Nasa has finished testing components of an engine powered by methane, which has never been used by the space agency for propelling its spacecraft.
During a series of tests, a blue flame erupted as a rocket engine thruster roared to life at Nasa’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, US.
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The blue flame was the cause of the thruster’s methane fuel.
Nasa’s Marshall advanced exploration systems lead Steve Hanna said: "With the current configuration, these methane thrusters could propel a small lander.
"With the data gained from these tests, the technology is scalable for even larger applications for in-space engines and larger landers."
More stable and denser than liquid hydrogen could be used for Mars landers. methane is more commonly used as a rocket fuel. It can also be stored at more manageable temperatures.
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By GlobalDataNasa plans to demonstrate ISRU technologies, which has been used to recover or create methane from local resources ahead of Mars 2020 mission.
Marshall’s propulsion systems department engineer Sandra Greene said: "This data will help critical thermal modeling.
"To maximise performance, a regeneratively cooled chamber is desired. This chamber is Marshall’s first attempt at such a design in a methane-powered system."
Marshall engineers successfully conducted recent preliminary testing and facility checkout of a turbopump for a methane engine.
They are also planning to perform a series of tests later this year to verify the turbopump’s capability to be used with methane.
Image: During a series of test of methane-powered engine conducted by Nasa, a blue flame was erupted as a rocket engine thruster roared to life at Nasa’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Photo: courtesy of Nasa.
