Long story short like most of us here ive been a huge rocketry and space nerd all my life. When i was a little kid I had several of those model rockets that have those little "estes" engines which if i understand correctly is just black-powder. Im studying some physics junior year of university and Ive found a bunch of fellow nerds in person and on the internet, Ive got some google sketchup designs for a double stage rocket that i think it would be cool to try. One of my biggest hesitations however is I am not a chemistry person at all.Now I am looking for a propellant thats as cheap as possible. This is obviously going to be a solid fueled rocket. I have looked at black powder which is both cheap and readily available at many guns stores, however I do know that gunpowder has a very low efficiency. "specific-impulse?" I also thought about making some fulminating cotton. ALA Jules Vern. But i decided against this on the grounds it just sounds like theirs too much room for error. Dangerous nitric acid poured over cotton just sounds like it would yield really inconsistent data.
Is there any commercially available powderized hobbyist grade propellant?
If so would it be cheaper just to run black powder?
Is there any commercially available powderized hobbyist grade propellant?
If so would it be cheaper just to run black powder?
