An extendedduration benchtop hybrid combustor, solid fuel, liquid oxidizer, experimental apparatus is being developed to produce a test device for affordable, smallscale, realistic experiments with high pressure (greater than 1500 psi ) and long duration (more th,.rn 500 sec) hybrid combustor firings . A similar combustor is being designed and built without automatic controls and servo actuators. An injection and nozzle cooling system also is being designed and fabricated to obtain the optimal spray pattern in the spherical combustion chamber. Tests are being conducted to ensure that a final design will work. When successful, this apparatus would provide the basis for realistic testing and characterization of new and more potent hybrid fuel combinations for space power devices, various hybrid combustor components (e.g.cooled nozzles), magneto-hydrodynamic (mhd) generator materials, and stop-start capabilities in the successful development of mhd or other space power systems. Commercial applications in earth soundings or tomography for detailed, large scale underground exploration and mapping, earthquake fault and ore detection also would become possible with the development of this technology.
