SpaceX sent the "Martian" engine to test in Texas

Testing photograph of a booster oxygen pump, one of the elements of the Raptor engine (source: SpaceX)

Speaking at the Logan Small Satellite Conference in Utah, USA, SpaceX President Gwynn Shotwell said that the new generation Raptor engine was sent to the McGregor test site (Texas, USA). The Raptor is SpaceX’s next-generation rocket engine. There are not many technical details, but it is known that the power of the Raptor is approximately three times the power of the current Merlin engines used in the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. Earlier, Elon Musk reported that this engine will develop thrust up to 230 tons.

The cycle of operation of this engine consists of two stages. The first is the combustion of the fuel mixture (fuel and oxidizer) in the preliminary combustion chambers. The second is the injection of fuel into the main combustion chamber of the engine due to the formation of high-pressure hot gases during the first stage. According to Mask, such an engine is much more efficient than open-cycle Merlin engines. As fuel, liquid oxygen and methane will be used here.

Engines with pre-combustion chambers were installed, in particular, in the NASA Shuttles. Shuttle engines used hydrogen, which was stored in a chamber at -253 ° C. At the same time, the temperature in the combustion chamber reaches 3300 ° C, which is higher than the boiling point of iron. The disadvantage of hydrogen is the complexity of the process of its storage at such a low temperature in the rocket chambers.


RS-25 engine in trials. This engine was installed in the Shuttles.

Musk claimsthat "the cost of methane energy is the lowest, it has a specific impulse slightly higher than that of kerosene, and does not have a single hydrogen deficiency." The structure of the new engine is more complex than that of Merlin. Accordingly, the technological process of creating such an engine will also be more complicated. As a result, more expensive. A new type of engine cluster will be installed in the MCT (Mars Colonial Transporter), the next-generation interplanetary transport system from SpaceX. The main part of this system is a reusable superheavy class launch vehicle. He has no official name yet, but now the carrier is designated by the acronym BFR (Big Facking Rocket, damn big rocket). In the first stage of the carrier there will be 9 Raptor engines. The diameter of the rocket will be about 10 m. Apparently, this rocket will be larger and more powerful than Saturn V. Now the new engine will be field tested. “Last night, we sent the Raptor to Texas,” said Gwynn Shotwell.

This is the first test of Raptor as a single system. Earlier, its individual elements were tested. In 2014, for example, SpaceX tested engine injectors in operation, and also tested a booster oxygen pump. From April to August 2015, 76 pump tests were conducted. The total test time was 400 seconds. The test photo is shown in the announcement. There are no photos of the engine itself yet.


Comparison of Falcon 9 v1.0, v.1.1 and MCT with 9 Raptor engines

SpaceX engineers plan to cool the fuel and oxygen in the engine chambers to a temperature close to the freezing temperature of these substances. According to experts, this will allow for more fuel. Fuel is necessary for both takeoff and landing - it will be carried out using engines, there will be no parachutes.

Musk promises to provide more details about the new rocket, new engines and plans for the colonization of Mars at the International Conference on Astronautics, which will be held this year in Guadalajara, Mexico, from September 26 to 30. On April 27, 2016, SpaceX announced plans to launch an unmanned launch of the Red Dragon ship with landing on the surface of Mars in 2018. The launch of the ship will be carried out using the Falcon Heavy booster rocket. The mission was called "Red Dragon".