Printed engine!
Posted on 05/29/2014 7:48:12 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
Elon Musk is revealing the new design of the hopefully soon to be man-rated Dragon capsule. This is an important step forward for the company, and for American space travel.
Innovations include:
It is fully reusable, much like the grasshopper first stage, and will land on land. A Dragon 2 capsule launched from a grasshopper first stage will be an order of magnitude cheaper than any other current spacecraft.
Nice safety features. While it is designed to land under rocket power, it can land via parachute like the Apollo era and current dragon capsules if the engines fail.
The Dragon will includes 3d printed engines.
Beware the Musky hubris.
/johnny
Dragon 2 won’t launch atop a grasshopper first stage. They are going to conduct an abort test atop a grasshopper though. The engines aren’t 3D printed. The engine nozzle is.
Printed engine!
Ping.
Thanks!
/johnny
Outstanding!
When he talked about it in the video, he said the engines, not just the nozzel. And maybe they have to go a bit slowly, but 3d printing is great for very complicated pieces of machinery that currently have to be made by making hundreds of smaller parts and fusing them together. Printing them all together, joined together, as one part saves a lot of money and effort. Printing just the nozzel wouldn't be of that much benefit.
/johnny
Do you have a link for that?
/johnny
This project may bring many in this Nation (and around the world) back to an active interest in the efforts and possibilities of future space activities and space travel.
I hope to see a lot of progress, and a lot of youths wanting to participate, before my time ends here on this blue sphere!
The SuperDraco differs from most rocket engines in that its combustion chamber is 3D printed by direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), where complex metal structures are printed by using a laser to build the object out of metal powders one thin layer at a time. The regeneratively-cooled combustion chamber is made of inconel; a family of nickel-chromium alloy that’s notable for its high strength and toughness, and is also used in the Falcon 9’s Merlin engine.
http://www.gizmag.com/superdraco-test/32292/
Doesn’t look like a lot of “piloting” will be required - “spam in a can astronauts”. But it appears to be a versatile, inexpensive people and small cargo transporter to and from the ISS. Plus it’s private enterprise.
Yes, the grasshopper is a test vehicle. But it is intended to launch on a reusable Falcon.
Not many clean lines in a Soyuz either:
may have better performance and reliability as there will be no welds to fail,or different metals that may react to each other.
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