Since the chemical energy is used solelyf or the practicalr ocket propulsionat the present time, t his review is confinedt o the chemical prepellant, t hough thereappeared so many ideas and preliminaryr esearcheso n the nucleara nd solare nergy propulsionespeciallfyo r futures pace vehicle.
The chemical compounds containingt he element of H, Li, Be, and B are suitablea s fuelcomponent from the standpointo f the speciflicm pulse, b ecause it is proportionatlo squ areroot of the ratioo f temperaturet o mean molecular weight of thew orking gas. Fluo rine ismore powerful than oxygen in oxidizinga bilityb.u t has defecto f largerm olecular weight.
Due to the extremelys mall densitya nd low temperature, l iquidh ydrogen off ered manyproblems to be solved in spiteo f itsh ign specifiicm pulse. By the reason of various limitationsb, o ron hydride and its alkyl derivativea re promissing as the component for highperformance propellant.
The fundamental propertieso f varioust ype propellantst, h e limit of molecular weightand temperatureo f burnt gas, common propertiesr equiredf orl iquida nd solid prope llants, and performance of representativper opellantse itheri n lipuido r solids tatea re surveyedbriefly
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