Water-Based Thrusters for Space Propulsion

ORBITEC proposes to develop a Stoichiometric Combustion Rocket Engine (SCORE) that would serve as the primary thruster for DARPA?s water rocket. The water rocket concept requires the development of a satellite power-and-propulsion architecture utilizingwater as a source of both chemical energy storage and propellant. The SCORE applies ORBITEC?s vortex cold-wall flow field to enable high-performance rocket operation in the harsh operating environment of stoichiometric H/O combustion. The Phase II programwill build on the successful results of the Phase I effort to develop successive generations of rocket engines with increasingly flight-like characteristics, culminating in a regeneratively-cooled, vortex combustion cold-wall engine that will be testedunder simulated space conditions near the end of the project. The Phase II program is structured to work toward the development in Phase III of a spaceflight SCORE to be used as part of a water rocket demonstration package.