if we're going to get to Mars we need an engine that can match the power of the Starship which
is the world's most powerful rocket in the name of Science and acquiring Priceless data
SpaceX has been pushing the Raptor engine's boundaries sometimes even going Beyond them
and recently we've watched a test that broke records while learning some fascinating context
from Elon on Twitter and let's check all of that in this episode hello everyone welcome
back to Elon Musk Evolution where we bring you the most recent news about Elon Musk and his
multi-billion dollar companies space news and the latest science and technology but before
we begin make sure you subscribe to our Channel and click the Bell icon so you don't miss any
of our amazing videos in order to completely comprehend the most recent breakthrough let's
first look at what goes into making a rocket engine you may need a basic understanding of
the concepts underlying an internal combustion engine here on Earth in order to comprehend the
distinctions between rocket engines and your typical internal combustion engine in a car
an explosion that releases energy is a result of combustion which happens when a fuel ignites after
mixing with oxygen in a combustion chamber of an automobile engine gasoline vapor and
air are combined and a spark is used to start the mixture a piston is pushed downward by the
force of this mini explosion and the Piston's movement rotates a shaft which turns the wheels
however for the sake of today's episode you only need to be aware of the fact that fuel plus air
plus spark equals explosion equals energy even if the mechanics of a car engine are much more
complex the oxygen content of the air is crucial in this situation since combustion cannot take
place unless there is enough of it present there is no oxygen as a rocket ascends through the high
atmosphere and eventually into the void of space as a result liquid oxygen must also be carried by
rockets in addition to fuel the Starship launch vehicle is currently being actively developed
by SpaceX as of 2019 to create a trustworthy machine that might one day travel to orbit and
Beyond every spacecraft and Rocket component has undergone testing and development over the years
spacex's first fully integrated test flight which took place at its Starbase facility in Boca Chica
Beach Texas on April 20 provided Engineers with the chance to collect crucial data on
the Raptor engine and the stainless steel rocket ship even though the vehicle did not enter orbit
the four-minute flight which took it roughly 40 kilometers above the Earth was sufficient for
engineers to determine what they needed to do better in order to enter orbit the super heavy
rocket launched with a force of at least 30 out of 33 Raptor V2 engines during that initial attempt
to reach orbit methylocks a mixture of cryogenic liquid methane and liquid oxygen is the fuel used
by Raptors the Raptor V2 engine which SpaceX describes as having more power less Parts was
used to power this Starship prototype whereas the Raptor V1 engine has a mass of 2 000 kilograms the
Raptor V2 engine has a massive 1600 kg and both sea level versions have the same nozzle exit
diameter and similar dimensions the current Raptor V2 produces about 230 tons of thrust compared to
about 185 tons for the Raptor V1 by adding less components the company was able to increase
performance thrust while also shortening the manufacturing process which is crucial for being
able to one day construct a fleet of hundreds of Starships to establish bases on the moon and
Mars the Raptor engine's third iteration set a new thrust record this week the Raptor V3 has
now reached a chamber pressure of 350 bar or 269 tons of force best wishes to the SpaceX propulsion
crew said Elon Musk the creator of SpaceX on Twitter on May 13 He declared Starship super
heavy booster has 33 Raptors so total thrust of 8 877 tons or 19.5 million pounds the Starship is
set to become the most powerful rocket in history the question was posed by Tasmanian journalist on
Twitter I wonder if Raptor V3 looks different or similar to V2 the user remark musk said if we can
delete and integrate enough secondary structure small fiddly bits then we can locally protect the
rest and delete engine heat shields in a response in comparison to earlier iterations the engine's
bulk could be reduced making it more Compact and quicker to produce at a large scale let's use the
Saturn V rocket which produced 7.6 million pounds of thrust and was used to launch NASA Apollo men
to the Moon surface as a comparison to illustrate the Raptor v3's increased power the space launch
system a replacement rocket for the Saturn V that NASA designed and which has a maximum
thrust of 8.8 million pounds is now in use as the Saturn V is no longer in use but it launched in
November 2022 the functioning rocket according to NASA exerted more power than any rocket ever
with its capacity to create 19.5 million pounds at liftoff spacex's Starship super heavy is predicted
to Dethrone the SLS as soon as it reaches orbit for the upcoming orbital flight test
attempt this year SpaceX Engineers are preparing upgraded spacecraft the Raptor V3 engine is being
tested in the McGregor Texas plant as shown in a video posted by NASA space flight to be honest
we didn't think the engine would last through a full run at that pressure the Raptor chamber wall
might have the highest heat flux of anything ever made musk said in response to the footage it is
Uncharted Territory and a daily average production rate of one Raptor engine SpaceX has produced
approximately 200 Raptor engines by November 2022 and Counting at its McGregor facility the company
builds and inspects engines there are currently more engines than SpaceX could fly according to
company officials with 260 tons of thrust that each Raptor V3 is capable of producing SpaceX
hopes to keep the cost of each Raptor around 1 000 USD this comes out to a little over 250 thousand
dollars the development of Starship is expected to cost around 2 billion dollars this year according
to previous statements by musk and now that we know the details of the Raptor engine 3 Let's look
back at how Raptor 1 and 2 Compares and how SpaceX developed the Raptor engine from the beginning
Raptor V 1.0 which was used on starhopper sn5 sn6 sn8 sn9 sn10 and sn11 and Raptor V 1.5 which was
used on sn15 20 and B4 were both phased out by SpaceX in recent months what did SpaceX modify
in the new Raptor known as Raptor 2 and why are these modifications beneficial to Starship the
new Raptor includes a significant amount of performance and reliability improvements both
super cool liquid oxygen and super chilled liquid methane are used in the Raptor engine a full flow
staged combustion cycle engine that will power spacex's Starship Next Generation spaceship the
Raptor engine which is the third ffscc engine ever designed and the first to leave the test
stand takes advantage of the extremely favorable ffscc cycle to maximize the impulse produced by
a given amount of fuel 33 Raptor engines will be packed inside the super heavy first stage of
Starship 20 non-gimbaling engines in the outermost ring 10 gimbaling engines in the middle ring and
three gimbaling Central engines in the innermost ring future improvements to Raptor by SpaceX are
anticipated to lead to a decline in this number three vacuum optimized non-gimbaling engines and
three sea level gimbal engines make up the six total engines found on the second stage
dub Starship Elon Musk has remarked that after the ship's length is increased three additional vacuum
optimized engines will probably be added there is no information to suggest that the materials used
to build raptor have changed much between Raptor 1 and 2. however it is made of spacex's proprietary
SX 500 alloy copper aluminum and steel Alloys the engine uses just a little of 3D printing but due
to the inability to scale the expensive cost and the poor manufacturing rate SpaceX is working to
eliminate as much of it as they can the Raptor's ability to gimbal 15 degrees on the Y and Z axis
which is necessary for starship's flip and burn Landing is one of its most amazing features the
rs-25 gimbals to 12.5 degrees whereas the SpaceX Merlin engine gimbals to 5 degrees on the first
stage making a range of 15 degrees quite wide Raptor 1 came to an end when the first Raptor
2 engine was seen at the start of 2022 once Raptor 2 manufacturing got underway SpaceX halted making
all Raptor 1.5 engines since a lot of the plumbing and sensors have been removed the Raptor 2's
engine no longer has the Christmas tree appearance it had in the first Raptor and instead has a much
cleaner appearance it took a lot of development sensors to monitor pressure and temperature
throughout Raptors Plumbing on the original Raptor while SpaceX was learning how to operate the
engine Plumbing became even more straightforward as a result of the combination of numerous valves
into valve plates an important step towards spacex's aim of eliminating all engine shrouding
from the booster which would reduce the bulk of the booster by about 6 tons was made by removing
a significant portion of these components from the engine making it more flame and heat proof
the maxim the best part is no part is exemplified in this situation by musk the torch igniters in
the main combustion chamber were removed from Raptor 2 in order to further reduce the mass
of the engine by acting hypergolic at the high temperature and pressure of the main combustion
chamber hot oxygen and hot CH4 gas are ignited without the need for additional torch igniters
in comparison to Raptor's first iterations Raptor 2 features fewer flanges although flanges are
helpful for prototyping when components need to be swapped out they add mass and increase
pressure losses throughout the engine SpaceX has been able to remove several flanges from the
engine now that the design is more reliable and it even hopes to remove all flanges from raptor
2.5 which would further increase thrust to 250 tons and debut on Rocket 12. opening the throat
which increased thrust by allowing more propellant to pass through the engine was the most important
modification the expansion ratio that is the ratio between the area of the nozzle exit and
the area of the throat decreases as a result of this change the more effort the nozzle must do to
transform high pressure into High Velocity the greater the expansion ratio and the higher the
specific impulse of the engine Raptor 1 and Raptor 2 comparison the nozzle exit diameter on Raptor 1
and Raptor 2 is exactly the same and the remainder of the engine is basically the same size despite
this Raptor 2 weighs 1600 kg compared to 2000 kg for Raptor 1. making it substantially lighter the
MCC pressure of the Raptor 2 rocket engine is the greatest MCC pressure ever at an incredible
300 bar up 50 bar from the Raptor 1. the Russian rd-180 which operates at 267 bar pressure held
the previous record for the highest MCC pressure Raptor has acquired a large amount of thrust as a
result of the wider throat and higher chamber pressure Raptor 1 produced 185 tons of thrust
whereas Raptor 2 produced 230 tons of thrust the drawback of widening the throat is a one percent
drop in ISP Raptor 1 had an ISP of about 330 seconds whereas Raptor 2 had one of 327 seconds
the booster's efficiency is driven dramatically raised by the increase in thrust despite the drop
in exhaust velocity due to a reduction in gravity drag fighting against the Earth's gravitational
well takes up the first 9.8 meters per second squared of acceleration in a situation when
the thrust away ratio is 1.25 to 1 80 percent of the thrust is lost Fighting Gravity and only 20
percent of the thrust is utilized to propel the vehicle at 0.25 G this infinitely increases the
net effort done on the vehicle despite only having a 25 percent increase in thrust this increases the
effort done on the vehicle by 100 percent even if the increase is in thrust is just 16 percent
at liftoff Raptor 1 would have a TWR of roughly 1.25 whereas Raptor 2 would have a TWR of 1.5
the one percent decline in ISP is not nearly as dramatic as the 100 increase in work completed at
the beginning of the flight numerous advantages result from this including a reduction in the
distance the booster is traveling downrange at the end of its burn which lowers the fuel requirement
for the booster's back burn and now let's check another SpaceX rocket engine the Merlin engine
the Merlin engine is an open cycle gas generator engine this implies that the propellant is burned
in a gas generator and the hot air produced as a result is used to drive the engine's pumps
the gas then runs out this kind of engine is also referred to as an open cycle since something
is thrown away as was previously mentioned oxygen must be carried by Rockets since it
is necessary for combustion to take place Ultra refined kerosene or rp1 fuels and liquid oxygen
are fed into the combustion chamber of Merlin engines through a turbo pump system in the first
and second stages of the rocket both are kept in separate tanks the pre-burner turbine shaft
and two pumps make up the turbo pump assembly the pre-burner resembles a little rocket engine
in many ways the pre-burner's exhaust drives the turbine's rotation the shaft that rotates the two
pumps that control and feed Fuel and oxidizer into the combustion chamber is attached to the turbine
two smaller Fuel and oxygen pipes that are attached to the pumps Supply the pre-burner
which runs on the same Fuel and oxidizer as the main engine you might be wondering how
the engine starts since one component depends on the other to function because the pre-burner
powers the pumps and the pumps regulate the fuel and oxidizer flow to the pre-burner
the triethyl aluminum triethyl borane ouch what is that a chemical compound that spontaneously
ignites when it comes into contact with any kind of oxygen is carried by the Falcon 9 in
limited quantities to address the ignition issue a separate pipe system is used by the Merlin engines
to feed a tiny quantity of this compound and liquid oxygen into the pre-burner the substance
catches fire on its own spinning the turbine a continuous supply of fuel and liquid oxygen is
delivered to the combustion chamber as a result of the pumps starting to operate and the cycle
starting a similar method is employed to ignite Fuel and oxygen after they enter the combustion
chamber The Continuous Flow of fuel and oxygen allows for continuous combustion once and has
begun 190 000 pound-feet of thrust are generated by the combustion of a Merlin engine a different
much smaller nozzle is used to discharge the pre-burner's exhaust SpaceX starts the ignition
procedure at T minus two seconds since it takes so long to complete due to the complexity of the
process because of the intricate mechanism on the Saturn V Moon rocket it took the engine somewhat
longer than six seconds to reach their maximum power as soon as the first stage has finished
burning it is let go and returns back home utilizing the center one of its nine Merlin
engines to try and land the second stage's m-back engine ignition propels the Rocket's payload to
the intended orbit meanwhile a new video reveals that SpaceX is currently developing technology
that might fortify the ground beneath the orbital launch pad for its massive Starship rocket
the first ever test launch of a fully stacked Starship vehicle caused significant damage to
the launch pad that particular day the enormous power of starship's 33 first stage Raptor engines
blasted out a hole beneath the pad launching broken pieces of concrete into the dusty air Elon
Musk tweeted the following day that SpaceX was already working on a solution to avoid or lessen
such damage a massive water cooled steel plate to go under the launch Mount this was a day after
the eagerly awaited test flight the billionaire entrepreneur said that such activities had started
three months earlier SpaceX launched Starship on April 20 despite the plate system being behind
schedule because they believed the starship's concrete would hold up to one takeoff as we
discovered on April 20 that was not the case since then the steel plate work has advanced quickly in
fact the business recently put a prototype plate up against a single Raptor's power on Friday May
19 SpaceX tweeted a 20-second video of the test the plate looks to still be intact as the steam
subsides at the conclusion of the footage which is an impressive achievement given what it had to
contend with meanwhile another test of spacex's enormous Starship spaceship is about to begin
at its Starbase facility in south Texas early on Thursday morning May 18 the corporation
rolled chip 25 the most recent upper stage Starship prototype out to a suborbital pad
on Thursday company Representatives announced through Twitter that SpaceX would test the six
Raptor engines on ship 25 in a static fire test Elon Musk has stated that the objectives of the
upcoming full stack Starship test flight which SpaceX is preparing for will be identical to
those of the mission from last month and that ends today's episode please subscribe and don't
forget to like today's video we'll see you in the next video thank you so much for watching