This is a question often asked on these forums. A brief description may help you realize the time, money, and effort in such work. Most propellant today is obtained from surface mining operations:
The overburden is removed and the crude propellant collected and dispensed into large piles.
The large chunks of propellant are ground to uniform size and stored aboveground...
...until it is trucked to the propellant processing plant for storage and ultimate use.
Impure propellant (orange material) is carefully washed to remove impurities, and reground.
The clean propellant ordinarily coagulates into lumps, which are then melted and cast into blocks after certain additives have been incorporated.
In small operations casting is done by hand.
Now the propellant blocks are ready to be extruded into propellant grains, under high pressure.
In some equatorial countries propellant can be found on the surface. These men are hand-mining smaller chunks of surface propellant, which is usually purer than that found underground.
Small batches of "craft propellant" are produced daily in Ethiopia and a few other countries.
You're very welcome.
Tongue-in-cheekily yours -- Terry
(I'll probably regret constructing this...)
The overburden is removed and the crude propellant collected and dispensed into large piles.
The large chunks of propellant are ground to uniform size and stored aboveground...
...until it is trucked to the propellant processing plant for storage and ultimate use.
Impure propellant (orange material) is carefully washed to remove impurities, and reground.
The clean propellant ordinarily coagulates into lumps, which are then melted and cast into blocks after certain additives have been incorporated.
In small operations casting is done by hand.
Now the propellant blocks are ready to be extruded into propellant grains, under high pressure.
In some equatorial countries propellant can be found on the surface. These men are hand-mining smaller chunks of surface propellant, which is usually purer than that found underground.
Small batches of "craft propellant" are produced daily in Ethiopia and a few other countries.
You're very welcome.
Tongue-in-cheekily yours -- Terry
(I'll probably regret constructing this...)