NASA tests out 'Ferrari of rocket engines'
Aug 15, 2015 3:26:59 GMT -6
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Post by Rain on Aug 15, 2015 3:26:59 GMT -6
NASA has been testing out a powerful new rocket engine that will one day help put humans on Mars.
The new engine is a huge step up from previous designs and will be an integral part of the space agency's new 'Space Launch System' for sending astronauts on missions to other worlds.
The enormously powerful rocket engine was fired yesterday at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi where it produced 512,000 pounds of thrust - the equivalent to 12 million horsepower.
"It is the most complicated rocket engine out there on the market, but that's because it's the Ferrari of rocket engines," said RS-25 propulsion engineer Kathryn Crowe.
"When you're looking at designing a rocket engine, there are several different ways you can optimise it. You can optimise it through increasing its thrust, increasing the weight to thrust ratio, or increasing its overall efficiency and how it consumes your propellant. With this engine, they maximised all three."
NASA's Martin Burkey indicated that the RS-25 is so powerful compared to other existing engines that it "makes a modern race car or jet engine look like a wind-up toy."
The actual test itself can be viewed in the video below at around the 31-minute mark.
The new engine is a huge step up from previous designs and will be an integral part of the space agency's new 'Space Launch System' for sending astronauts on missions to other worlds.
The enormously powerful rocket engine was fired yesterday at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi where it produced 512,000 pounds of thrust - the equivalent to 12 million horsepower.
"It is the most complicated rocket engine out there on the market, but that's because it's the Ferrari of rocket engines," said RS-25 propulsion engineer Kathryn Crowe.
"When you're looking at designing a rocket engine, there are several different ways you can optimise it. You can optimise it through increasing its thrust, increasing the weight to thrust ratio, or increasing its overall efficiency and how it consumes your propellant. With this engine, they maximised all three."
NASA's Martin Burkey indicated that the RS-25 is so powerful compared to other existing engines that it "makes a modern race car or jet engine look like a wind-up toy."
The actual test itself can be viewed in the video below at around the 31-minute mark.
Source
The Mars One Project, NASA are eager to land folks on Mars. I find this fascinating. Is it for making sure humanity survives, and explores space (Stephen Hawking said our only way to survive in the future will be to colonize other planets, and explore the universe.), or do they know something we don't?
I always wonder about that.
They want to land the first people around 2025-2030s . Isn't there a huge meteor that will either impact with earth (could wipe us out) or do a very near miss around 2037?
Just wondering.
