NASA has successfully tested a new type of rocket dubbed the rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE)—laying the groundwork for a future propulsion system that could take us to the Moon and even beyond Mars into deep space.
NASA has successfully tested a new type of rocket dubbed the rotating detonation rocket engine —laying the groundwork for a future propulsion system that could take us to the Moon and even beyond Mars into deep space.
The RDRE’s design allows it to use less fuel than current propulsion systems, while also producing more power and thrust as well. It works by creating a supersonic combustion effect known as detonation. The energy from the detonation travels rotates around a circular chamber that also feeds it fuel and oxidizers—allowing it to get more power out of the fuel.
Since it’s more fuel efficient, it has a lot of obvious potentials when it comes to incorporating it into interplanetary spacecraft as well as human landers when we want to colonize the lunar surface and Mars.The tests actually occurred in 2022 when the engine was fired more than a dozen times at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
In all, the successful test fire is a positive sign for NASA’s hopes of colonizing the solar system. It’ll also help with commercial space efforts as well as it’ll allow crafts to carry more payload and travel more quickly through the cosmos.
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