Purdue University students are designing and building a rocket engine that might be used in a vehicle to land on the moon.
Graduate students Thomas Feldman and Andrew Rettenmaier are part of a team developing a rocket motor through the NASA-funded Project Morpheus, which includes research to develop new technologies for future trips to the moon, Mars or asteroids.
Two other groups from Armadillo Aerospace in Texas and NASA's Johnson Space Center also are in the process of designing an engine under the same requirements. The most promising design will be chosen for the vehicle.
The rocket must meet stringent design and performance specifications related to factors including efficiency, size and weight limits, thrusting power, and the ability to dynamically throttle the rocket from 1,300-4,200 pounds of thrust, Feldman said.
"This thrusting range is needed because initially, when the lander is fully fueled, it will weigh significantly more than at the end of the mission when most of the propellant will be gone," he said.
The rocket, which will use liquid oxygen and liquid methane propellants, will be designed, built and tested using specialized facilities at Purdue's Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories, including a new facility to liquefy the methane propellant.
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Graduate students Thomas Feldman and Andrew Rettenmaier are part of a team developing a rocket motor through the NASA-funded Project Morpheus, which includes research to develop new technologies for future trips to the moon, Mars or asteroids.
Two other groups from Armadillo Aerospace in Texas and NASA's Johnson Space Center also are in the process of designing an engine under the same requirements. The most promising design will be chosen for the vehicle.
The rocket must meet stringent design and performance specifications related to factors including efficiency, size and weight limits, thrusting power, and the ability to dynamically throttle the rocket from 1,300-4,200 pounds of thrust, Feldman said.
"This thrusting range is needed because initially, when the lander is fully fueled, it will weigh significantly more than at the end of the mission when most of the propellant will be gone," he said.
The rocket, which will use liquid oxygen and liquid methane propellants, will be designed, built and tested using specialized facilities at Purdue's Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories, including a new facility to liquefy the methane propellant.
Read More
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