Rocket Crafters Blog NEWSWEEK: HYBRIDS IN SPACE—CRAFTING A SAFER, CHEAPER ROCKET FUEL

Unlike most rocket fuel, which is either solid or liquid (NASA’s current standard), Rocket Crafters’s is a hybrid: part solid, part liquid. The solid is acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS). It’s the material Legos are made from, and surprisingly also makes for decent rocket fuel. The liquid is nitrous oxide, familiar to most Americans from whipped cream cans or the dentist’s chair but used in this case to aid combustion. The two ingredients are kept in different chambers of the rocket engine and gradually combined to produce thrust. Because the ABS and nitrous oxide are held separately and in different forms (solid and liquid), the odds of their accidental mixture and detonation are exceedingly low. The use of hybrid fuel also necessitates a hybrid engine, which is relatively simpler, and thus less expensive, than a liquid-fueled engine.