Experimental Results of a 6 kN Aerospike Thrust Chamber Demonstrator working with H2O2 and Kerosene

The versatility of aerospike engines, which can adapt to varying altitudes, has attracted a growing interest in research for diverse applications such as micro-launchers, small satellites, and planetary landers. This increased attention is primarily driven by advancements in modern additive manufacturing techniques. These techniques effectively address the complexities involved in fabrication and enable much faster iteration cycles throughout the design, manufacturing, and verification phases. This aspect was successfully realised under the Aerospike Rocket Engine Realisation (ASPIRER) Project, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), where an additively manufactured staged-bipropellant aerospike thrust chamber demonstrator of 6 kN thrust class working with hydrogen peroxide and kerosene was developed and hot-fire tested. Following the overview of the thrust chamber developments within the project, this contribution further elaborates on the test setups and test runs carried out. The test campaign is classified into three main phases. The first phase takes into account catalyst pre-test involving monopropellant test runs. This enhanced the understanding of hydrogen peroxide decomposition and catalyst bed efficiency. Secondly, bipropellant test runs will be conducted, which will provide an understanding of ignition and combustion performance. The last stage will access the effects of different mixture ratios on combustion stability and efficiency of the thermal barrier coating. The evaluations of the experimental results are foreseen as part of the bipropellant hot-fire test.