This is an update from XCOR who is developing the LYNX engine system
that has proven itself last year. The business of space flight needs
superior engines and support technology and private industry is
filling that gap wonderfully. Here we have a pump system been
checked out for moving low temperature fluids. That is is piston
based is a surprise, but it appears to be the better choice.
It is also welcome to hear the drive to contain costs at the same
time as developing outstanding performance.
I must admit that I never imagined that we would see a gold rush
mentality around space work, but modern engineering has certainly
made it possible and plausible. The materials today are almost an
afterthought in terms of the development cycle itself. Results can
be achieved and tested in simulation before a nickle is spent cutting
or casting any part. It has hugely sped up the whole process and
today we do not appear to be grinding though multiple physical
prototypes in order to get something that barely works.
Liquid
Oxygen Piston Pump Ready for Reusable Space Flight
Shop Mechanic Ray Fitting plumbs the Lynx LOX pump for a test. (XCOR Aerospace / Mike Massee)
XCOR’s Tests of Lynx
Cryogenic Piston Pump a Success
May 24th, 2012, Mojave
CA: XCOR announced today that it has achieved a key technical
milestone with its flight weight rocket piston pump hardware.
XCOR engineers have successfully and repeatedly pumped liquid oxygen
(LOX) at flow rates required to supply the Lynx suborbital vehicle
main engines. Combined with earlier demonstrated kerosene pumps and
fully characterized engines, XCOR is now poised for main propulsion
integration into the Lynx flight weight fuselage.
XCOR’s family of
rocket piston pumps and engines now includes and is suitable for:
kerosene, LOX, liquid hydrogen (LH2), and liquid methane. These
piston pumps are a critical component for safe, cost-effective,
sustainable, reliable and highly reusable rocket engines for XCOR’s
Lynx and other launchers including upper stage liquid hydrogen
engines suitable for the Atlas V, Delta IV, and the planned NASA
Space Launch System (SLS).
“For propulsion from
50 to 75,000 lbf thrust, XCOR’s proprietary combined thermodynamic
cycle for piston pumps is ideal,” said XCOR CEO Jeff Greason.
“Unlike a turbo pump used in traditional rocket engines, the
development cost of a piston pump is much lower and the useful range
of thrust is much higher without modification.
Manufacturability is easier, and reliability is considerably higher.
The maintenance cycle is closer to that of an automotive engine
rather than ‘disassemble and inspect after every flight’ required
with conventional turbo fed systems. This technology is
integrated into the LOX/kerosene propulsion system on our Lynx
suborbital launch vehicle, and will be applied to future main
propulsion 30,000 lbf thrust LOX/LH2 engines currently under
development.”
“The ability to
ensure low cost and easy, repeatable manufacturing of critical pump
technology over a 30 to 40 year product lifecycle is a major factor
in why we chose this piston pump technology,” said Andrew Nelson,
XCOR Chief Operating Officer. “This technology is also tightly
coupled with certain design decisions regarding manufacturability of
our rocket engine chambers and nozzles. Other rocket engines,
nozzles and turbo pumps require time consuming, exotic manufacturing
processes, specialty equipment and large cadres of artisan
technicians and engineers to assemble and maintain them. XCOR
rocket engines, nozzles and piston pumps can be manufactured by a
skilled industrial machine shop and may be assembled by a streamlined
workforce and tested with mobile equipment, eliminating fixed test
hardware, facilities, and personnel. Our customers recognize in
our technology the ability to contain the costs of developing,
extending and maintaining a propulsion system over several decades.”
“At these thrust
classes, the weight is comparable to and potentially lighter than a
turbo pump system when the entire propulsion package is taken into
account,” said XCOR chief engineer Dan DeLong. “The fuel
and oxidizer pump also enables a variety of other innovations, such
as our lightweight, highly manufacturable aluminum nozzles.
Our pumps are fabricated using readily available automotive
manufacturing techniques developed over the past 120 years.
This allows us to competitively procure high quality components while
avoiding the overhead of maintaining a specialized industrial base.
This is our fifth generation piston pump; the first generation was
internally funded, DARPA helped on the second. XCOR developed
internally the pump that eventually went on the X-Racer which was the
first designed and optimized for low manufacturing cost. This latest
generation is almost 20 times more powerful than the X-Racer pump,
but it’s only twice the weight. After more than ten years work, I
think we’re getting good at this.”
“The fielding of the
LOX pump is a major milestone for XCOR, the Lynx, our wet lease
customers and our engine customers,” said Nelson, “I can’t wait
to see it powering our engines later this summer!”
# # # # #
XCOR Aerospace is a
California corporation located in Mojave, California. The company is
in the business of developing and producing safe, reliable and
reusable rocket powered vehicles, propulsion systems, advanced
non-flammable composites and other enabling technologies like rocket
piston pumps that enable full reusability. XCOR is working with
aerospace prime contractors and government customers on major
propulsion systems, and concurrently building the Lynx, a piloted,
two-seat, fully reusable, liquid rocket powered vehicle that takes
off and lands horizontally. The Lynx-family of vehicles serves
three primary missions depending on their specific type including:
research & scientific missions, private spaceflight, and micro
satellite launch (only on the Lynx Mark III). The Lynx
production models (designated Lynx Mark II) are designed to be
robust, multi-mission (research / scientific or private spaceflight)
commercial vehicles capable of flying to 100+ km in altitude up to
four times per day and are being offered globally on a wet lease
basis. (www.xcor.com).
2 comments:
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