Posted on 12/29/2023 12:48:57 PM PST by Red Badger
Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, conduct a successful, 251-second hot fire test of a full-scale Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine combustor in fall 2023, achieving more than 5,800 pounds of thrust. - NASA
NASA has achieved a new benchmark in developing an innovative propulsion system called the Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE). Engineers at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, successfully tested a novel, 3D-printed RDRE for 251 seconds (or longer than four minutes), producing more than 5,800 pounds of thrust.
That kind of sustained burn emulates typical requirements for a lander touchdown or a deep-space burn that could set a spacecraft on course from the Moon to Mars, said Marshall combustion devices engineer Thomas Teasley, who leads the RDRE test effort at the center.
RDRE’s first hot fire test was performed at Marshall in the summer of 2022 in partnership with In Space LLC and Purdue University, both of Lafayette, Indiana. That test produced more than 4,000 pounds of thrust for nearly a minute. The primary goal of the latest test, Teasley noted, is to better understand how to scale the combustor to different thrust classes, supporting engine systems of all types and maximizing the variety of missions it could serve, from landers to upper stage engines to supersonic retropropulsion, a deceleration technique that could land larger payloads – or even humans – on the surface of Mars.
VIDEO AT LINK.............
Test stand video captured at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, shows ignition of a full-scale Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine combustor, which was fired for a record 251 seconds and achieved more than 5,800 pounds of thrust. Click here for full video “The RDRE enables a huge leap in design efficiency,” he said. “It demonstrates we are closer to making lightweight propulsion systems that will allow us to send more mass and payload further into deep space, a critical component to NASA’s Moon to Mars vision.”
Engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and researchers at Venus Aerospace of Houston, Texas, are working with NASA Marshall to identify how to scale the technology for higher performance.
RDRE is managed and funded by the Game Changing Development Program within NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate.
Ramon J. Osorio
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center
ramon.j.osorio@nasa.gov
256-544-0034
NASA Rocket Surgery Ping!...............
question for the all knowing out there...
in atmosphere the speed is determined by the power of thrust against basicly air resistance. in space there is no resistance. so is it safe to assume that as long as the rocket is thrusting, the craft will continue to gain speed? and if so, to what end? i cant imagine if there was enough fuel for lengthy burn for the craft to reach light speed... ...or could it??
Once it gets moving in space it will not stop unless acted upon by an outside force, like Gravity...............
that much I knew! :P
Read the story, watched the video, still no explanation of WHAT Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) is.....?
No.
The speed with which the burned fuel is ejected is finite, so the spacecraft cannot go faster than the exhaust.
im just asking... that makes sense in atmosphere, but in space how does a total vacuum determine/receive exhaust pressure/speed?? how does a total vacuum determine if that craft is doing 3 mph or 30,000 mph??
for Rhyan
for those asking, you are not just (IGNITING) fuel with a RDE. You are DETONATING fuel. Thus a detonation engine can produce more thrust (and at a higher speed) than just plain IGNITION.
There is a reason when launching rockets the say 3.2.1 IGNITION.
One day, we will say 3.2.1.DETONATION.
Sounds dangerous, no?
All this is Physics 101, sorry guys, but it’s elementary science
i cant imagine if there was enough fuel for lengthy burn for the craft to reach light speed... ...or could it??
—
The faster an object goes, the more fuel it needs to go faster, the more fuel it needs to go faster the more massive the object, the more massive the object the more fuel ... etc.
Is this a spike rocket engine? They keep changing the name.
So this is a mini-Orion pulse detonation type engine.
Newton's Second Law: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Blow exhaust out a rocket nozzle at 30,000 MPH (theoretical) and the spacecraft will be propelled to 30,000 MPH, but no more than that.
The only way a spacecraft can go faster is by using the gravity of a planet to slingshot it to higher velocities, which is what NASA uses for exploration of the outer solar system.
Oops. That’s Newton’s Third Law, not his Second.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotating_detonation_engine
it’s about 25% more efficient than just igniting the fuel.
It uses an aerospike nozzle, but ignition is completely different.
Here's a good YouTube video that explains how it works.
I bet it vibrates like heck. Loud, but in space.....
btt!!
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