Engineering Commons^™

Structural Design Of Thrust Measurement System For Cryogenic Rocket Engines, Abner Jael Moreno Tarango

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Center for Space Exploration and Technology Research (cSETR) at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) has been the leader in academia on the development of Liquid Oxygen (LO2) and Liquid Methane (LCH4) propulsion technologies. One of the projects being developed at cSETR is a suborbital vehicle whose mission is to evaluate performance parameters, demonstrate restart capability, and demonstrate the propulsion system operation in microgravity. This vehicle, called Daedalus, will use a 500-lbf LO2-LCH4 rocket engine that can be throttled down to 100-lbf. To accomplish this goal, UTEP partnered with the El Paso County to lease a plot …

Design Of A 2000 Lbf Lox/Lch4 Throttleable Rocket Engine For A Vertical Lander, Israel Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid methane (LCH4) has been recognized as an attractive rocket propellant combination because of its in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) capabilities, namely in Mars. ISRU would allow launch vehicles to carry greater payloads and promote missions to Mars. This has led to an increasing interest to develop spacecraft technologies that employ this propellant combination.

The UTEP Center for Space Exploration and Technology Research (cSETR) has focused part of its research efforts to developing LOX/LCH4 systems. One of those projects includes the development of a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle called JANUS. This vehicle will employ a LOX/LCH4 …

Development And Integration Of The Janus Robotic Lander: A Liquid Oxygen - Liquid Methane Propulsion System Testbed, Raul Ponce

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Initiatives have emerged with the goal of sending humans to other places in our solar system. New technologies are being developed that will allow for more efficient space systems to transport future astronauts. One of those technologies is the implementation of propulsion systems that use liquid oxygen and liquid methane (LO2-LCH4) as propellants.

The benefits of a LO2-LCH4 propulsion system are plenty. One of the main advantages is the possibility of manufacturing the propellants at the destination body. A space vehicle which relies solely on liquid oxygen and liquid methane for its main propulsion and reaction control engines is necessary …

Design Of A 500 Lbf Liquid Oxygen And Liquid Methane Rocket Engine For Suborbital Flight, Jesus Eduardo Trillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Liquid methane (LCH4)is the most promising rocket fuel for our journey to Mars and other space entities. Compared to liquid hydrogen, the most common cryogenic fuel used today, methane is denser and can be stored at a more manageable temperature; leading to more affordable tanks and a lighter system. The most important advantage is it can be produced from local sources using in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) technology. This will allow the production of the fuel needed to come back to earth on the surface of Mars, or the space entity being explored,making the overall mission more cost effective by enabling …

Design And Testing Of An Ox/Ch4 Swirl Torch Ignition System, Gabriel Ricardo Trujillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

NASA has renewed its interest in oxygen and methane as propellants for propulsion. Some of the reasons that drive this interest are the ease of storage of liquid methane when compared to hydrogen, the handling safety when compared to hypergols, in-situ resource utilization and its relative clean burning process. This project is part of the larger goal of the Center for Space Exploration Technology Research (cSETR) to better understand the aspects of using this propellants to create future hardware that are specifically optimized for their use. This paper discusses the testing of a previous iteration of the swirl torch igniter …

Cryogenic System Development For Lox/ Hydrocarbon Propulsion Research, Francisco Pineda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A propulsion research facility is being developed at the Center for Space Exploration Technology Research (cSETR) at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). These facilities were developed in order to meet new research demand for Liquid Oxygen (LOX)/Liquid methane (LCH4) experiments. The main goal of this system is to produce in-house liquid methane and supply propellants to their respective test set up in a cryogenic state. The work presented describes the design, development, and operation of a liquid methane condensation system and a cryogenic delivery feed system. The condensation system design will allow for a production of methane …

Development Of A High Pressure Optically Accessible Combustor And Shear Co Axial Injector, Christopher David Navarro

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A trend in the last decade in the field of propulsion and rocketry is leaning toward the use of the combination of Liquid Methane and Liquid Oxygen as propellant fuels. This is in contrast with the earlier trend of using Hydrogen systems and toxic hypergolic systems. The Multi-Purpose Optically Accessible Combustor (MOAC) and Shear Coaxial injectors have been developed to investigate injector design and combustion research involving Oxygen and Methane propellants. The MOAC is intended for the experimentation and research of combustion of liquid and gaseous propellants. Development of the MOAC system and versatility to use a number of injector …

Instrumentation, Control And Torch Ignition Systems Development For Lox/Methane Propulsion Research, Jesus Betancourt-Roque

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A liquid propulsion research facility has been developed at the Center for Space Exploration Technology Research at The University of Texas at El Paso. This facility has capabilities for producing up to 25 liters of Liquid Methane, feeding LOX/Methane propellants to 100 N class thrusters and conducting automated steady state and pulsing combustion experiments. This work describes the design, development and testing process of the Data Acquisition and Remote Control System developed to integrate an Altitude Simulation System, a Cryogenic Delivery System, and multiple rocket combustors and thrusters. A Torch Ignition System development is detailed as well as the evaluation …

Design And Cfd Optimization Of Methane Regenerative Cooled Rocket Nozzles, Christopher Linn Bradford

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Liquid rocket engines benefit in life cycle from the active regenerative cooling method which passes the fuel as the coolant through channels surrounding the combustion chamber. These channels are designed and optimized using structural considerations as well as heat transfer theory, then CFD simulations with the software FLUENT are performed for the final analysis. The difficulty in using methane as the fuel/coolant is addressed, and requires the use of the ideal gas numerical model in preliminary CFD simulations. Comparison to real gas numerical models is made, and results also given for one channel design. The techniques utilized herein allow the …