SteamFlash Rocket Motor 01 - Only a little less than nuclear

My "maker" attention was well captured by the SpaceX booster retrieve success of 21 Dec 2015. Thinks, can we on a smaller scale do exciting tech by putting ideas together in interesting ways? And what more practical activities can we come up with to get school students excited about tech? Needs a name - "Project HiTechFromLoTech".

That train of thought quickly led to the amazing Peter Beck.
Peter made a breakthrough by observing that batteries and electric motors have improved recently so it is now possible to simplify and advance liquid fuel rockets with electric fuel pumps.

I started gathering info about those amazingly powerful hobby – model – aircraft etc LiPo batteries.
Thinks .. can we go further than a support system - can a powerful battery directly propel the rocket? Some calculations suggest that it MAY be possible to run a rocket directly from a LiPo battery via an Electric Flash Boiler.

This is NOT like the fearsome “Skycycle X2” flown by Evel Knievel where the water was kept in a high-pressure heated container.
More effective (and safer) here to carry cold (or possibly warm) water which feeds into a small “flash” unit heating a small amount of water to steam at any one time.

As of today, Sat, 06 Feb 2016, I have made a trial nichrome wire heating coil and I am close to the first water boiling experiment. Watch this space! Or should that be - "Watch this .. Space!".

References and Links:

Zuppero, A. Schnitzler, G. Larson, T. (1998). Nuclear-Heated Steam Rocket Using Lunar Ice.
http://www.neofuel.com/moonicerocket/

SpaceX (2016) "The Falcon Has Landed" | Recap of Falcon 9 launch and landing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANv5UfZsvZQ

Wikipedia (2014). Steam Rocket. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_rocket

Youtube (2013). Snake River Canyon jump 1973-EVEL KNIEVEL Awesome video!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-toCdPlXd6I