SpaceX Raptor LRE Proposed Successor: Project LEET-1337 LRE

[baldusi]

RE: We can all agree that the LEET engine is a methalox engine, so why does it need a new name?

Not sure that is the long term plan ...... fuel production is the real issue further down the track, in this case methalox, generations of the Raptor Engine and Mars all fit together.
However Raptor was conceived to burn hydrogen and oxygen propellants.

In 2012, Raptor became a methane-fueled rocket engine, because of the presence of underground water and carbon dioxide in Mars atmosphere, methane, a simple hydrocarbon, that could be synthesized on Mars using the Sabatier reaction. NASA found in-situ resource production on Mars to be viable for oxygen, water, and methane production.

So anything that comes out of LEET-1337 that can be used/modified for Raptor "methalox" Engnes, is a bonus, but lets not lose sight on the bigger more ambigious plans, beyond Mars, and alternative propellants.

There are many reasons why it will be methalox. Among those: liquid temperature of oxygen and methane are similar, and can be kept liquid in space with minimum insulation, the density (i.e. tank size) if good, and most important: is the only one where going full flow staged cycle gets a huge kick. There's a reason Raptor 3 is the rocket with best T/W and has the most chamber pressure and highest isp outside of hydrogen (which has a lot of problems of its own).

[Sarigolepas]

RE: We can all agree that the LEET engine is a methalox engine, so why does it need a new name?

Not sure that is the long term plan ...... fuel production is the real issue further down the track, in this case methalox, generations of the Raptor Engine and Mars all fit together.
However Raptor was conceived to burn hydrogen and oxygen propellants.

In 2012, Raptor became a methane-fueled rocket engine, because of the presence of underground water and carbon dioxide in Mars atmosphere, methane, a simple hydrocarbon, that could be synthesized on Mars using the Sabatier reaction. NASA found in-situ resource production on Mars to be viable for oxygen, water, and methane production.

So anything that comes out of LEET-1337 that can be used/modified for Raptor "methalox" Engnes, is a bonus, but lets not lose sight on the bigger more ambigious plans, beyond Mars, and alternative propellants.

There are many reasons why it will be methalox. Among those: liquid temperature of oxygen and methane are similar, and can be kept liquid in space with minimum insulation, the density (i.e. tank size) if good, and most important: is the only one where going full flow staged cycle gets a huge kick. There's a reason Raptor 3 is the rocket with best T/W and has the most chamber pressure and highest isp outside of hydrogen (which has a lot of problems of its own).

Interesting.
In a perfect gas temperature is proportionnal to the amount of energy per mole, so for a given turbopump temperature you get more power if you have a higher flow of moles per second.
Both hydrogen and methane have 2 moles of one propellant for 1 mole of the other. So at first glance they would get the same kick for going full flow.
But a fuel-rich hydrogen engine can run hotter because hydrogen is not corrosive while an oxygen-rich methane engine would still run at the same temperature as full flow. So methane is where you get the biggest kick.
As for heavier fuels, you have way more moles of oxygen than fuel so it's not worth it.

[Skye]

Why not something like this with film-cooled turbine blades?
I made this for laugh, but I'm serious xD

Can we call this direct injection (full flow) staged combustion (DISC - pronounced as a word, rather than an acronym like disc) the reason I exclude the FF from the pronunciation because disc is easier to say than diffsc. Or maybe we could just call it DIFFS for Direct Injection Full Flow Staged?

[Skye]

Wait I just realised there’s nothing that exchanges fuel and oxidiser into their preburners where is that? And, actually, where are the preburners and would adding them increase efficiency?

[Skye]

Also could I make a thread about it in advanced concepts? It seems like an idea worth discussing in its own thread as well. I will credit Sarigolepas for the concept and diagram.