A while back I saw a story on Good Morning America about some moron wanting to get into space with a homemade rocket.I was wondering if with the fuel he is using (Hydrogen Peroxide…i think) can he make it to outerspace?If so could this mean a much less lower cost fuel for space travel?
Sure, once hydrogen peroxide becomes an explosive. I’m not trying to be mean or anything, but I think NASA would’ve tried that were it a feasible form of fuel.
They don’t want to use the hydrogen peroxide as the fuel part, they want to use it as the oxidizer. Currently they use nasty stuff like nitrogen tetroxide and ammonium perchlorate to provide the oxygen for the reactions. Hydrogen peroxide isn’t toxic to the environment and can kept at room temperature, both rather nice features.
Methinks NASA probably has a good reason why they don’t use it now. They were working on it though: New Hydrogen Peroxide Engine Successfully Tested
I wonder if the guy you saw was Andrew Beal? He was trying to use hydrogen peroxide fueled rockets as a cheap satellite launch system. His company, Beal Aerospace, went out of business last October.