Monopropellant Research

Abstract

NASA along with the Air Force is developing new monopropellant systems to replace the current hydrazine monopropellant systems. The monopropellants under consideration are environmentally friendly, have a higher density, and have better thermal characteristics than hydrazine. The near-term goal is to improve mission performance and greatly reduce ground operations costs. For the far-term, a very high performance (high specific impulse) system is being sought. The key to this goal is the development of a high-temperature catalyst; research in this area is underway.