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NASA’s 3D-printed Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine Test a Success
NASA ^ | DEC 20, 2023 | Beth Ridgeway

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


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans; Science; Travel
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1 posted on 12/29/2023 12:48:57 PM PST by Red Badger
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To: MtnClimber; SunkenCiv; SuperLuminal

NASA Rocket Surgery Ping!...............


2 posted on 12/29/2023 12:49:35 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while l aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger
So what's its ISP ?
3 posted on 12/29/2023 1:19:26 PM PST by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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To: Red Badger

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??


4 posted on 12/29/2023 1:26:34 PM PST by sit-rep
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To: sit-rep

Once it gets moving in space it will not stop unless acted upon by an outside force, like Gravity...............


5 posted on 12/29/2023 1:29:04 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while l aliens are put up in hotels.....................)
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To: Red Badger

that much I knew! :P


6 posted on 12/29/2023 1:30:08 PM PST by sit-rep
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To: Red Badger

Read the story, watched the video, still no explanation of WHAT Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) is.....?


7 posted on 12/29/2023 1:38:10 PM PST by G Larry (It is RACIST to impose SLAVE WAGES on LEGAL Immigrants by importing Cheap ILLEGAL Labor!)
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To: sit-rep
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??

No.

The speed with which the burned fuel is ejected is finite, so the spacecraft cannot go faster than the exhaust.

8 posted on 12/29/2023 1:40:11 PM PST by Ol' Dan Tucker (For 'tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard., -- Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4)
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To: Ol' Dan Tucker

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??


9 posted on 12/29/2023 1:46:14 PM PST by sit-rep
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To: sauropod

for Rhyan


10 posted on 12/29/2023 1:49:20 PM PST by sauropod (The obedient always think of themselves as virtuous rather than cowardly.)
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To: Red Badger

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


11 posted on 12/29/2023 2:07:09 PM PST by BereanBrain
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To: sit-rep

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.


12 posted on 12/29/2023 2:15:52 PM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Red Badger

Is this a spike rocket engine? They keep changing the name.


13 posted on 12/29/2023 2:23:20 PM PST by Delta 21 (If anyone is treasonous, it is those who call me such.)
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To: BereanBrain

So this is a mini-Orion pulse detonation type engine.


14 posted on 12/29/2023 2:48:37 PM PST by doorgunner69 (When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty)
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To: sit-rep
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??

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.

15 posted on 12/29/2023 3:19:27 PM PST by Ol' Dan Tucker (For 'tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard., -- Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4)
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To: Ol' Dan Tucker; sit-rep

Oops. That’s Newton’s Third Law, not his Second.


16 posted on 12/29/2023 3:21:04 PM PST by Ol' Dan Tucker (For 'tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard., -- Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4)
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To: doorgunner69

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotating_detonation_engine

it’s about 25% more efficient than just igniting the fuel.


17 posted on 12/29/2023 3:23:21 PM PST by BereanBrain
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To: Delta 21
Is this a spike rocket engine? They keep changing the name.

It uses an aerospike nozzle, but ignition is completely different.

Here's a good YouTube video that explains how it works.

See: How NASA Reinvented the Rocket Engine

18 posted on 12/29/2023 3:39:59 PM PST by Ol' Dan Tucker (For 'tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard., -- Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4)
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To: BereanBrain

I bet it vibrates like heck. Loud, but in space.....


19 posted on 12/29/2023 3:56:01 PM PST by doorgunner69 (When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty)
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To: Ol' Dan Tucker; PIF

btt!!


20 posted on 12/29/2023 5:00:29 PM PST by sit-rep
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