A hybrid rocket engine partially powered by waste plastic was test-fired by a UK startup.
New Atlas says the green rocket uses a hybrid fuel made with high density polyethylene and nitrous oxide oxidizer. It's an intriguing way to power energy- intensive rockets, since it's used in a wide variety of plastic products.
Richard Dinan, CEO of Pulsar, said that they were delighted with the UK test firings. It is novel to have a British rocket test in the UK. A very few companies around the world have built and tested these technologies. We have a team of scientists who have a lot of experience.
According to The Independent, the first static fire of the hybrid engine was pulled off at the UK Ministry of Defence military base in Salisbury last week, and the company held an international demonstration for space industry clients in Switzerland. The company posted a video of the test on social media.
Plastic has become a ubiquitous source of pollution that is difficult to recycle, so using waste plastic to launch rockets is a strong pitch. The first microplastics were found in unborn fetuses last year. We are pretty sure rocket fuel production won't soak up most of the world's excess plastic, but anything is better than nothing.
One of the main goals of the organization is to tackle nuclear fusion propulsion, a problem that has plagued scientists for decades. The question of why Pulsar is testing plastic-powered rockets now is raised by the fact that fusion could slash travel time to Mars in half and reduce the need for rockets to take heavy fuel loads into space. It's possible that this rocket was tested in order to get some public support and press for the project once we figure out how to control it.
New Atlas says that Pulsar wants to demonstrate a fusion engine for static fire testing by 2025, and then launch and test one in 2027. They pulled off what Virgin Galactic seemingly couldn't, since the company scrapped a rocket after it failed a test flight.
Chinese scientists say they have found a cheap way to do nuclear fusion.
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