Air Force & NASA Fire Off Green Rocket

coondoggie writes "NASA and the Air Force said today they had successfully launched a 9-ft. rocket 1,300 feet into the sky, powered by aluminum powder and water ice. This combination of fuel elements, referred to as ALICE, has the potential to replace some liquid or solid propellants. The technology is being developed at Purdue University and Pennsylvania State University. Aside from its environmental benefiits, ALICE has the advantage that it could be manufactured in far-away places, such as the moon or Mars, instead of being transported to distant horizons at great cost, researchers said."

Comments

Aluminum powder is green?

[snarkasaurus]

In what universe is powdered aluminum "greener" than a hydrogen/oxygen rocket? Even hydrazine burns to an inert end product if I remember my chemistry right (no guarantees there), aluminum is anything but inert.

Re:Aluminum powder is green?

[wvmarle]

It is easier to produce and easier to store: no need for high-pressure supercooled storage as needed for H2 and O2 storage. Besides, pure O2 is a very dangerous material to handle, which is why in most labs O2 cylinders are at relative low pressure. A leak can cause a fire: grease can combust spontaneously when in contact with pure O2. So handling H2 and O2 costs a lot of effort and energy. That makes them expensive as well. And in general: higher total cost means more resources used and that is always bad for the environment.

Hydrazine is also a very bad poison. Maybe not when it is burnt completely - but 100% combustion is always hard to reach, and I'm too lazy to look up the combustion of hydrazine now. And again it is a real danger in the handling stage. Or when a rocket were to explode upon launch, that is also still a real issue.

Many other solid propellants are either poisonous themselves, or have bad combustion products. Commonly used propellants are very expensive too.

This nAl-H2O (nAl = nano-Aluminium) product is very interesting as the combustion products are Al2O3 (silica) and H2. In the solid state it is also safe, you can probably eat it without adverse health effects. No nutritional values though, the Al particles likely pass unchanged.

And it has other interesting applications as well: nAl-H2O can be stored safely and easily long term, not much risk of leaks as it is a toothpaste-like substance at room temperature. If you were to bring pure nAl particles on e.g. a submarine you can use the reaction with sea water to propel your submarine with the heat of the reaction directly or with the H2 that is produced.

And finally nAl is relatively cheap to produce and Al is plentiful on this planet, water of course also doesn't cost much, and as such it can be a really cheap alternative to current fuels. Production of Al from ore takes a lot of electricity as it is an electrolysis process, which is an environmental issue, though this can be solved by using water, wind or even solar power.

Re:Aluminum powder is green?

[lxs]

When has green not meant better?

When describing your great aunt's complexion after eating the funny tasting crab salad.

To the Moon

[bobdotorg]

I suspect that the rocket's first stage will have a Radium - Aluminum - Phosphorus based fuel (RAALPh) and will propel the ALICE stage to the moon. Straight to the moon. One of these days.

Re:Ethical question

[reilwin]

What if this happened in your lifetime...and you're not part of the crew?

No Rocket is Green - Building It Is What Pollutes

[Ron Bennett]

All this talk about this and that going "green" is just puff; no real meaning beyond getting PR and more funding.

I don't see how any rocket can be considered "green" considering most all of the environmental impact is not from firing the rocket, but is from building it.

Ending all wars and stabilizing human population would go far further towards safeguarding the environment than all these feel-good "green" initiatives.

Ron

Re:Ethical question

[pushing-robot]

aluminium

Oh dear lord, not this again.

• The discoverer (Sir Humphry Davy) spelled it Aluminum.
• Aluminum saves a syllable.
• NASA, the subject of this article, spells it Aluminum.
• IUPAC accepts the spelling Aluminum.
• A-loo-mi-num has such a nice... woody quality about it, while Al-yoo-min-i-um is a nasty tinny sort of thing.

... Q.E.D.

Re:Ethical question

[martas]

I'm the founder of a world-wide organization whose aim it is to execute every person to have ever used the "aluminum" spelling. I'm very serious about this. You should be, too.

Pure government waste and PR

[ShooterNeo]

All these gigantic federal government agencies commonly put on displays like this to look good in public and to make the next budget request go smoother. Truth is, any aerospace project run by the government costs so many resources that it's kind of irrelevent whether it's environmentally friendly or not. If you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on something, your actions cause the labor of thousands of people, all of whom will burn up all kinds of resources to get the job done. It doesn't really matter what the resulting rocket burns - the pollution from all the machinery and coal power plants and pickup trucks and countless other things is far greater.

The government needs to do what private industry can't : research a cost effective vehicle for accessing space. Whether that be an elevator, a bank of lasers, a gigantic railgun, or a factory in Russia mass producing simple rockets, we need something drastically better than the current crap. Until something is done about the stupendous costs of rockets, it's pointless to even discuss trips to far off planets and other big manned expeditions.

Re:Ethical question

[qmaqdk]

Ok, then let's be consistent:

Helum, Lithum, Beryllum, Sodum, Magnesum, Aluminum, Potassum, Calcum, Scandum, Titanum, Vanadum, Chromum, Gallum, Germanum, Selenum, Rubidum, Strontum, Yttrum, Zirconum, ah, who needs more than 40 protons.