Abstract
A propellant is a chemical combination burned to produce thrust in rockets, which consists of an oxidizer and fuel. At present, many space propulsion systems utilize nitrogen tetroxide as the oxidizer and one of the forms of hydrazine as the fuel. Hydrazine is a highly toxic, explosive material and requires supreme safety measures. Scientists are developing environmentally friendly propellant mixtures that are hypergolic and have performance levels near traditional propellants called green propellants. Green propellants are low toxicity and high-energy rocket propellants that will offer a high-performance, elevated efficiency alternative to conventional chemical propellants for future spaceship. Green propellants mitigate the cost and risk associated with the transport and storage, cleanup of accidental releases, and human exposure to traditional propellants. This research deals with the development of lower toxicity reactive propellant combination compared to hydrazine, which is hypergolic and has performance levels near the traditional storable propellants for implementation in small-size spacecraft applications. Analytical reagent grade nitric acid 98% and sodium borohydride 97% in addition to paraffin wax are estimated as substitutes of green propellant for state-of-the-art propellants that are used for space propulsion. The hypergolic ignition viability in two different environments was tested of ignition and was measured for sodium borohydride loading in paraffin wax.