High delta-V earth-to-orbit missions have put a premium on high performance booster rocket engines. While significant improvements to specific impulse are unlikely, high thrust-to-weight design provides a promising avenue for improving mission and vehicle capabilities and margins. Several approaches can contribute to achieving such engine designs, including proper design optimization, simplification, geometry, propellant selection, and the application of advanced materials. Incorporation of the first four approaches can yield factors of about two improvements in current liquid engine designs. The utilization of emerging material capabilities could yield another factor of two improvement with the possibility of even larger gains with far-term materials and designs.
Very high thrust-to-weight rocket engines
Space technology and applications international forum - 1998 ; 1998 ; Albuquerque,New Mexico (USA)
AIP Conference Proceedings ; 420 , 1 ; 979-984
1998-01-15
6 pages
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
Very High Thrust-to-Weight Rocket Engines
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