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The Tech Behind SpaceX’s New Engine

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Re: The Tech Behind SpaceX’s New Engine

#2
I don't like the usage of 'impossible'. Impossible by what standard?

Laws of physics forbidding it is understandable. We may likely never see the development of FTL because our understanding as we know it would see it impossible to do due to its strange implication about cause and effect.

Re: The Tech Behind SpaceX’s New Engine

#4
If you live in SoCal (or even if you're just visiting), definitely take a quick trip by the SpaceX facilities in Hawthorne [1] where they have a Falcon rocket sitting outside. From a distance it looks like and industrial chimney, but as you pull up, you can see it's an actual rocket. Standing next to it gives a great sense of scale the next time you're watching a SpaceX video.

1. https://www.google.com/maps/place/SpaceX,+Rocket+Rd,+Hawthor...

Re: The Tech Behind SpaceX’s New Engine

#5

If you live in SoCal (or even if you're just visiting), definitely take a quick trip by the SpaceX facilities in Hawthorne [1] where they have a Falcon rocket sitting outside. From a distance it looks like and industrial chimney, but as you pull up, you can see it's an actual rocket. Standing next to it gives a great sense of scale the next time you're watching a SpaceX video. 1. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Spa…

I work there as a Janitor, the one u see is the fake rocket basically.

Re: The Tech Behind SpaceX’s New Engine

#7
post #2

I don't like the usage of 'impossible'. Impossible by what standard? Laws of physics forbidding it is understandable. We may likely never see the development of FTL because our understanding as we know it would see it impossible to do due to its strange implication about cause and effect.

someone didn't read the article, or notice the quotes around the word "Impossible"

Re: The Tech Behind SpaceX’s New Engine

#8
Either approach, whether it recaptures the oxidizer or fuel rich preburner exhaust, is clearly an improvement over dumping everything overboard. But neither is an ideal solution as there’s still potentially combustible products being wasted.

Are there? Here's a diagram of the RD-180, which uses an oxygen-rich preburner:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RD-180#/media/File:Rd180schema...

Where is anything escaping other than through the combustion chamber?

Re: The Tech Behind SpaceX’s New Engine

#9
post #6

This is an excellent article. Just curious, how much more efficient is the full-flow engine? And, what exactly is the deal with the seals the article is talking about? Anyone have more info?

A full-flow staged combustion engine has more efficiency due to both propellants being fully vaporized before they mix, rather than a liquid-liquid mixture (as in a gas generator engine) or a liquid-gas mixture (as in a normal staged combustion engine).

The seals are between the turbine side (hot gas) and compressor side (liquid fuel) of the turbopump. In a full-flow staged combustion engine, you don't have to worry about accidentally getting a little of the hot gas into the liquid propellant, because that would be mixing fuel with fuel-rich gas or oxygen with oxygen-rich gas. But in a normal staged combustion engine, you have to carefully seal off the oxygen from the fuel-rich gas (in a fuel-rich staged combustion engine) or the oxygen-rich gas from the fuel (in an oxygen-rich staged combustion engine.

Re: The Tech Behind SpaceX’s New Engine

#10

If you live in SoCal (or even if you're just visiting), definitely take a quick trip by the SpaceX facilities in Hawthorne [1] where they have a Falcon rocket sitting outside. From a distance it looks like and industrial chimney, but as you pull up, you can see it's an actual rocket. Standing next to it gives a great sense of scale the next time you're watching a SpaceX video. 1. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Spa…

I work there as a Janitor, the one u see is the fake rocket basically.

What do you mean by 'fake rocket'? A prototype built for display, not for launching?
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