Just like in the liquid engines, the nozzle funnels the expanding gases outward, creating thrust and lifting the rocket from the launch pad.Ĭompared to liquid engines, solid motors have a lower specific impulse – the measure rocket fuel efficiency that describes thrust per amount of fuel burned. This reaction heats the inside of the solid rocket boosters to more than 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, causing the water vapor and nitrogen to rapidly expand. When it burns, oxygen from the ammonium perchlorate combines with aluminum to produce aluminum oxide, aluminum chloride, water vapor and nitrogen gas – and lots of energy. Preparations are already well underway for the second qualification test this summer. This is what the inside of the empty booster case looked like after the first qualification motor test in March 2015. The mixture, with the consistency of a rubber eraser, is then packed into a steel case. In the boosters, the aluminum powder and ammonium perchlorate are held together by a binder, polybutadiene acrylonitrile, or PBAN. Amazingly, it’s this same stuff that fuels solid rocket boosters.Īmmonium perchlorate, the salt of perchloric acid and ammonia, is a powerful oxidizer (read: majorly explosive). Every day, we use products made of aluminum alloys, or mixes with other metals, for things like beverage containers, covering leftovers, or iPhones. It’s this ability to readily combine with other metals that makes aluminum so useful. Aluminum is so reactive, in fact, that it’s not found naturally in its pure form but only in combination with other minerals. The powerful aluminum-ammonium perchlorate reaction fuels the twin SLS solid rocket boosters.Īluminum is the most abundant metal on Earth. For the SLS boosters, aluminum powder serves as the fuel and a mineral salt, ammonium perchlorate, is the oxidizer.
Solid rocket fuel is the original rocket fuel, dating back to the early fireworks developed by the Chinese centuries ago.
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To give SLS extra power to get it off the ground, twin five-segment rocket boosters, built by Orbital ATK, tower more than 17 stories tall, burn six tons of solid propellant each second and help SLS break free from the clutches of Earth’s gravity. Last week, we talked about the liquid engines of the SLS core stage, this week we’ll talk about the boosters.
#Doodle tanks friction clutch series#
Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series on the chemical reactions at the heart of rocket propulsion.
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