American aerospace company Spacex conducted fire tests of the Raptor rocket engine designed to work in space vacuum, Asstechnica reports.
Tests of the power plant, which in its usual version (designed to work in the conditions of the earth’s atmosphere), according to the head of Ilona Mask, in terms of pressure in the combustion chamber, surpasses the Russian RD-180 rocket engine, took place in Texas.
At the time of testing, Raptor was located as part of the promising StarShip transport system. Tests lasted a few seconds and, according to the publication, passed successfully.
ARSTECHNICA reminds that the vacuum version of the rocket engine is different from the usual large nozzle, which provides large thrust under cosmic vacuum. In the case of a rocket motor designed to work in the conditions of the earth’s atmosphere, an increase in the nozzle can lead to a breakdown of the flow, and, as a result, to the explosion. The publication recalls that the Falcon 9 Merlin Merlin rocket engine is also made in two versions – to work in an earth’s atmosphere (with a smaller nozzle) and to work in a space vacuum (with a large nozzle).
ARSTECHNICA Notes that the Raptor Tested Spacex Rocket Engine is not fully optimized to work in vacuo, so there was a sufficient stock to prevent his explosion due to breaking stream. “
In July, Spacex announced the completion of the construction of the Moto Rocket Engine Raptor.
In February 2019, Mask showed the results of testing the Raptor engine, stating that in terms of pressure in the combustion chamber, this power unit surpassed the Russian RC-180 rocket engine. The chief designer of the Energomash Research and Production Association, Peter Levochkin, noted that for methane engines, to which Raptor belongs, “this level of pressure in the combustion chamber is not something outstanding.”
In March 2018, Mask stated that Raptor would get the largest tremor (the ratio of the driving engine for its weight) among all engines ever operating in the world.
Reusable Raptor engines should get the SPACEX mod-Martian transport system STARSHIP.
Currently, Russia does not have active missile engines operating on methane.