I’d note, though, that 661,000 lbf is not 300K kilograms — it’s about three meganewtons.
13 thoughts on “SpaceX’s Methane Engine”
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I’d note, though, that 661,000 lbf is not 300K kilograms — it’s about three meganewtons.
Comments are closed.
Didn’t the Russians use kgf as a unit at some point?
So it would still be correct to say almost 4x the thrust of the Merlin 1D?
About 1.5 times the thrust of 3 Merlin 1-D’s, which is probably based on the optimal Falcon 9-H upper stage – or they’d be aiming for a different thrust.
Another article on Raptor at Stenns E2 test facility.
“Quote from: QuantumG on 10/23/2013 10:16 PM
I have no idea what “300 tons of thrust” means. I really wish the US would learn proper units.”
I despise these pompous asses who act as it feet, miles, pounds, tons etc. were the equivalent of measuring from the tip of the kings nose to the end of his finger. The system of the unit of measure has nothing to do with the accuracy of measurement!
Trent can speak for himself but I’m sure he meant consistent measurements. These inconsistencies have been the cause of mission failure in the past.
I suspect he’s annoyed that people use the same units for mass and force. 9800 newtons isn’t the same thing as a tonne.
My turn, from ugordan’s link: “Stennis has an 125,000 acre (5,060 square kilometer) acoustic buffer zone, which means you can test anything 24-7,” McPhillips said in an Oct. 24 phone interview.
125,000 acres is about 500 square km 😉
Nice to see I’m not alone in screwing up the occasional decimal point.
At $100 per half acre plot, 500 sq. km. would be almost $25 million which would eventually be 50 tickets to mars if Elon has it right. I don’t think he is, but I also don’t think he has to be. A 1000 sq. km claim for each colonist would go a long way toward paying the transportation cost of a single colonist in the near future (if many are transported at a time.) The guy next door to the half acre plot my folks live on, in a really small town, is asking $30k per acre for raw land. Some guy on the internet is selling mars deeds tied to no particular place for $20. Somewhere in that range is a future which doesn’t require unobtainium to finance colonization.
Hectares. Sheesh!
125,000 acres is 50,000 hectares.
And while we are at it, let’s go “full metric” and adopt the calendar of the French Republic. You know, the one with funny month names, 10-day “weeks”, 10-hour days. Liberte! Egalite! Fraternite!
Calendars aren’t sacred. We have months because we have this moon. It may make sense for every planet to have a local calendar and clock. This doesn’t prevent us from knowing the date on other worlds. Mars has seasons, just twice as long as ours.
I recall methane had been looked down on due to coking issues, but this was eventually determined to be related to sulfur-bearing impurities, not the methane itself, particularly when reacting with copper surfaces in engine cooling channels.
I don’t know if SpaceX is planning to highly purify their methane, or if the warm surfaces inside the engine will be made of sulfur-resistant materials. Perhaps both.
What is interesting is that this seems to be a first stage engine like their initial comments led us to believe. At one point I was concerned this was going to be for a second stage engine. Not that I would choose LOX/Methane for a first stage. But I can sort of understand the choice given that this is their first staged combustion engine and AFAIK the Russians themselves say its easier to do staged combustion with LOX/Methane than LOX/Kerosene.