- The EU intends to restrict the use of critical fuels in space propulsion systems. These propellants like hydrazine are chemically aggressive, toxic and carcinogenic. Space propulsion of the future should be environmentally friendly, inexpensive, and easy to handle. Aschaffenburg University and DLR are currently developing environmentally friendly technologies for future satellite engines. Thereby rocket-grade hydrogen peroxide, which is foreseen as a substitute, is converted to uncritical water vapour and oxygen by an exothermic catalytic reaction on nanostructured iridium layers. The resulting hot gases provide the required amount of thrust. The iridium catalyst layers are coated onto ceramic pellets, using RF magnetron sputtering technology. The catalytic functionality was tested afterwards at the chemical laboratories of DLR. First experimental results show a significantly higher catalytic activity for nanostructured iridium surfaces than for smoother crystalline layers.
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