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  Exploration: Moon to Mars
  NASA's LEM ascent engine roars again

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Author Topic:   NASA's LEM ascent engine roars again
hlbjr
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Posts: 552
From: Delray Beach Florida USA
Registered: Mar 2006

posted 07-26-2008 01:53 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for hlbjr   Click Here to Email hlbjr     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Camera 3 at the auxiliary propulsion system testbed at the White Sands Test Facility captures an image of one of the RS-18 engine firings.
Seems they're testing the LEM ascent engine using cryo fuels instead of the hypergolics used during Apollo. They say cryos save about 2,000 lbs of weight but you lose the simplicity of the "no ignition" hypergolics. I'd be curious which engine this is that they fired.

Harvey Brown
Delray Beach, FL

Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 50516
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 07-30-2008 11:57 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Flight International: NASA's Altair engine faces landing abort challenge
NASA's Altair lunar lander ascent engine is facing the challenges of not having enough propellant tank pressure for an emergency start if the astronauts decide to abort a landing, but too much pressure long before the end of the planned 210 day lunar base missions.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 50516
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 09-02-2008 09:42 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne release
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne's Heritage Lunar Engine Fired Up Once Again - This Time With Liquid Methane

Engineers from NASA and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne successfully completed a series of hot-fire altitude tests using liquid methane on the RS-18 engine. The tests, conducted at White Sands test facility in New Mexico, are part of the technology development for NASA's Constellation program, and gathered important data on ignition, performance measurement, and rapid start and stop. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) company.

The RS-18 engine, which was last used to lift astronauts off the moon's surface 36 years ago, was originally flown with storable hypergolic propellants during the Apollo moon missions. It was later modified to burn liquid oxygen and liquid methane, providing increased safety and performance to future space vehicles.

"We're extremely proud to be part of this history-making milestone," said Terry Lorier, RS-18 program manager, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. "It's tremendously gratifying to know our engine technology is being tested for the NASA Constellation Program. We literally pulled an engine off the museum shelf and were the first to prove that liquid methane could be used on hardware previously rated for storable propellants."

The cryogenic propellant-fueled RS-18 engine was modified under NASA's Exploration Technology Development Program (ETDP), which develops new technologies that will enable NASA to conduct future human exploration missions while reducing mission risk and cost. ETDP's Propulsion and Cryogenic Advanced Development Project, is developing rocket engine and propulsion technologies for future missions to the moon, Mars and beyond.

These propulsion systems would have higher performance than current storable propellant systems and may have the potential to use reactants mined from lunar and Martian environments.

The recent liquid methane tests on the RS-18 demonstrated reliable ignition over a wide range of mixture ratios in vacuum conditions; obtained performance data, chamber pressure data, combustion efficiency and chemical kinetics effects, and combustion stability data; demonstrated rapid engine start and shutdown; and measured specific impulse.

Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, Inc., a part of Pratt & Whitney, is a preferred provider of high-value propulsion, power, energy and innovative system solutions used in a wide variety of government and commercial applications, including the main engines for the space shuttle, Atlas and Delta launch vehicles, missile defense systems and advanced hypersonic engines.

Pratt & Whitney is a world leader in the design, manufacture and service of aircraft engines, space propulsion systems and industrial gas turbines. United Technologies, based in Hartford, Conn., is a diversified company providing high technology products and services to the global aerospace and building industries.

Apollo Redux
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Posts: 346
From: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Registered: Sep 2006

posted 10-24-2008 07:16 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Apollo Redux   Click Here to Email Apollo Redux     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Very interesting.

The possible re-use of a past generation's technological marvel, may further indicate the validity of Tom Brokaw's assertion that they were America's "Greatest Generation".

LCDR Scott Schneeweis
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posted 10-24-2008 09:27 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for LCDR Scott Schneeweis   Click Here to Email LCDR Scott Schneeweis     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I think the engine used to conduct the test was heisted by P&W from the New Mexico Museum of Space History...it was pristine when I saw it last year...no longer!

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Scott Schneeweis
http://www.SPACEAHOLIC.com/

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