X-bow Launch Systems Inc.

Chelsey Hargather

Jason Hundley

Mark Kaufman

Michael McPherson

Jillian Marsh

Matthew Hinton

Dane Fradenburg

Maureen Gannon

Michael Hargather

A method of making a fuel grain for use in a rocket motor, the method comprising blending a first energetic nanoscale metallic compound and a second compound suitable to form a feedstock material for use in an additive manufacturing apparatus, the additive manufacturing apparatus operatively connected to a computing system, that provides additive manufacturing printing instructions to the additive manufacturing apparatus, permitting construction of an autonomously designed and optimized rocket fuel grain section; wherein the stochastic deposition simulation-assisted fuel grain geometries further comprise a plurality of agglutinated layers of solidified fuel grain compound, each layer of the plurality of layers comprising a plurality of blended and radially displaced beads of different radii, said radial displacement optionally optimized via competitive simulation programs, and wherein the system continuously mixes constituent materials in an inline/static mixer, with viscosity controlled via particle size variations, and material is deposited in a controlled atmosphere or vacuum.

Additively manufactured rocket fuel grains and competitive simulation of the same

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Socorro, NM, United States of America

Chelsey Hargather