Turbo-pump Pressurization concept for hybrid propulsion thrusters application to launch vehicles

To design a launcher system competitive to current launcher technology high combustion chamber pressure is required. In this paper two types of turbo-pumps technologies have been considered in relation to hybrid propulsion systems: (i) spill of hot gas from the combustion chamber, (ii) regenerative cycle. To evaluate effectiveness of each technology in relation with the selected mission profile a global hybrid thruster model has been applied. The model performs both internal ballistic calculation and provides a preliminary size of the thruster structure in term of masses and dimension. Effectiveness of pressurization technology has been evaluated for the following mission profiles: Ariane booster, first and second stage, VEGA first and second stage, Soyuz first second and third stage. For each configuration a comparison among hybrid and state of the art propulsion technology has also been done based on propulsion system mass, size, safety issues and reliability.