RES: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Hey, looky, rocket fuel as ballast!

["Jorge Lourenço Jr." <jorloujr@uol.com.br>]

Hi Dewey,

I like your ideas very much, being on experimental rocketry for a while I'd say up front it has merit.

You might want to take a look on Rich Nakka's work.

Rich is a well accomplished rocketeer and a Bombardier's structures engineer standing well above the crowd with his comprehensive
work on solid fuels, namely the sugar / potassium nitrate variety.

So good that I'm translating his site into portuguese. It's well worth paying a visit:

	http://www.nakka-rocketry.net/

Best regards

Jorge Lourenco Jr.


-----Mensagem original-----
De: owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org
[mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org]Em nome de Dewey Mason
Enviada em: sexta-feira, 23 de janeiro de 2004 01:35
Para: Personal_Submersibles@psubs.org
Assunto: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Hey, looky, rocket fuel as ballast!


Hey Guys,
I have been spinning our TDPF sub ideas off of some
different engineering type folks, and all but one
thought I was high on something, or just joking them
around. Greg Kokes seemed to think I might live
through my first sub, but in this he was alone.
 I would like to hear the views of this group on the
idea of using either a solid, slower burning
propellant, or a two part chem-mix to create ballast
blowing gas at extreme depths for normal return to the
surface, or as an emergency alternative to HP air. I
know on the surface it may sound like "death come
calling", but I do believe that with a little well
applied risk management and some fair amount of
physics, one could create gas from liquid or solid
resources carried out in the ballast tanks, or between
the hulls, to give lift to come home on.
 The idea being to either ignite a small, slow burn
"rocket", or contained, otherwise watertight
propellant charge, to create gas, or inject an
oxy-fuel mixture into a combustion chamber of sorts
and harness the resulting gas. This could be done
directly inside the ballast tanks, or outside the
tanks in a purpose built compartment, and just route
in the gas. Cooling the plumbing should be fairly easy
using seawater, if needed.
 I realize the cooling effect of water would diminish
the gases volume pretty fast, but huge amounts of gas
could be produced from a relatively small amount of
fuel, and the gas would only lose so much volume
before reaching a stable temp. There would be no real
leak issues I can see, due to the fuels being in
separate containers, themselves separated by metal
bulkheads and water.Also there would be no need for
them to be pressurized beyond what an internal spring
piston could provide, due to their ambient pressure
environment. I hope to hear both suggestions of "How
to", and the "Devil's Advocate" side of this.
Thanks,
Dewey R Mason II
Abyss Marine Technologies
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