Space Propulsion: Advances and Challenges (2nd Edition)

A special issue of Aerospace (ISSN 2226-4310). This special issue belongs to the section "Astronautics & Space Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2024 | Viewed by 1298

Special Issue Editors

Department of Aerospace Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul 143-741, Republic of Korea
Interests: space propulsion; satellite system; thermal engineering; CFD; inverse heat transfer analysis; rarefied flow
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Republic of Korea
Interests: combustion; combustion instability; acoustics; liquid propulsion; jet aviation fuels
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

A major function of space propulsion systems is to accelerate spacecraft by producing a propulsive force (thrust) or a change in velocity (delta-V) by ejecting propellant mass at a high speed into the air or space based on Newton’s laws of motion. This plays an important role in acceleration, attitude control, drag make-up, and orbit transfer maneuvers of spacecraft. The various types of space propulsion systems can be defined depending on what kind of energy source is used and how the energy is generated to provide thrust. At present, chemical and electric propulsion systems are the preferred types of systems for various spacecrafts. Applications of space propulsion can be classified into three different categories: escape propulsion (from Earth’s surface to its orbit), in-space propulsion (in Earth’s orbit), and deep space propulsion (from Earth’s orbit to outer space).

Since Goddard‘s first successful flight of a liquid propellant rocket in 1926, the roles of space propulsion have become more important and complex for the successful completion of predefined mission goals as recent demands on the function of space propulsion have diversified. Thus, various new and advanced concepts of space propulsion technologies are under investigation and development, especially for small-lift launch vehicles, reusable launch vehicles, Earth-orbiting satellites, deep space explorers, cubesats, and many other spacecraft applications.

This Special Issue invites contributions relating to recent advances and challenges for space propulsion technologies. Submissions welcome a whole range of space propulsion topics, including, but are not limited to:

  • Concept, theory, and related science and engineering;
  • Design, modeling, simulation, and analysis;
  • Mission and application;
  • Launch and flight/orbit operation;
  • Experiment, test, and verification;
  • Propellant (solid, liquid, gas, non-toxic, gelled, etc.);
  • Thrust generation method and type (chemical, electric, hybrid, solar sail, nuclear, etc.);
  • Hardware (material, part, component, equipment, assembly, and system) and software;
  • Manufacturing, integration, and facility.

Prof. Dr. Kyun Ho Lee
Prof. Dr. Chae Hoon Sohn
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Aerospace is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • space propulsion
  • chemical propulsion
  • electric propulsion
  • hybrid propulsion
  • solar sail propulsion
  • nuclear propulsion
  • spacecraft
  • rocket
  • launch vehicle
  • satellite
  • cubesat
  • deep space explorer

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

19 pages, 7830 KiB  
Article
A Solar Thermal Steam Propulsion System Using Disassociated Steam for Interplanetary Exploration
by Leonard Vance, Agustin Espinoza, Jorge Martinez Dominguez, Salil Rabade, Gavin Liu and Jekan Thangavelautham
Aerospace 2024, 11(1), 84; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace11010084 - 17 Jan 2024
Viewed by 925
Abstract
Sustainable space exploration will require using off-world resources for propellant generation. Using off-world-generated propellants significantly increases future missions’ range and payload capacity. Near Earth Objects (NEOs) contain a range of available resources, most notably water-ice and hydrated minerals. However, water-bearing regolith needs to [...] Read more.
Sustainable space exploration will require using off-world resources for propellant generation. Using off-world-generated propellants significantly increases future missions’ range and payload capacity. Near Earth Objects (NEOs) contain a range of available resources, most notably water-ice and hydrated minerals. However, water-bearing regolith needs to be excavated and the water extracted. Water is a compelling choice for fuel as it is readily available in interplanetary space and easily stored. In this paper, we propose using solar concentrators, which can efficiently convert incident sunlight into heat without the need for moving parts. When water is heated up to 4000 K, a value consistent with high-performance refractive materials, it experiences significant disassociation into H2, O2, OH, H, and O components, providing a path for adding considerable additional chemical energy per degree of temperature increase, and producing theoretical specific impulse (Isp) values in the range of 643 s to 659 s. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Space Propulsion: Advances and Challenges (2nd Edition))
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop