The incredible raptor 2 engines from SpaceX are game changers for the whole space industry;
they truly induce a massive push to the super heavy during lift-off.
In fact, let's just say they're unlike anything else.
To transport 100 humans into space, larger rockets are required, and these rockets will,
of course, be driven by larger and more powerful engines.
You may not have been able to see how large the rocket nicknamed "super heavy" is in reality.
Perhaps you’ve been hearing a lot about it on air, but we’re trying to reveal that
the super heavy is a big boy that is cylindrical in shape.
It’s so gigantic and can cover up the size of a room.
This is Tech Space, in this video, we will first enlighten you about the step-by-step
design and manufacturing process of the new spacex raptor engine, before we talk about
how it is installed under the super heavy and finally, how these engines actually work.
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As previously stated, the massive size of the super heavy rocket necessitates the use
of a strong engine to raise it off the ground and resist gravity pull, which acts in the
opposite direction of the starship's propelling force.
As a result, after spacex estimated the weight of the entire starship, as well as the weight
of 100 people onboard the starship combined with cargo weight, they concluded that approximately
29 to 33 raptor engines should be attached under the super heavy, to fire up the entire
vessel, so it could overcome whatever weight the starship vessel will possess, as well
as gravitational force around the Earth's atmosphere, and finally, shoot it into space.
Six more engines will be attached beneath the first stage starship to launch it into
other space bodies.
There are little or no forces that will oppose the motion of the first stage starship, that
is why it will need only six engines to propel it.
Because there are little or no forces opposing the velocity of the first stage starship,
when it gets to space, it will only require six engines to propel it.
Blue Origin's BE-4 engine – which we hope will one day power ULA's Vulcan and Blue Origin's
reusable New Glenn – was the most powerful methane and oxygen rocket engine ever tested.
The BE-4 is capable of a thrust force of up to 244 tons.
It appears that SpaceX's first completed Raptor 2 prototype narrowly beat out BE-4, generating
a primary combustion chamber pressure of 321 bar and up to 245 tons of thrust.
That is one ton more powerful than BE-4.
The thrust of the BE-4 engine may be the sole thing Blue Origin borrowed from SpaceX, implying
that it is not only Blue Origin and China's Roscosmos who are copycats in the space industry;
at this point, SpaceX has also copied from Blue Origin.
When SpaceX pushed the first Raptor 2 prototype to over 107 percent of its maximum rated thrust
and main chamber pressure during its maiden test, it exploded.
The Raptor 2 is one of SpaceX's most recent projects, and the company has previously said
that the new structure will take over mass manufacturing of the type.
Up till this moment, no prototype of the Starship, not even the Super Heavy rocket has flown
with raptor 2 revolutionary engine.
Rather, for now, spacex is only running several flight test on the starship and raptor engine.
Although the test exceeds what the engine is designed to take, prior ratings of the
original Raptor went far beyond - and survived - so it's still unclear whether something
went wrong during the testing or whether the engine's explosion was something the company
had anticipated.
According to Elon Musk, the Raptor 2 differs from prior versions in several ways, including
stronger wire brackets, cleaner plumbing, and a far more open combustion outlet.
Previously, Elon Musk referred to the project as a "improvement in simplicity."
Raptor is now available in two variants: one for use in the atmosphere, known as the raptor
center boost, and another developed specially for use in the vacuum of space.
To what benefits have we, if we talk about rocket engines without touching how the engines
works;
Now lets move to the topic of the day, and perhaps the very topic you’ve been longing
for; which is – How does the raptor 2 engine works?
First, lets revisit our fundamental physics, remember those days in college, we may have
learned about the Rocket Equation and how it governs all rocket design.
In particular, we learned the importance of specific impulse, a measure of a rocket engine’s
efficiency.
So, for the moment, let us revisit the inner workings of liquid-fueled chemical rocket
engines, the workhorses of space travel and the most likely propulsion source for the
first human journey to Mars.
While the average rocket engine is less complex than the average car engine, the difficulty
of its engineering lies in the extreme conditions it must endure while remaining lightweight.
The SpaceX Raptor is meant to provide kinetic energy to its spaceship at a rate of 11 million
horsepower, which is the equivalent of four Hoover Dams, and is generated by a 1.5-tonne
engine.
To compare, we may use a sample engine from a Bugatti Veyron, which is one of the most
powerful sports vehicles ever made.
The Bugatti Veyron's engine weighs 0.5 tonnes (one-third as much), but it only produces
1,200 horsepower.
Now increase this car's overall horsepower by 9,167 to achieve something close to the
horsepower of one spacex raptor engine.
That is only one example of how powerful a raptor engine can be.
Still, SpaceX plans to place at least 29 people beneath the incredibly hefty rocket, and you
can guess what that entails.
Again, methane and oxygen burn at temperatures hot enough to melt the walls of a Raptor's
combustion chamber, but this is avoided by regenerative cooling.
at pressures greater than those found in SCUBA cylinders.
The exhaust is emitted at speeds exceeding 10 times the speed of sound.
At the heart of all chemical – or, more broadly, all thermal – rocket engines work
basically with well-known thermodynamic principle, which affirms that; when a gas is heated,
it expands.
Chemical rockets use a combustion chamber to burn fuel and oxidizer.
This generates a tremendous amount of heat in the gases, forcing them to quickly expand
- in other words, an explosion happens.
This explosion occurs continually in a rocket engine when fuel and oxidizer are pushed in
via a gas compressor.
The heated gases are then accelerated to the speed of sound by forcing them through a converge
constriction.
They then proceed into the nozzle, which expands (and hence diverges), propelling them to hypersonic
speeds.
The pressure and temperature of the gas reduce as it expands and propels the rocket onward.
As a result, its velocity rises.
The pressure of the expelled gases pressing against the engine walls propels the rocket
forward.
This converging-diverging nozzle design is known as a de Laval nozzle, and it may be
found in rocket engines ranging from small rockets to the massive F-1 engines of the
Saturn V rocket.
A rocket is essentially an effective technique of transferring the chemical energy of the
fuel into kinetic energy.
Propeller energy is turned into thermal energy when the propellant is combusted.
The gas reaches tremendous pressures due to the engine's resistance to the explosion.
To boost the thrust of the rocket, more engines may be added or the rate of fuel consumption
can be increased.
This, however, will not boost the rocket's delta-V. In a word, delta-V is a rocket's
capacity to alter velocity, which defines how difficult a mission it can complete.
In reality, adding engines reduces delta-V owing to the additional bulk.
Remember from the rocket combustion analysis we just illustrated, there are possible ways
to increase delta-V, which is carrying more fuel or improve specific impulse.
Specific impulse is the efficiency with which each kilogram of fuel propels the rocket ahead;
to maximize this efficiency, we must carefully build and optimize the engines.
There are usually a number of chemical possibilities that go down in the raptor 2's burning chambers.
But for now, let us simply get you at this point.
As for me, I consider the Raptor engine to be a miracle for SpaceX's space trips.
So I doubt we'll see anything following Raptor, Starship, or Super Heavy in general for a
long time.
But we should be convinced that it will be a significant improvement over the existing
concept.
Obviously, SpaceX is the world's authority on reusable rockets right now, but as a result,
they're staggering around in the dark, making it up as they go.
If 29 or 33 engines are stacked to the super heavy, how do you believe SpaceX will regulate
the heat created between these engines, so that their components do not overheat and
eventually melt out?
Please do well to share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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