Russia will fly into space on household gas
In Russia, work has begun on creating a promising rocket engine using methane as fuel. Why is household gas methane considered the most promising?
It is known that the old space carrier Proton has been using heptyl since Soviet times. It has good characteristics, but is very toxic. Inhalation of its vapor causes death. After the Proton launches from Baikonur, large amounts of money have to be paid to the government of Kazakhstan for cleaning the territory, which is the reason for the gradual abandonment of this launch vehicle. Significantly safer from an environmental point of view, kerosene is used on the American Falcon 9 and on the Angara rocket created in Russia. This fuel is energy-intensive, low-toxic and relatively inexpensive. But it is believed that the highest potential for applications in rocket engines of hydrogen and methane.
In terms of energy efficiency, methane ranks between kerosene and hydrogen, but has the lowest cost due to its availability. Methane can be obtained from natural gas widely extracted in Russia and even from renewable sources, such as livestock waste. It is not surprising that the idea of using household gas for space travel has been considered for a long time.
In the United States, this topic is being actively explored by private space companies. For example, SpaceX Ilona Mask is testing a Raptor methane engine, while Jeff Basos' Blue Origin plans to introduce a BE-4 methane engine on its New Glenn rocket.
Roscosmos Corporation is not going to lag behind American competitors. NPO Energomash has begun work on the creation of a Russian methane rocket engine:
The process will use the best practices and experience gained during the creation of the RD-0146 engine. It is expected that it will be possible to test the domestic novelty in 3-4 years.
It is known that the old space carrier Proton has been using heptyl since Soviet times. It has good characteristics, but is very toxic. Inhalation of its vapor causes death. After the Proton launches from Baikonur, large amounts of money have to be paid to the government of Kazakhstan for cleaning the territory, which is the reason for the gradual abandonment of this launch vehicle. Significantly safer from an environmental point of view, kerosene is used on the American Falcon 9 and on the Angara rocket created in Russia. This fuel is energy-intensive, low-toxic and relatively inexpensive. But it is believed that the highest potential for applications in rocket engines of hydrogen and methane.
In terms of energy efficiency, methane ranks between kerosene and hydrogen, but has the lowest cost due to its availability. Methane can be obtained from natural gas widely extracted in Russia and even from renewable sources, such as livestock waste. It is not surprising that the idea of using household gas for space travel has been considered for a long time.
In the United States, this topic is being actively explored by private space companies. For example, SpaceX Ilona Mask is testing a Raptor methane engine, while Jeff Basos' Blue Origin plans to introduce a BE-4 methane engine on its New Glenn rocket.
Roscosmos Corporation is not going to lag behind American competitors. NPO Energomash has begun work on the creation of a Russian methane rocket engine:
The engine was called RD-169. This is actually a new engine, created on the basis of the knowledge that we have formed since the beginning of the 2000s
The process will use the best practices and experience gained during the creation of the RD-0146 engine. It is expected that it will be possible to test the domestic novelty in 3-4 years.
- https://www.roscosmos.ru/
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