Guidelines for the Safe Handling of Hypergolic Propellants in Development of Space Propulsion Systems

Hypergolic propellants offer long-term storage stability, repetitive ignition capability, and high specific impulse.Due to these advantages, hypergolic propellants have been widely used in spacecraft for long-term missions.Advanced countries in space technology, such as the United States and Japan, have conducted various experiments, including drop tests and impinging jet tests, to study the characteristics of hypergolic propellants, which are essential components of spacecraft.In Korea, to achieve the goal of launching a lunar lander by 2032, the development of hypergolic propellant rocket engines is necessary, underscoring the need for research on hypergolic propellants.However, due to the high toxicity of hypergolic propellants, proper guidelines for the safe handling are required prior to conducting experiments.This paper reviews trends in experimental research and establishes safe handling guidelines to enable researchers to conduct experiments with hypergolic propellants efficiently and safely.