Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, November 23, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation announced that the 70-ton reusable liquid oxygen methane engine independently designed and assembled by the rocket company of Sanjiang successfully completed the 200-second long-range hot test run of the whole system, which was a complete success.

Officials pointed out that the test run further verified a number of key technologies of the reusable high-thrust liquid oxygen methane engine, providing power for subsequent reusable liquid rockets, laying a solid foundation for meeting China's future low-cost, high-frequency space entry requirements, and strongly supporting the construction of a space power.

CTOnews.com query data found that the main advantages of liquid oxygen methane engine are powerful performance, low cost, coupled with non-toxic and environmental protection, high reliability, easy to operate, reusable and other comprehensive characteristics, which make it very suitable for the development of recyclable rocket technology.

Compared with the traditional liquid oxygen kerosene, the density of liquid oxygen methane is about 20% lower than that of liquid oxygen kerosene (under the same design conditions), which means that the energy density of liquid methane is lower than that of liquid oxygen kerosene. The theoretical specific impulse of methane is slightly 3% higher than that of kerosene, but the specific impulse is easily affected by factors such as engine cycle mode, so the specific impulse of kerosene and methane can be said to be basically the same. In terms of cooling effect, methane shows its advantage as a low-temperature fuel, thanks to the specific heat capacity index, its comprehensive cooling capacity is more than 3 times that of kerosene, and as a carbon-containing fuel, it is not easy to coke and accumulate carbon, which is more "friendly" for the actual use of the engine.

Methane has a natural advantage in engine maintainability. Nowadays, recoverable and reusable rockets have become a general trend, liquid oxygen kerosene rockets must be thoroughly cleaned before they can continue to be used, and liquid methane is a highly volatile fuel, which significantly reduces the workload of logistics maintenance of liquid oxygen methane engines.

In the structural design of rocket tanks, the use of methane fuel has also brought a very positive impact on the rocket. Liquid oxygen as an oxidant, the boiling point is about minus 183 degrees Celsius, methane as a reducing agent, the boiling point is about minus 161 degrees Celsius, the two are relatively close, far from the boiling temperature difference between liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. Therefore, when choosing clean fuel, liquid oxygen methane rocket is convenient to use cryogenic propellant common bottom storage tank, so as to effectively reduce tank weight, shorten length, promote rocket body weight loss, enhance carrying capacity, and make up for the disadvantage in combination density. In addition, methane is highly volatile, so the storage tank can use self-generated pressurization design to further promote efficient weight loss.

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