I read this with quite contained enthusiasm. I’ll wait until the full scale testing starts before I start celebrating something. Read enough about Glusko having issues with scaling up engines in size, combustion instability issues, to be that optimistic. Even the Chinese booster engines for Long March 5 will use multiple nozzles and that’s a considerably newer design.
I know US designers managed to get around the problem with chamber testing with explosives for the F-1 and SSME. But that wasn’t this same team. The problem is supposed to be easier to solve with cryogenic fuel, or so I read, but I’ll reserve judgement until later.
The RD-0120 LOX/LH2 engine for Energia was kind of interesting. A single shaft for both turbopumps and channel wall nozzle. Possibly a lot cheaper to build than the SSME with almost the same performance. I’m not sure how the design would apply to LOX/Methane though. Plus I think at least SpaceX wants to use full-flow staged combustion. That’s… something that I think never actually went outside bench testing.
Interesting times to say the least.
It’s nice to see Bezos going public with more information about Blue Origin development. I give a lot of credit to competitive pressure from Spacex’s transparency.
Plot has temp scale in degrees rankine? K or C, WFT Rankine?
BE4 and Raptor give us some exciting redundancy.
I read this with quite contained enthusiasm. I’ll wait until the full scale testing starts before I start celebrating something. Read enough about Glusko having issues with scaling up engines in size, combustion instability issues, to be that optimistic. Even the Chinese booster engines for Long March 5 will use multiple nozzles and that’s a considerably newer design.
I know US designers managed to get around the problem with chamber testing with explosives for the F-1 and SSME. But that wasn’t this same team. The problem is supposed to be easier to solve with cryogenic fuel, or so I read, but I’ll reserve judgement until later.
The RD-0120 LOX/LH2 engine for Energia was kind of interesting. A single shaft for both turbopumps and channel wall nozzle. Possibly a lot cheaper to build than the SSME with almost the same performance. I’m not sure how the design would apply to LOX/Methane though. Plus I think at least SpaceX wants to use full-flow staged combustion. That’s… something that I think never actually went outside bench testing.
Interesting times to say the least.
It’s nice to see Bezos going public with more information about Blue Origin development. I give a lot of credit to competitive pressure from Spacex’s transparency.
Plot has temp scale in degrees rankine? K or C, WFT Rankine?
Is BO not a metric house?