MIRAGE Methane Production and Transfer Challenge

Liquid methane is seen as a promising future space fuel. There has also been an interest in making the fuel more dense. The potential of using liquid methane as space fuel, while promising introduces new challenges and critical aspects that must be considered if new generation propulsion systems are going to function properly. 

The MIRAGE de-risk activity with GSTP and the von Karman Institute (VKI) in Belgium has been extended to assess liquid methane. 

The activity had several parts, including a wide market study to survey the potential interest of customers in the MIRAGE testing capabilities. It was also able to identify a suitable location for the MIRAGE installation and define the facility, from the layout to the main equipment and set up. 

MIRAGE will run a series of experiments to characterise multiphase flows and related heat transfer phenomena, by implementing cutting-edge detection methods. The laboratory experiments anticipated some of the challenges that may occur.

These experiments will benefit the space industry by providing a new and sound understanding of complex flows, physical modeling support and design tool validations. The activity also defined the installation working ranges to satisfy space-related applications. 

Budgetary and timing evaluations were also addressed for the detailed commissioning phase and follow-on engineering, procurement and construction of the MIRAGE installation. 

4000132074 completed in 2022.