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We fired a really cool rocket engine - and broke some records while we were at it. 🔥This Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine produced more than 4,000 pounds of thrust, and included a 300-second continuous burn, which is believed to have set the record for longest duration hot firing of... show more

Astrobotic

37,191 subscribers

106,593 views • 5 months ago •via X (Twitter)

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46 Comments

TheSpaceEngineer5 months ago

Of all things why are we blurring the nasa sticker lol

sneet davidson5 months ago

Water cooled jacket or proper regen?

Astrobotic5 months ago

Proper regen, cooled by propellants!

Space By Storm5 months ago

Love the Mach Diamonds! RDRE is such a cool engine design! 😎🔥🔥🔥

Astrobotic5 months ago

we're nerding out over here! 🤓

Space By Storm5 months ago

On my side as well!! lol 😂 so cool!

Cindil Pindil5 months ago

This great! What's the ISP?

Jake CosmicShooter5 months ago

300 seconds is serious duration for an RDRE. Always wondered how you managed the thermal cycling on the chamber walls. That unsteady heat flux usually kills these runs early.

Garylee Gray5 months ago

@SciGuySpace What are the benefits of a rotating detonation engine over a more standard (albeit advanced) engine like the Raptor?

Astrobotic5 months ago

RDRE's use continuous detonation waves instead of steady combustion to extract more energy from the propellant & potentially reduce fuel consumption for the same thrust. This would help lower weight and improve performance. In aerospace, every ounce counts! More ounces available = send more science!

Garylee Gray5 months ago

@SciGuySpace That’s really cool! Are y’all looking to develop these into a main stage engine or something else?

Astrobotic5 months ago

@SciGuySpace our eyes are set on our Xodiac and Xogdor rockets - plus, in the future, our lunar landers! We've got the imagination churning 😉

Garylee Gray5 months ago

@SciGuySpace What are some of the challenges in scaling up this engine?

Otis Crune 🇺🇲🌎🚀5 months ago

How stiff is the injector?

Astrobotic5 months ago

nice try! that's secret sauce 🕵️

Orstraya5 months ago

I think we need to start rating rocket motors in how many marshmallows they can toast per second.

Astrobotic5 months ago

for science! 🤓

Gee5 months ago

That’s gorgeous! 😍

Chandler Powell5 months ago

So cool- Would love to hear the audio of just the engine!

Astrobotic5 months ago

it sounds kinda like CCCHHCHHHSSSHSSHSHSHSHHHSh

Wayne Nilsen5 months ago

pressure fed test?

Astrobotic5 months ago

It was a pressure-fed test for these TCAs. The standalone system will be pump-fed!

Wayne Nilsen5 months ago

I really hope this gets in the air at some point sooner rather than later. I think the whole company could sell just for this piece.

Marcvs Avrelivs5 months ago

Amazing.

Enzo Vito5 months ago

Looks like the Marshall SFC stand just off Mariner Rd.

avgengr5 months ago

What is the target ISP and TWR?

Joe Hackman5 months ago

Congrats! I love seeing innovative engineering. 🇺🇸

Boris Bartlog5 months ago

That is a very nice plume

DeonB🇺🇸5 months ago

How can we apply this to my automobile. 😉😁

Reality5 months ago

omg, are you guys gonna be the first to commercially use an RDRE???? I’m so excited!!!!

Grey5 months ago

rotating detonation engines are a game changer - traditional rocket engines use defl

Lőrinc Bauer5 months ago

🙂

HERE AM I5 months ago

ISP?

Brandon Davis1 month ago

@elonmusk have you seen this? Think @SpaceX will ever use RDREs?

phelon5 months ago

Does it throttle?

Dylan Small4 months ago

@VenusAerospace

thomas sargent5 months ago

What fuel and oxidizer does it use?

Astrobotic5 months ago

LOX/methane 🚀

Alan Taylor-Shearer5 months ago

@Integza__ have you seen this?

CR4163R5 months ago

If @SpaceX isn’t researching RDE tech they will be left behind but something tells me they are ON IT ;-)

John Livingston5 months ago

Not even Isp given let alone propellants or feed pressures.

✨Space JM🚀5 months ago

What's the isp of this engine?

Glenn E Di 𝕏 on - e/acc5 months ago

SpaceX acquisition in 3, 2, .....

zeg5 months ago

ISP?

Evo5 months ago

What if you ribbed the spike, creating a tiered shockwave of knitted chakrams at one of the stable checkered pattern offsets? Like incrementally smaller cones amounting to same total length just you have a recessed ring/valley from which the next spike protrudes, creating a denser profile.

Michael Surratt4 months ago

And your computed specific impulse is what value?

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There’s a new rocket engine on the block 👀🚀 Astrobotic just announced that its newly developed “Chakram” Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine successfully completed its first test campaign. RDREs have long been theorized as a highly efficient form of propulsion, but only in the last five years or so have they started becoming reality. They work by sustaining supersonic rotating detonation waves inside the engine, helping improve efficiency across a range of operating pressures. Chakram produced more than 4,000 pounds of thrust and fired for 300 seconds during testing. Astrobotic

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