Thread
:
Sugar/Potassium Nitrate rockets
View Single Post
#
6
July 18th 06, 10:30 AM posted to sci.space.tech
Mike Swift
external usenet poster
Posts: 8
Sugar/Potassium Nitrate rockets
In article . com,
wrote:
I read that the Kassam rockets are fueled by a combination of sugar and
fertilizer.
Anyone know how good a fuel it is? ISP numbers?
How does it compare to other solid fuels?
Have amateur rocket builders used this fuel in the past?
Seems like a cheap way to make a solid rocket.
Yes KNO3 and sugar has been used as an amateur rocket propellent. It is
also called caramel candy propellent as the sugar is first melted then
the KNO3 added slowly and mixed. The propellent is then cast into the
motor casing or a mold. It is not used today because of several
disadvantages. (1) It provides little improvement over black powder as
far as ISP. (2) You have to heat it to the melting point of the sugar
to cast it. (3) It is brittle, and grains larger than one or two inches
tend to crack, and the rocket CATOs on firing.
--
Mike Swift
Two things only the people anxiously desire, bread and circuses.
Decimus Junius Juvenalls
Mike Swift
View Public Profile
View message headers
Find all posts by Mike Swift
Find all threads started by Mike Swift