Students Ben Tackett, Siddharth Tripathi, Jordan Nykiel, Brian McGuire, and Andrew Melgar study a green space propellant. Courtesy of Purdue/Mark Simmons.
Purdue students will have the lucky chance to test a new green propellant, which they hope will replace the toxic hydrazine fuel used by traditional spacecraft. The experiment will take place in Earth’s upper atmosphere thanks to a partnership between Purdue’s Zero-Gravity Flight Experiment course, NASA, and Aerojet Rocketdyne.
The Purdue Green Propellant Suborbital Test (PGPST) will assess the readiness of propellant AF-M315E. This US Air Force made propellant is a hydroxyl ammonium nitrate fuel blended with an oxidizer. This test will then by followed by Ball Aerospace and NASA’s own experiment, the Green Propellant Infusion Mission (GPIM).
After the students design and build the experiment, it will launch on a NASA suborbital rocket under the Flight Opportunities Program. Here the equipment and propellant will experience a few minutes of weightlessness. This will determine if the "surface-tension propellant management device," typically used to control the propellant flow, will work properly at zero-gravity.
It could also be said that the students taking part are also being tested for their understanding of the STEM concepts needed to one day join NASA and other space agencies and corporations.
Joe Cassady, Aerojet Rocketdyne's executive director explains, "One of the appealing things for us is that we know we get a good data product, but also that we know there will be valuable hands-on work for the students … Supporting STEM is a big priority for our company."
Professor Steven Collicott has taught the course since the mid 90’s. It is designed to teach engineering students how zero gravity testing environments from the ISS to suborbital rockets will affect the design-build-test cycle. He says, "Launching on a commercial suborbital rocket flight allows us to demonstrate spaceflight technology operations in weightlessness rapidly and relatively inexpensively."
Source Purdue.