Low-Cost, Integrated, Liquid Rocket Engine Development

Microcosm proposes to develop a very low-cost, 5,000 pound thrust, upper-stage liquid rocket engine with thrust vector control (TVC) by secondary fluid injection. Our objective is to develop useful commercial hardware, and to establish the feasbility of very low-cost entgine development and production techniques. A comparable low-cost engiine without TVC is being built on a separate contract. The TVC engine has DoD, NASA land commercial applications in low-cost upper stages. The propellants for this proposed engine are LOX and kerosene, with Hydrogen Peroxide used as the fluid that is injected downstream from the throat for TVC. The engine will use a simple, uncooled (ablative) chamber and nozzle to attain the economics of continuous wrap composite manufacturing processes. To demonstrate that robust liquid rocket engines, made with low-cost composite materials and proven processes, can be developed and manufactured at very low cost, we will build and deliver a full size engineering test model engine in Phase I. Phase II will undertake a series of test firings with different nozzle and TVC port configurations to verify reliabiliy, performance, and lifetime.