Abstract
In May 2021, Elon Musk informed the media that SpaceX had the capability to produce a Raptor rocket engine every 48 hours. The Raptor, described later in this chapter, is an interplanetary rocket engine capable of generating 500,000 pounds of thrust. In the SpaceX interplanetary colonization plans, it is the Raptor (Figure 3.1) that will provide the necessary power to send the Starship on its way. But why does there have to be such a quick production rate? Unlike NASA, which has also set its sights on a manned Mars mission, the Mars Messiah’s goal is to establish a self-sustaining colony on the Red Planet, and such colonies cannot be achieved with small spacecraft carrying four or five astronauts. No, in the Musk universe, such colonies will require building a thousand Starships at a rate of 100 Starships per year. Given that the Starship and the Super Heavy Booster will be sporting 39 Raptors, that means a lot of Raptors must be built every year (Musk reckons SpaceX will need 800 to 1,000 engines per year), hence the requirement for such an aggressive development rate. Understanding how SpaceX has achieved this level of development is the purpose of this chapter.
“The meek shall inherit the Earth – the rest of us will go to the stars.”
Robert A. Heinlein
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Notes
- 1.
In an open cycle process, some of the propellant is burned in a gas-generator and the resulting hot gas is used to power the engine’s pumps. The gas is then exhausted, hence the term ‘open cycle’. In the staged combustion cycle, some of the propellant is burned in a pre-burner and the resulting hot gas is used to power the engine’s turbines and pumps. The exhausted gas is then injected into the main combustion chamber, along with the rest of the propellant, and combustion is completed.
- 2.
Established in 1988, the AIAA’s George M. Low Space Transportation Award honors the achievements in space transportation made by Dr. George M. Low, who played a leading role in planning and executing the Apollo missions. The biennial award is presented for a timely outstanding contribution to the field of space transportation. Musk’s citation read: For outstanding contribution to the development of commercial space transportation systems using innovative low-cost approaches.
- 3.
In a multi-manifested mission, a restart capability allows delivery of separate payloads to different altitudes and inclinations.
- 4.
As you can imagine, firing a rocket generates tremendous heat, with combustion temperatures reaching 2,500 to 3,600 K. To cool the thrust chamber, rocket designers use a variety of chamber cooling techniques, the most widely used of which is regenerative cooling. This method cools the thrust chamber by flowing high-velocity coolant over the back side of the chamber’s hot gas wall to convectively cool the hot gas liner. The coolant with the heat input from cooling the liner is then discharged into the injector and utilized as a propellant.
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Seedhouse, E. (2022). The Engines. In: SpaceX. Springer Praxis Books(). Praxis, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99181-4_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99181-4_3
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