State of the Art in the Development of Methane/Oxygen Liquid-bipropellant Rocket Engine

Abstract

A study was conducted for the performance characteristics of methane taking recently the limelight in the world as a next-generation propellant, with the survey for state of the art in the development of methane/oxygen rocket engine being accompanied. Liquid methane as a rocket fuel has the favorable characteristics such as non-toxic, low cost, regenerative cooling capability, and potential for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). The combination of liquid methane and liquid oxygen also provides the excellent performance including high specific impulse and low system mass. For these reasons,many researches have been actively carried out on the methane/oxygen engine, nevertheless, its technology readiness level is not that high enough just yet. Therefore, it is judged that it is the time to mitigate the technical gap with the space technology of advanced countries through a swift onset of the development of methane rocket engine. 최근 들어 차세대 추진제로서 각광을 받고 있는 메탄의 성능특성을 분석하고, 메탄/산소 로켓엔진의기술개발 동향을 조사하였다. 로켓연료로서의 액체메탄은 무독성, 경제성, 우수한 재생냉각성능, 그리고행성의 현지자원활용(ISRU) 가능성 등과 같은 여러 유리한 특성을 가지며, 액체산소와의 조합시 높은비추력 확보 및 시스템 경량화가 가능하다. 이러한 이유로, 메탄/산소 엔진에 대한 연구가 활발하게 진행되고 있기는 하지만 그 기술성숙도가 아직은 그리 높지 않은 것으로 확인되는 바, 메탄 로켓엔진 개발을 통하여 우주기술 선진국과의 기술격차 해소가 필요한 시점이라고 판단된다.