- Reaction score
- 1,703
The new propulsion system is powered by supersonic technology and can be used for spacecraft journeying from the Moon to Mars.
NASA just put its new propulsion system to the test, powering a 3D-printed rotating detonation rocket engine for a sustained burn that lasted three times as long as the first test.
The Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine, or RDRE, produced more than 5,800 pounds of thrust for a total of 251 seconds (a little longer than four minutes) during a recent test at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the space agency announced this week.
“That kind of sustained burn emulates typical requirements for a lander touchdown or a deep-space burn that could set a spacecraft on course from the Moon to Mars,” Thomas Teasley, a combustion devices engineer at Marshall who leads the RDRE tests, said in a statement.
The rocket engine generates thrust by detonation, a supersonic combustion that produces more power while using less fuel compared to the propulsion systems typically used today. As a result, the new propulsion system could allow for both crewed landers and interplanetary vehicles to travel to deep space destinations such as the Moon and Mars, according to NASA.
NASA's Detonation Engine Revs Up for 4 Minutes in Breakthrough Test
The new propulsion system is powered by supersonic technology and can be used for spacecraft journeying from the Moon to Mars.
gizmodo.com
