Alice (fuel)

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Alice (short for aluminum ice ) is a rocket fuel developed by researchers at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana (USA).

The first Alice- powered rocket (NASA, August 2009)

purpose

The drive of missiles by water and aluminum is due to the strong presence of both raw materials not only on Earth, but also on the Moon , the Mars and other celestial bodies in the solar system functional. The emissions are comparatively harmless. The risk of an unintentional explosion is low because the water is carried along frozen.

functionality

Alice is obtained by mixing aluminum particles approx. 80 nanometers in diameter with water and freezing them. The particles are much smaller than those used in space shuttle solid booster rockets and Ares rockets . They therefore burn faster and allow better control of the recoil . The underlying chemical reaction is

.

For a stoichiometric quantitative ratio, equal proportions by weight of aluminum and water are required.

use

Currently, Alice is only used on test flights. The first launch of an Alice-powered rocket took place near Purdue University in August 2009. The following institutions were involved in this experiment:

Individual evidence

  1. AFOSR and NASA Launch First-Ever Test Rocket Fueled by Environmentally-Friendly, Safe Aluminum-Ice Propellant. (No longer available online.) Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Aug. 21, 2009, archived from the original on Aug. 27, 2009 ; accessed on September 30, 2010 (English).

Web links