Record test firing for futuristic rocket engine

New Scientist Space ^ | 04/19/06 | Kelly Young and Maggie McKee

[KevinDavis]

NASA has test-fired a rocket engine fuelled by liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid methane for a record 103 seconds. A fully functioning engine is probably years away, but its efficiency means it could one day be used to take people to Mars.

The LOX-liquid methane combination is about 20% more efficient than traditional "hypergolic" fuels, which ignite on contact. It also leaves behind less residue than fuels such as kerosene, helping prevent blockages in engines.

No spacecraft have ever used LOX-methane engines, and only a few countries – notably Russia and the US - have tested the engines in laboratories. But now, NASA, the US Air Force and KT Engineering Corporation in Huntsville, Alabama, US, have achieved the new US record for a LOX-methane engine test firing.

[KevinDavis]

[Centurion2000]

A fully functioning engine is probably years away, but its efficiency means it could one day be used to take people to Mars.

WTF ... years? I seem to remember some bright eyed engineers making it to the moon in about 6-7 years after someone said GO.

[RightWhale]

Should be easier to work with than LOX-hydrogen. Not as efficient. Might have a use in interplanetary missions with large payloads.

[ZOOKER]

Wonder what it smelled like?

Bet the enviroweenies have a COW over this.

[editor-surveyor]

"WTF ... years? I seem to remember some bright eyed engineers making it to the moon in about 6-7 years after someone said GO"

And six or seven years is not 'years?'

[Walkingfeather]

"A fully functioning engine is probably years away,..."

How many times have we read this line and never hear about this ever again?

[editor-surveyor]

"Wonder what it smelled like?"

What do CO2 and H2O smell like?

[Grut]

I seem to remember some bright eyed engineers making it to the moon in about 6-7 years after someone said GO.

You think 'going to the moon' just means going to the moon? What about the meetings? The reports? What about management career progression? The whole 60s NASA thing was a disgraceful episode in the annals of government and will not be repeated.

[billbears]

A fully functioning engine is probably years away, but its efficiency means it could one day be used to take people to Mars.

Well as long as NASA continues to fund any such 'research' it will be years away. Turn the research over to the free market and make it profitable for private industry to get involved instead

NASA wasting tax dollars since 1958

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Interesting article, but you have to wonder about a writer that interviews an MIT grad student (Masters?) about a NASA test firing? Nobody at NASA to interview? Sounds like the lazy journalism rampant in Iraq.

[manwiththehands]

Why do all these liquid fuel rocket engines impress me only about as much as the internal combustion engine?

[SunkenCiv]

The F1 engines used on the Saturn V started in development in the 1950s; JFK merely verified that getting to the Moon was doable, then he made his public remarks.

[Centurion2000]

Man I hate it when I'm wrong, but I guess you guys are right. Years would be par for the course. Forgive me for just being impatient for humans to just get out there and DO stuff.

[Centurion2000]

Why do all these liquid fuel rocket engines impress me only about as much as the internal combustion engine?

Because no one has the stones or the political will to use efficient tech like an Orion engine or a nuclear rocket?

[FierceDraka]

Why do all these liquid fuel rocket engines impress me only about as much as the internal combustion engine?

Tell me about it.

Want to impress me? Invent an antigravity drive.

[null and void]

What do CO2 and H2O smell like?

Club soda?

[anymouse]

;)

[Vaquero]

boulderdash!!!!!

GO NUCLEAR!!!


http://www.space4peace.org/mars/marsnuke2.htm

[jmcenanly]

What do CO2 and H2O smell like?

SELTZER