How to Make Rocket Fuel
Real rocket fuel is not easy to come by or make. Arguably the most accessible is based on high test peroxide, which is a concentrated version of the hydrogen peroxide available on the shelves of every supermarket and drug store in the country. Combined with certain reactants, this substance was used as a rocket fuel by the Germans in World War II, and continues to be used in the modern Russian Soyuz space capsule that serves as a life boat on the International Space Station.
Things You'll Need
- High test hydrogen peroxide (70 percent concentration or higher) Catalyst (silver or platinum shavings, or permanganate salts)
Instructions
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1
Get some concentrated hydrogen peroxide. Propellant grade (above 70 percent purity, and more typically above 90 percent) hydrogen peroxide is typically available only to qualified commercial enterprises. You need at least 67 percent to generate any thrust, and more than 70 percent to achieve enough vaporization for it to be used in rocket fuel. Over-the-counter hydrogen peroxide is 3 to 10 percent, and too weak to be used for rocketry.
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Collect your catalyst. Permanganate salts, platinum, or silver cause hydrogen peroxide molecules to rapidly break apart into a mixture of heat, water vapor and oxygen.
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3
Build your rocket engine. Catalyst and peroxide are rocket fuel on their own. They need to be mixed in order to produce thrust. A rocket engine using a propellant like high test peroxide is fairly simple. You just need a chamber with one end open (to vent and direct the thrust), the catalyst in the chamber, and a means of pumping the hydrogen peroxide from a tank and into the chamber.
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Tips & Warnings
Rocket fuels are dangerous substances, prone to intense combustion and/or explosions. The high test hydrogen peroxide fuel described above was formerly used to power Russian torpedoes, and it is widely suspected that a leak in one of these torpedoes aboard the nuclear submarine Kursk caused it to explode and sink that vessel in 2000. This is a highly dangerous substance and should only be handled by trained professionals.
