Bob Zimmerman has an interesting report on a visit to the Titan Missile Museum near Tucson, Arizona: Visiting a nuclear missile silo – Behind The Black.
I’ll note that the company Frontier Astronautics LLC is located in a decommissioned Atlas-E Missile Silo in Wyoming. So such sites do have some utility after all.
This video describes a system built by Copenhagen Suborbitals to produce rocket grade hydrogen peroxide:
http://youtu.be/fhu0VfwYtZw
From the caption:
Hydrogen peroxide in concentrations from 70 – 95 % is a storable, non toxic rocket oxidizer and mono propellant. It has been used with excellent results in both bi propellant and hybrid propellant rocket engines. Rocket grade hydrogen peroxide can be handled safely with the right procedures, materials and proper education of propellant technicians.
However – while cost is low, the availability of rocket grade hydrogen peroxide is very limited. It is close to impossible to obtain, even for established aerospace companies – because its propulsion use is a very small market.
As Copenhagen Suborbitals moves on to build a more power full pumped version of the TM65 LOX / bioethanol rocket engine a source for rocket grade hydrogen peroxide was needed. For reasons of safety, and to prevent the need for cross border road transport, large scale storage, and to have a reliable surply we decided to build our own hydrogen peroxide plant. Its integrated into a 8 foot shipping container and has a capacity of one ton / year. It converts easily avalible 30 % – 35 % commercial grade hydrogen peroxide into rocket grade material at 80 % – 95 %.
After several years of building and flying things at Copenhagen Suborbitals, Kristian von Bengtson addresses the question of why some people still accuse the project of being a hoax: Copenhagen Suborbitals – How Do You Know this is Not a Hoax? – Wired Science/Wired.com.
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In this video von Bengtson and Peter Madsen talk about the CS project: Space nation Denmark – Videos about Denmark/The official website of Denmark –
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A report from JP Aerospace on the latest test of their MHD propulsion system, which would be used to power their airships to orbit (see writeup pdf): Magnetohydrodynamic Generator Test 90 – JP Aerospace Blog.
Kristian von Bengtson of Copenhagen Suborbitals and Cameron Smith, their new collaborator on space suits, are doing a Reddit AMA today at 1 p.m. PT (4:pm ET) : Ask DIY Space Designers Kristian and Cameron Anything at 1 p.m. Pacific – Wired Science/Wired.com.
Here is an earlier post showing one of Cameron Smith’s suit designs: DIY Space Suit Dimensioning for a DIY Capsule Seat – Wired Science/Wired.com.
