1. So, essentially, there already IS a motor that set up in this fashion as stated. Ok! But a conversion kit isn't possible? Isn't that kind of what they did to the RL-10 Core unit? And based upon this technology couldn't we build bigger or smaller core units like this one? If so, would there be an advantage to this?2. Ok, I stand corrected. So the pilots and scientists are contractors from these companies? I didn't think this would happen until after shuttle retirement. Or the Obama NASA Budget is approved. 3. And, while I'm sure that there would be a heck of a bonus from the company, I'm not at all positive that any company pilots, maintenance crew, doctors, etc. are going to be willing to spend upwards of two to three years on an untried spacecraft going to Mars, nor even three or four days going to and coming from the moon. Insurance companies would freak at the potentile costs if the mission is a catastrophic failure. As much as respect Elon Musk and company, I seriously doubt that they are going to put up that much equipment with that kind of value, let alone the people, without some sort of HUGE monitary compensation deposited in a bank, in advance incase the worst happens. Until this issue is addr4essed, we're going to be stuck in LEO for the forseeable future. 4. Ok, I accept that. but until then, shouldn't we try to develope the cheapest, safest, disposable rockets we can in the meantime?5. Ok, I'll take that as a given. So could other motors be multioptimized like the RL-10? If so, is there enough of an advantage to actively pursue?6 Ok, you kind of lost me on this one. By labor, are we talking about the crew needed to launch a rocket or what? Or are we talking about the labor on the motors themselves? Obviously lowering labor costs should be a prime concern, but I'm not sure if that's what you're talking about here. Could you elaborate?
The book has been out of print for decades, and used copies are extremely expensive, but I found a scanned version out on the torrents. Here's the pdf for it:
Interesting to read the problems of gelled fuels, w.r.t. the idea of oxygen/aluminium monopropellant (from another thread here). But no details are given on this specific combination, probably because it performs rather mediocre, if high ISP is what you are looking for.