(Henry Spencer) wrote in message ...
In article ,
Earl Colby Pottinger wrote:
John [Carmack]'s latest breakthru is adding an alcohol to 50% peroxide to
make a cheap, easy to handle, easy to buy mono-propellant for his rockets.

Well, not a breakthrough exactly -- it's an old idea, used in applications
like torpedo propulsion -- but it has been largely forgotten in rocketry.

Does anyone know more about this combination or other cheap fuel
combinations?

The tricky part, really, is the oxidizer. Fuels are generally cheap and
straightforward. There are about four reasonable choices of oxidizer --
LOX, peroxide, N2O, and WFNA -- each with its own set of disadvantages.
LOX and peroxide both require meticulous cleanliness, LOX is cryogenic,
high-grade peroxide is costly and hard to get, N2O requires high pressure,
WFNA is highly corrosive.

If you are talking about a professional project,
cryogenic and cleanliness problems should be
maageable. IMO, the obvious choice is LOX.

Best regards,
Len (Cormier)
PanAero, Inc. and Third Millennium Aerospace, Inc.
( http://www.tour2space.com )