the performance even higher.This aluminum injectorhead/thrust chamber assembly will eventually be coupled to carbon-carbon nozzle assemblies. The result will be high performance, non-toxic engines with significantly increased Thrust-to-Weight Ratios approaching ~100:1. These engine assemblies can eventually be scaled up forresusable launch vehicle upper and lower stages or down into smaller in-space thrusters