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New Rocket Engine Successfully Tested
inetsee writes "XCOR Aerospace announced that their new methane-oxygen rocket engine has been tested successfully. This is reported to be the first successful test of an engine using the combination of methane and oxygen as fuel. The fuel has higher specific impulse than kerosene and oxygen, but until now has been thought to have too much 'technology risk'."
...as in the completely undefined "technology risk".
(I mean, as in, let me go combine hydrogen with carbon and oxygen, and see what happens......)
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Having one organization, with one budget (NASA) works fine when you've got a big enough budget. However, politics and manpower constraints limit the number of avenues you can explore. Like with computers, having a monolithic space technology architecture can lead to a single point of failure.
What if a component is outlawed, or becomes extraordinarily expensive to produce? You end up with mountains of unusable applied technology.
This test demonstrates that the practical science behind space flight is getting diversified, and that can only be a good thing for ensuring the future of space flight.
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. . .meeting the targetted design goals.
Holy Christ, are we still allowed to do that? Why didn't I get the memo?
Now all we have to do is do something about the design goals and we're set.
KFG
For comparison, the kerosine F-1 engines on the Saturn V produced 1.5 million lbf compared to the 7,500 lbf targetted by this engine
That's misleading. "This engine" is strictly a prototype so they can develop a much larger version. Comparing a production engine with an early, heavy in development prototype simply does not make sense. From the article, "The 7,500 lbf engine is the first of its kind...", and, "Currently, the engine is a workhorse prototype...". I don't see what their target thurst is, but one can assume it's much larger than 7,500lbf.
For one, it allows for sensational fear causing headlines! now with more !!!!!
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Die-hard Luddites still have a say in our society because somewhere along the line we perverted the notion of freedom of speech into the notion that every proposition, no matter how factually bankrupt or logically absurd, is equally worthy of continued attention. The marketplace of ideas ensures that each idea is given a fair hearing at least once, but it shouldn't represent that all ideas are similarly good. Everyone has a right to be heard, but not a right to be believed.
Exotic propulsion technologies do indeed hold promise for the future, but newer doesn't necessarily mean better in the short term. When there are human lives or billions of dollars of commerce at stake, people generally want to stick to what they know works and improve it only through deliberate refinement. New technologies have qualitative unknowns that may prove dangerous. Eventually research and development and limited operation deployment will provide us a knowledge base suitable to introducing new technologies into roles currently being played by more mature solutions. But for the short term we will use chemical rockets because that's what we know a great deal about.
That said, changing the fuel formulation for a rocket engine is not trivial, especially when one wishes to qualify the end product for human spaceflight. The chemical and physical properties of the fuel affect many parameters in rocket design and must be extensively understood before the design can be considered safe. Since design margins in that business come at a measurable performance penalty, it is customary to design with narrow margins. For there to be a "technology risk" in changing from RP-1 or LH2 to methane may be as simple as acknowledging that the projected improvement in safety or performance is not worth qualifying the new designs.
You're calling me a homosexual, and yet you keep bringing up guys (specifically, John Kerry)? I just really enjoy chatting with you, Goober. I'm secure enough in my masculinity to not have to continually reassert my heterosexuality, or bash others for their different sexual preference. You don't appear to be that secure yet, and I'm sorry for that. It's OK to explore, Goober - we just ask that you do it safely.
How's that family member you have in the service? Have they been killed yet? If they have, I hope you can sleep at night knowing that you would have denied them (a FAMILY member) a raise in pay.