What are the chemical properties of nitrous oxide?

Answer 1

Well, its one of many different oxides of nitrogen, formula N2O. It's colourless, rather sweet-smelling and of course it's the anaesthetic laughing gas. It's an oxidising agent. One of its more interesting uses is as the oxidising agent in SpaceShipOne, the privately-owned, passenger carrying sub-orbital spacecraft. It was chosen because it's much safer to handle than most other oxidising agents. It's a hybrid system, that is, you burn solid fuel, but unlike say the solid fuel boosters on the Space Shuttle, you can control the rate of burn by controlling the flow of oxidising agent. Once you turn on the solid fuel boosters, you can't turn them off.