To-date, the realization of small-scale, high-performance liquid bipropellant rocket engines has largely been limited by the inability to operate at high chamber pressures in a regeneratively-cooled environment using on-board pumps for propellant pressurization. Ventions seeks to fulfill this critical need by using a novel fabrication scheme that builds on previously-demonstrated technologies (under DARPA and NASA sponsored efforts) to design, fabricate and hot-fire test a pump-fed, 3,000lbf LOX/RP propulsion system.

A high-performance, pump-fed LOX / RP propulsion system can be expected to have several NASA applications including nano-sat launch, lunar ascent / descent (precursors, rovers, cargo, man-rated vehicles, etc.), planetary missions (ascent vehicles for payload and sample placement into orbit, sample return, etc.), and Near-Earth-Object (NEO) missions (sample return). Three specific applications that Ventions has already received customer level support from are: 1. 1st stage booster for LSP's NEXT launch vehicle; 2. Outer planet orbit capture / insertion for missions such as Europa and Uranus orbiters; and 3. Planetary ascent applications in the Mars Ascent Vehicle.

Non-NASA applications for high-performance micro-rocket engines enabled by the proposed pump technology are likely to include commercial / military launch vehicles for low-cost and on-demand access to space for a variety of micro / small satellite payloads, upper stage propulsion for orbit insertion of commercial satellites, apogee kick motors for orbit circularization of commercial satellites, etc. Additionally, the pump itself is expected to have non-aerospace applications in industrial cryogenic pumping applications, and as a replacement for small-scale, high-pressure liquid pumps. Four specific applications that Ventions has already received customer level support from are: 1. Prototype upper stage for DARPA's XS-1 program; 2. DARPA's next generation rocket engine exploring feasibility of modular rocket approaches such as aero-spike engines; 3. DARPA's ALASA program; and 4. Lunar lander propulsion for a commercial customer.