Design, Fabrication, and Test of a LOX/LCH4 RCS Igniter at NASA

Schneider, Steven J.; John, Judy St.; Zoeckler, Joseph G.

doi:10.2514/6.2007-5442

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…An oxygen lead was identified as a preferred condition. Schneider et al 7 examined methane/oxygen ignition at altitude utilizing an in-house NASA developed workhorse igniter at NASA GRC. This igniter was a plasma-assisted design.…”

Section: Brief History Of Methane Spark Ignition Work At Nasamentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Augmented Spark Impinging Igniter System for Methane Engines

Marshall

Osborne

Greene

2017

53rd AIAA/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference

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The Lunar Cargo Transportation and Landing by Soft Touchdown (Lunar CATALYST) program is establishing multiple no-funds-exchanged Space Act Agreement (SAA) partnerships with U.S. private sector entities. The purpose of this program is to encourage the development of robotic lunar landers that can be integrated with U.S. commercial launch capabilities to deliver payloads to the lunar surface. As part of the efforts in Lander Technologies, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is developing liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid methane (LCH4) engine technology to share with the Lunar CATALYST partners. Liquid oxygen and liquid methane propellants are attractive owing to their relatively high specific impulse for chemical propulsion systems, modest storage requirements, and adaptability to NASA's Journey to Mars plans. Methane has also been viewed as a possible propellant choice for lunar missions, owing to the performance benefits and as a technology development stepping stone to Martian missions. However, in the development of methane propulsion, methane ignition has historically been viewed as a high risk area in the development of such an engine. A great deal of work has been conducted in the past decade devoted to risk reduction in LOX/LCH4 ignition. This paper will review and summarize the history and results of LOX/LCH4 ignition programs conducted at NASA. More recently, a NASA-developed Augmented Spark Impinging (ASI) igniter body, which utilizes a conventional spark exciter system, is being tested with LOX/LCH4 to help support internal and commercial engine development programs, such as those in Lunar CATALYST. One challenge with spark exciter systems, especially at altitude conditions, is the ignition lead that transmits the high voltage pulse from the exciter to the spark igniter (spark plug). The ignition lead can be prone to corona discharge, reducing the energy delivered by the spark and potentially causing non-ignition events. For the current work, a commercial compact exciter system, which eliminates this high voltage cabling, was tested at altitude conditions. A modified, conventional exciter system with an improved ignition lead was also recently tested at altitude conditions. This test program demonstrated the capability of these exciter systems to operate at altitude. While more extensive testing may be required, these systems or similar ones may be used for future NASA and commercial engine programs.

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Section: Brief History Of Methane Spark Ignition Work At Nasamentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of Augmented Spark Impinging Igniter System for Methane Engines

Marshall

Osborne

Greene

2017

53rd AIAA/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference

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“…The role of ignition system is to provide sufficient heat flux to the appropriate place with proper propellant mixture ratio. Spark igniters for oxygen and methane thrusters have been studied 1,2 . Spark discharge in gaseous propellant mixtures has been used to ignite in their studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feasibility Study of Low Frequency Plasma for Bipropellant Thruster Ignition

Nagata

Besnard

2013

49th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference

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To achieve reliable, low power ignition source for methane and oxygen thruster, a low frequency plasma is proposed. Helium is used as a working fluid for the plasma jet because it is easier to ionize than oxygen and methane. The heat of helium plasma must then be transferred to the mixed gases of oxygen and hydrocarbon, which then ignite. To understand the mechanism of this ignition process, we performed an experiment to visualize with a high speed video camera by using gaseous methane and oxygen under atmospheric conditions in a thruster configuration. Discharges in the propellant mixture were observed prior to ignition which then led to ignition. This experiment reveals, actually, that the helium plasma itself is not the source of ignition in this configuration. Nomenclature φ = Equivalence ratio

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“…The role of ignition system is to provide sufficient heat flux to the appropriate place with proper propellnat mixture ratio. Spark igniters for oxygen and methane thrusters have been studied 1,2 . Spark discharge of mixture propellant gases has been used to ignite in their studies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Study of Low Frequency Plasma for Liquid Oxygen and Methane Ignition

Nagata¹,

Torres²,

Culbertson³

et al. 2012

48th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference &Amp;amp; Exhibit

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To achieve reliable, low power ignition source for methane and oxygen thruster, a low frequency plasma is proposed. Helium is used as a working fluid for the plasma jet because it is easier to ionize than oxygen and methane. The heat of helium plasma must then transfer to the mixed gases of oxygen and hydrocarbon, which then ignite. This heat transfer process generates an additional ignition delay. We performed an experiment to estimate this ignition delay by using gaseous methane and oxygen under atmospheric conditions in an thruster configuration. The result shows that ignition delay, estimated by chamber pressure, is 20ms for this configuration. Further studies will be conducted vacuum conditions and ultimately under cryogenic conditions. Nomenclature Pc= Chamber pressure φ = Equivalence ratio

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Design, Fabrication, and Test of a LOX/LCH4 RCS Igniter at NASA

Cited by 9 publications

References 2 publications

Development of Augmented Spark Impinging Igniter System for Methane Engines

Development of Augmented Spark Impinging Igniter System for Methane Engines

Feasibility Study of Low Frequency Plasma for Bipropellant Thruster Ignition

Experimental Study of Low Frequency Plasma for Liquid Oxygen and Methane Ignition

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