Innovative Hydrogen Peroxide Turbopump Design for Affordable Small Launch Vehicles.

The concept proposed is that of an innovative turbopump for a staged combustion bi-propellant rocket engine using monopropellant to drive the turbine. The turbopump has a unique feature in that it has an electric generator used to generate electricity and power an external fuel pump. By using a monopropellant decomposed over a catalyst pack only one fluid can be used to drive one or more turbines. Typically, a turbopump combusts a fuel and an oxidizerin a gas generator to generate the gases to drive the turbine. This requires two sets of feed lines (one for fuel and one for oxidizer) and careful mixture ratio control so that the two combust at a ratio that does not yield such ahigh temperature that may destroy the turbine. If the mixture ratio is too close to the stoichiometric ratio it will be hot enough to damage the turbine. If it is too far away from the stoichiometric ratio it may not generate enough of the required gases to drive the turbine or even cease combustion (flame out). This problem does not exist with most monopropellants as their maximum decomposition temperature is about half that of modern turbojet engines. Thus, no exotic materials need to be used for the turbine. The electric generator generates electricity to power an external fuel pump. This allows the pump for one propellant to be placed anywhere on the rocket engine that is desired and does not necessitate mounting it onto the turbopump itself. this greatly simplifies the plumbing of a rocket engine. It also allows the oxidizer and fuel pump to have different speeds so that the engine can change its mixture ratio in flight. This turbopump is designed to be used with a rocket engine burning propellant combinations where one of the propellants is a monopropellant. This allows for a relatively simple yet fairly high performing rocket engine. In addition, it can easily change its mixture ratio in flight for optimum propellant utilization and little waste. The Turbo-Electric Turbopump is intended to be used on a new type of rocket engine.  This engine would be high in performance as it is a type of staged combustion rocket engine but it will be drastically simpler due to the use of non-toxic hypergolic propellants (negating an ignition system) and an electrical power train. This makes the engine simpler and yet high performance. The Turbo-Electric Turbopump pumps the hydrogen peroxide across a catalyst thereby generating gaseous products to run a turbine. The turbine in turn turns an electric generator that powers an electric fuel pump. This concept was labeled a “Turbo-Electric Cycle”. The concept entailed using hydrogen peroxide decomposed by a catalyst to make the gases required for a turbine. The use of a monopropellant greatly simplifies the design and operation of the turbine because it does not require mixture ratio control like a gas generator nor does it result in high temperatures, thereby allowing the use of standard (and thus relatively cheap) materials like stainless steel instead of exotic and more expensive materials.    The Technical Objective for this Phase II is to build and test a Turbo-Electric Turbopump to prove that the concept works. Specifically, we want to demonstrate that the turbine can both power the oxidizer pump directly with a shaft and also power the fuel pump with electrical power generated by the turbopump. This will allow for mixture ratio control in flight and thus optimum propellant utilization of the propellants in the vehicle's propellant tanks.  We seek to prove this by actually firing the turbopum and running it through the different conditions an engine would experience in flight. For example, can the mixture ratio be accurately controlled when the engine is changing its overall throttle speed? Does it change the mixture ratio at the same rate or different rates when changing the mixture ratio in either direction?  Thoroughly testing the Turbo-Electric Turbopump will directly lead to a new type of rocket engine. Design and build a prototype Turbo-Electric Turbopump.  Test and prove that the Turbo-Electric Turbopump concept, and its electrical power train, can indeed work efficiently enough to use on an actual rocket engine. Incorporate the hardware to test four possible methods of mixture ratio control. Test the mixture ratio control using each method. Based upon the test data choose the most desirable method for mixture ratio control for a flight engine.

A rocket engine using a Turbo-Electric Turbopump would be of significant interest to NASA since it is essentially a staged combustion cycle engine with a lot less headache. It uses non-toxic storable propellants and is ideal for small launch vehicle intended to launch on short notice. It can also be used as spacecraft propulsion where higher chamber pressures than typically used with pressure-fed systems are desired, such as on heavy lunar and Mars landers. Such an engine is highly throttleable and very scalable. No ignition system is required.   A rocket engine using a Turbo-Electric Turbopump offers advantages to commercial space companies since it is a high thrust, staged combustion engine that is drastically simpler (and thus less expensive) than a typical staged-combustion engine. It could be used for both vertical and horizontally launched rocket vehicles as well as spacecraft, especially lunar landers for Moon missions.

This is early/mid-stage (TRL 5) — the most realistic path in is NASA SBIR/STTR, which funds small businesses and research institutions to develop technology aligned with NASA's needs (equity-free, phased funding). Check whether a current SBIR/STTR solicitation topic overlaps with this project's technology area, or contact the project directly (above) to ask.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.