What kind of fuel does the space shuttle use, and are there other fuels out there that are better?

Answer 1

The main engines in the orbiter burn liquid hydrogen and oxygen pumped from the external tank by very powerful turbo pumps that burn some of the propellants to feed the orbiter's engines. Before entering the combustion chambers, the liquid hydrogen at -420 degrees Fahrenheit is used to cool the nozzles and combustion chambers so they won't start melting, then explode and destroy the spacecraft. Liquid hydrogen and oxygen is the most energetic combination of fuels for a rocket but the extremely low temperatures and low density of the liquid hydrogen required huge and heavily insulated tanks. The solid rocket boosters burn a mixture of aluminum powder, ammonium perchlorate, iron oxide and other chemicals combined with a binding agent. Each booster holds more than a million pounds of what amounts to high explosives. The external tank holds 500,000 gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen, which weighs about 1.5 million pounds, more than 20 times the weight of the tank itself. So far no better chemical fuels have been found.

Answer 2

Shuttle Fuel

Answer 3

To launch, a shuttle uses two Solid Rocket Boosters to burn during the first two minutes or so. The propellant for this is aluminum powder for fuel and ammonium perchlorate for oxidizer. It also has iron oxide for catalyst and Polybutadiene acrylic acid acrylonite for binder.
The big rust colored tank you see on NASA's shuttles contains liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen which provides the rest of the burn to outer space.
Once in space, it uses the Orbital Maneuvering System and Reaction Control System to maneuver. The OMS currently uses monomethylhydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide while the RCS uses something similar.
There are a large variety of fuels available, but there is no fuel that's "better" than others in all aspects. There are trade-offs between using different one. Some of these includes: efficiency (how much thrust is provided versus how much weight to hold the fuel), exhaust (giving off noxious fumes would be bad for the environment), environmental considerations (something that wouldn't work well in low-G or zero-G conditions can't really be used), safety (if the fuel has the potential to blow up in the tank, that would be really bad....), and costs (some fuel may cost a lot more to produce than other - liquid oxygen and hydrogen is relatively cheap for example, given the volume you need to propel a shuttle to space).

Answer 4

The layout NASA gave up on final 3 hundred and sixty 5 days had what you describe--a huge pill on precise of a rocket. this is for manned launch. The rocket became reliable gasoline (ammonium perchlorate and aluminum powder in a rubber compound). an further degree used some liquid hydrogen and oxygen. on the pill small engines of hypergolic fuels like hydrazine and nitric acid have been for changing path and docking. changing the return and forth, equipment became to be released in a field next to the liquid gasoline tank. The field had liquid gasoline automobiles utilising hydrogen and oxygen that supply the appropriate thrust consistent with weight of any elementary gasoline. The tank became lifted by utilising reliable gasoline automobiles as formerly.

Answer 5

The space shuttle uses a combination of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. This not only produces much power, but it releases water, which is relatively safe for the environment. I'm sure their are better fuels, but many could be potentially harmful to the atmosphere, or else are much to expensive to produce.

Answer 6

Hydrogen and oxygen cooled to very low temperature
are main fuel in shuttle.

Answer 7

The main engine uses hydrogen and oxygen
in liquefied form. The product is water.
There is a fuel mix that would offer more energy
per unit mass, Hydrogen and fluorine, but it has a
major disadvantage. The product would be
hydrogen fluoride, (HF, a highly toxic and corrosive
acid an-hydride).

Answer 8

Several different fuels - those in the main booster tank are liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen
the boosters strapped to the sides are solid fuel.
Thrusters "One steering thruster, at the rear of Discovery, began leaking nitrogen tetroxide "

Answer 9

The Space Transportation System (a.k.a. the Space Shuttle) uses two types of main propulsions:

- The Solid Rocket Boosters' solid rocket motors use ammonium perchlorate as the oxidizer and aluminum as the fuel.

- The Orbiter's Space Shuttle Main Engines use liquid oxygen as the oxidizer and liquid hydrogen as the fuel.



The most reliable launch vehicle is the Soyuz, which is part of the R-7 family. The R-7 family first start its life as an InterContinental Ballistic Missile, then it delivered Sputnik, Vostok, and so on. It has been in service for decades for around half a century.

Its first stage strap-on boosters, its core, and its second stage (or third stage depending on your point of view) use liquid oxygen as the oxidizer and kerosene as the fuel.




Kerosene is quite a dense fuel meaning it doesn't require much volume to store, it's also non cryogenic (cold) meaning it doesn't require much insulation to keep it liquid form. Though despite being quite dense, kerosene is quite heavier than hydrogen.

Engines using it is also relative less complex and produce more thrust than hydrogen using ones, engines using it have less specific impulsive (rocket engine's equivalent of gas mileage) than hydrogen using ones.

Kerosene is actually quite enviromentally friendly, cheap, and easy to obtain.

But many 'enviromentalists' dislike the idea of using kerosene, since while it produces water as its waste, it also produces Carbon Dioxide as its waste.

Despite the facts that plants need Carbon Dioxide, many life on Earth need Carbon, and the Earth produces Carbon Dioxide in such a huge amount that can't be compared to men.



Hydrogen is a low density fuel meaning it requires a lot volume to store, it's also cryogenic (cold) meaning it requires much insulation to keep it liquid form. Though despite being less dense, hydrogen is quite lighter than kerosene.

Engines using it is one of the most complex engines and produce less thrust than kerosene using ones, engines using have more specific impulsive (rocket engine's equivalent of gas mileage) than kerosene using ones.


Mass produced liquid hydrogen were produced as a byproduct from oil refining.



Solid is quite a dense fuel meaning it don't require much volume to store, it's also non cryogenic (cold) meaning it don't require much insulation to keep it in solid form.

Engines/motors using it is one of the most simple engines/motors and produce more thrust than liquid using ones, engines using it have less specific impulsive (rocket engine's equivalent of gas mileage) than liquid using ones.


In recent time M5 Industries attempt to launch a human analog using solid and fail, in the near future N.A.S.A. will attempt to launch a real human using solid.