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Hot Rod Job For SpaceShipOne

Posted by timothy on from the not-however-an-actual-lowrider dept.

rwven writes "MSNBC is reporting that the engine on SpaceShipOne has been modified to provide more thrust, for a longer amount of time. Mainly, the Nitrous Oxide tank has increased in size to lengthen the amount of time before the dropoff of thrust when it goes from a liquid to a gas. Also reporting is Space.com."

3 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Wasting precious resources by AndroidCat · · Score: 5, Informative
    The nitrous oxide is the oxidizer, they use rubber for fuel.
    SpaceShipOne uses a hybrid rocket engine that uses both liquid and solid propellant to propel it into space. The complete system consists of a liquid nitrous oxide (or laughing gas) oxidizer and a solid form of rubber fuel, which are burned together for about 76 seconds during an average flight, Benson said.
    They really are burning rubber into space.
    --
    One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  2. Re:OT: how does NOx work in cars? by Sooner+Boomer · · Score: 5, Informative

    " Can somebody tell me what nitrous oxide does in a car engine? It's not a flammable gas, is it?"

    In a word, oxygen - nitrous contains more oxygen than air and is in a highly dense liquid form. In a car engine, nitrous, along with additional fuel is squirted into the intake. In the hybrid rocket engine, a large cylinder of rubber is the fuel; the nitrous is the oxidizer.

    --
    Chaos maximizes locally around me.
  3. Re:OT: how does NOx work in cars? by CreateWindowEx · · Score: 5, Informative
    Since combustion of one unit of gasoline requires more than ten units of air (containing oxygen), most car engines are limited by how much air they can get into the cylinders--it's fairly easy to just squirt more fuel, but to get more air in you have to either force it in with a turbocharger or a supercharger or reduce sources of friction on the way in (lower-restriction air intakes, etc) or fool with cam timing. Nitrous oxide is a cheap and easy way of adding more oxygen for a short period of time, plus it has the added benefit of helping to cool the cylinders, preventing "knocking" (premature ignition of the fuel by "hot spots" in the engine == $$$ if left unchecked).

    Usually nitrous oxide systems are set up to inject extra fuel along with the nitrous oxide to keep the correct fuel/oxygen ratio.

    As an aside, F&F fans should realize that NOS (Nawz) is the logo of Nitrous Oxide Systems, not a chemical abreviation for nitrious oxide, although they spend a lot of money trying to get their name associated with it.