The British company Pulsar Fusion demonstrates a green Mach 7 missile in Switzerland
On Saturday, November 26th, in the sleepy mountain town of Gstaad – Switzerland, British society Pulsar fusion demonstrated its latest green hybrid rocket engine.
An impressive visual plume effect of supersonic shock diamonds, typical of high-temperature, high-mass-flow missile exhausts, was seen through the blizzard as the team operated the engine in rapidly changing conditions. The engine exhaust velocities were recorded at Mach 7.
This engine would be capable of launching a small rocket at an altitude of several tens of kilometers above British airspace or putting the upper stage of a rocket into orbit with a larger booster stage.
CEO Richard Dinan commented: “British companies with space ambitions need to be international, fast-paced, reach technological milestones on time and on budget, and be environmentally conscious. Pulsar’s goal is to develop world-class technologies that serve as the force for good.
Pulsar’s green (non-toxic) hybrid rocket engine burns nitrogen oxide (N2O) oxidizers and fuel and oxygen from high density polyethylene (HDPE). The HDPE can be made from recycled plastic and the two fuels burn together to create a non-toxic cloud.
The propellants used – nitrous oxide N2O and polyethylene HDPE – are among the cleanest available to the aerospace industry, produce mostly water vapor and have extremely low production energy requirements, resulting in one of the lowest carbon footprints in the world for an engine of this size. “
It is a new model that enables Pulsar to manufacture these compact rocket engines in record lead times with an improved safety factor, as these engines have relatively harmless failure modes compared to conventional liquid propulsion engines by design.
What does Pulsar Fusion do?
Pulsar fusion is mainly engaged in research into high-speed propulsion and clean energy applications from nuclear fusion.
Pulsar fusion received UK government funding in September 2021 to further develop its HET (Hall Effect Thruster) plasma satellite motors capable of 20 km / second particle ejection speeds. These pulsar engines were recently tested at Harwell’s facilities, where they withstood 20g of vibration and simulated a rocket launch. Pulsar is now trying to test these motors with IOP. (In orbit demonstration).
The company’s ultimate milestone is the creation of a hyperspeed propulsion engine using nuclear fusion technologies that it has been researching for nine years that could eventually be used for interplanetary travel – which scientists say could cut the travel time from Earth to Mars in half. A first prototype is expected in 2025.
How was this test different from the Pulsar UK tests?
When tested in Gstaad, the engine ran on liquid oxidant, compared to gas only in the UK. The amount of oxidizer and engine pulse were increased by almost a factor of 10 and the chamber pressure was increased from approx. 5 bar to over 20 bar in the first Swiss test to almost 50 bar in the second. Pulsar pressurized the flow with nitrogen, which had not previously been done in the UK, increasing the thrust to near the design value of 12 kN, or just over a ton of thrust.
Why demonstrate in Switzerland?
The demonstration took place on the Gstaad slope, an idyllic place surrounded by mountains. Pulsar sees Switzerland as a country well positioned to support advanced, environmentally friendly space technologies. The company strives to be a UK company that can demonstrate its technologies to international customers, and Switzerland is an ideal starting point for such ambitions.
Pulsar hopes to conduct further tests in the region in 2022 and invite European space customers to do so. In addition, Pulsar is in contact with most of the UK launch sites and would likely begin further static testing and low altitude flights at Machrihanish near Cambletown on Argyll before moving to any of the other locations such as the Sutherland space hub on the mainland or The Spaceport changes -1 in the Hebrides for high altitude flights towards and over the Karman Line at 100 km.
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