Nitrous Oxide Fuel Blend-Continuous Operation Lunar Thruster (NOFB-COLT), Phase II

Firestar Engineering has developed a set of Nitrous Oxide Fuel Blend monopropellants that are: 1) Non-toxic, 2) Specific Impulse> 310 s, 3) Freezing point < -77 C, 4) Self Pressurizing, and 5) Highly throttleable. A monopropellant with these characteristics and with bipropellant performance has the power to revolutionize both private and government space initiatives. Applications which will benefit from these monopropellant blends are wide spread and system level studies have indicated competitive overall performance with everything except cryogenic bipropellants. Phase II efforts will concentrate on thruster development and monopropellant UN/DOT transportation classification. Thruster development will concentrate on a 25 lbf RCS thruster and performing a number of tests required for flight certification.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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