SpaceX has shipped its Raptor engine to Texas for tests - Polidicks

[QUOTE] [B]If a full-scale Raptor engine is undergoing tests, the company is progressing to Mars.[/B] SpaceX appears to have taken a significant step forward with the development of a key component of its Mars mission architecture. [URL="https://twitter.com/search?q=raptor %23smallsat&src=typd&lang=en"]According to multiple reports[/URL], during the Small Satellite Conference Tuesday in Logan, Utah, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the company has shipped a Raptor engine to its test site in McGregor, Texas. A spokesman confirmed to Ars that the engine has indeed been moved to Texas for developmental tests. Source: [URL="http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/08/spacex-has-shipped-its-mars-engine-to-texas-for-tests/"]Ars Technica[/URL] [/QUOTE]

Can't wait for the local SpaceX enthusiasts to spy an unusual roar, smoke plume, or perhaps a blue flame? (Methalox engine)

My boss is at SmallSat atm, selling our products and everyone was pretty excitied to hear this news. One of three full-flow staged-combustion cycle rocket engines in the world! Wild stuff. It'll be the first production engine of its type too, most likely. I love the company I work for but as a hopeful propulsion dude, I'd give a lot to work for SpaceX on this one. Blue Origin gets a weird amount of hatred/mocking on the internet, but they're super cool dudes and the work atmosphere is better there... but SpaceX is the only one mental enough to shoot for mars lol

Im gonna get a chance to see this thing fire and test at work in a week or so. Praying I get to even touch it or get close to it.

[QUOTE=The Rifleman;50864838]Im gonna get a chance to see this thing fire and test at work in a week or so. Praying I get to even touch it or get close to it.[/QUOTE] Do you work for SpaceX? They just poached a couple of our avionics guys for their satellite facility here in the PNW (right as we needed these guys to deliver our similar product, too...)

[QUOTE=paindoc;50864851]Do you work for SpaceX? They just poached a couple of our avionics guys for their satellite facility here in the PNW (right as we needed these guys to deliver our similar product, too...)[/QUOTE] Propulsion intern at Texas, i start on the 22nd. Dream is to go there full time after I finish senior year.

[QUOTE=The Rifleman;50864894]Propulsion intern at Texas, i start on the 22nd. Dream is to go there full time after I finish senior year.[/QUOTE] dude, nice! I'm an intern with TUI, I'll be working on some of our less public-facing in-space manufacturing projects but apparently [URL="http://www.tethers.com/SpiderFab.html"]trusselator/spiderfab[/URL] is getting some love at SmallSat so hoping I'll get to work on that. Good luck with spacex, hoping you get that permanent position!

More details are slowly coming in. NASA Spaceflight has hinted that the McGregor Raptor is most likely a downscaled version. Still really exciting nonetheless. [URL="https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2016/08/spacex-static-fire-test-jcsat-16s-falcon-9/"]source[/URL]

[QUOTE=paindoc;50864984]dude, nice! I'm an intern with TUI, I'll be working on some of our less public-facing in-space manufacturing projects but apparently [URL="http://www.tethers.com/SpiderFab.html"]trusselator/spiderfab[/URL] is getting some love at SmallSat so hoping I'll get to work on that. Good luck with spacex, hoping you get that permanent position![/QUOTE] That's some awesome stuff dude good luck and thank, I'm praying I do well.

[QUOTE=Sojourner;50865128]More details are slowly coming in. NASA Spaceflight has hinted that the McGregor Raptor is most likely a downscaled version. Still really exciting nonetheless. [URL="https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2016/08/spacex-static-fire-test-jcsat-16s-falcon-9/"]source[/URL][/QUOTE] It'd have to be, there aren't any test stands currently set up that can take the thrust of the full version iirc

[QUOTE=paindoc;50864833]One of three full-flow staged-combustion cycle rocket engines in the world! Wild stuff. It'll be the first production engine of its type too, most likely. [/QUOTE] Can you put this into laymans terms? Compared to other rocket motors, I mean.

[QUOTE=Ta16;50865501]Can you put this into laymans terms? Compared to other rocket motors, I mean.[/QUOTE] Most engines are open gas cycle. Meaning it burns a bit of fuel that in turn powers the turbines that spin the blades of the turbopumps that give you that high efficiency. The exhaust is then dumped out the side. The Merlin is open gas cycle. Closed staged combustion pumps the exhaust directly into the combustion chamber to get the full possible efficiency. It's a closed system, hence closed stage. It's significantly more difficult.

I'm guessing Elon wants something to show off for the Mars architecture presentation in September.

That's the most likely explanation, as they've considerably delayed their release of more info on that architecture. Also, correct me if I'm wrong rifleman, but the big innovation with full-flow staged combustion engines is that they use two preburners so they can have two turbopumps. This means no internal design to keep the oxidizer and fuel seperate, which reduces the wear and tear on the rocket engine and makes it much more reliable (and reuseable). Further, you get better flow with this setup which lets the turbines run cooler which also helps reliability. Lastly, full gasification of the propellants (or at least more thorough) results in improved thrust and efficiency. With those improvements in mind, its quite easy to see why SpaceX is pursuing this technology. Here's a diagram of this type of engine - it's really just a typical thermodynamic device, and isn't terribly far removed from something like a Brayton cycle setup. [t]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Full_flow_staged_rocket_cycle.png[/t] Note the dual preburners that are labeled. You'll see preburners and recyclers used in LOADS of thermodynamic devices as ways to increase the efficiency of your system/device. This is different than what I've seen before though, as it uses two mass flows and thus gets considerably more complex than the aforementioned gas turbine cycles, let alone something like a rankine power cycle. Regardless, you always to pursue increased efficiency. One of the main ways to do this, through a preburner, is decreasing the amount of energy required to get your fuels to ignite. Fuel in a liquid state still has to undergo a phase change to ignite, and the phase change from liquid to vapor is VERY energy intensive. The higher your "gasification" (usually quality in thermo), the higher your efficiency. Beyond that, you can increase the mass flow rate. The reasoning for this is easy to understand - here, our masses contain the energy we wish to release. Up the amount of mass flow, up the amount of energy we can release. This has a practical limit of course, but when it comes as a secondary effect of other changes it works well. Lastly, recycling heat from the combustion stage of your system is very common too. Preburners require energy to run - and you want to make sure you are getting a net benefit out of this. Most of the time, the energy you sink into this even with extra heating or something is far less than the energy you gain. Taking heat from the combustion stage and using it to add some heat to the preburners is the most common usage of recycled combustion heat. In this case, the fuel is first run through this heat recycler THEN it is pumped to the preburner. This makes the preburners job easier, since as I mentioned the vapor transition is really tough. Let me know if you have any questions, I can try to simplify it more. I barely passed thermodynamics tbh, but I did love love [I]love[/I] the topic!