Холивар Raptor vs РД0164, Мюллер vs Рачук

[SGS_67]

Salo пишет:
Если есть желание засирать тему троллингом, создайте свою!

Прежде, чем давать такие советы, не мешало б научиться не кидать какашки в незнакомцев, пусть даже в курятнике, который Вы считаете "своим".
А когда прилетает ответка, не скулить, как побитое щеня.

О Рапторе, BE-4 и РД0162 есть что сказать?

Конечно.
BE-4 и РД0162 существуют пока только во влажных фантазиях умозрительно.

По прототипу РД0162Д2А, якобы начавшем цикл испытаний, информации чуть более 0.

 гендиректор НПО «Энергомаш» Игорь Арбузов заявлял, что опытный образец метанового двигателя с тягой 85 тонн будет изготовлен в 2019 году

Прототип Раптора доказал возможность устойчивой работы двигателя замкнутой схемы газ-газ с двумя ТНА на кислород-метановой паре.

Сам Раптор будет ещё неизвестно когда.

Вот, собственно, и резюме.

[Salo]

SGS_67 пишет:
А когда прилетает ответка, не скулить, как побитое щеня.

Не дождётесь!

ЗЫ: Владимир, вся беда в том, что в этом смысл Вашей жизни.

[Apollo13]

Jeff Bezos‏Verified account @JeffBezos  18m18 minutes ago

1st BE-4 engine fully assembled. 2nd and 3rd following close behind. #GradatimFerociter

Jeff Bezos‏Verified account @JeffBezos  16m16 minutes ago

Here's one more shot of BE-4 in its transport cradle.

[Seerndv]

Когда на стенд?
ЗЫ: Вот что значит не впирацца в газ-газ    

[Apollo13]

Seerndv пишет:
Когда на стенд?
ЗЫ: Вот что значит не впирацца в газ-газ  

Так газ-газ уже на стенде был...

[Виктор Кондрашов]

А, кстати, есть какие-то новости о том, как огневые испытания Раптора идут (прошли)? Или СейсИксы затихарились?

[garg]

Apollo13 пишет:

Seerndv пишет:
Когда на стенд?
ЗЫ: Вот что значит не впирацца в газ-газ    

Так газ-газ уже на стенде был...  

Ну так, только  моделька, а тут вроде как полноразмерная конхфетка.

[Apollo13]

Виктор Кондрашов пишет:
А, кстати, есть какие-то новости о том, как огневые испытания Раптора идут (прошли)? Или СейсИксы затихарились?

Они вообще мало говорят о том чем занимаются на самом деле.

[Salo]

https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/03/07/blue-origin-details-new-rockets-capabilities-signs-first-orbital-customer/

Blue Origin's BE-4 engine in development to power the New Glenn rocket is scheduled to perform its full-scale hotfire test later this year at the company's remote West Texas test site.
Bezos tweeted two pictures of the first fully-assembled BE-4 engine Monday, adding that the second and third copies are "following close behind."
United Launch Alliance has tapped the BE-4 engine as its preferred powerplant for the next-generation Vulcan rocket scheduled for a maiden launch in 2019. ULA is paying Aerojet Rocketdyne, a traditional engine-builder, to continue developing its kerosene-fueled AR1 engine as a backup option.
"We are very close to selecting," said Tory Bruno, president and CEO of ULA, in a Feb. 16 presentation at the University of Texas at El Paso. "And if the testing that happens in the next couple of months is successful, we'll probably end up on that Blue Origin (engine)."
The BE-4 and AR1 will employ a staged combustion cycle, a more efficient engine cycle than currently available on other U.S. liquid hydrocarbon rocket engines. Staged combustion engines currently flying include the Russian RD-180 on ULA's Atlas 5, which the Vulcan will replace.
It'll be very exciting because it'll bring that advanced Russian engine cycle technology to America, and it will make it much much better because this engine will be additively manufactured," Bruno said. "It will be much more produceable. It will be much lighter, and it will be much much more affordable."

[Salo]

https://glav.su/forum/2-science/101/4304814-message/#message4304814

перегрев пишет:
Обе технологии сильно лучше традиционной.
Сварка по ребрам тракта охлаждения было впервые продемонстрирована, емнип, Вольво лет 5 назад.
Аддитивное сопло пока никто не делал, все упирается в размеры камеры принтера. Пионеры и законодатели мод тут амеры. Ходили слухи, что у них серийно изготавливаются принтеры с камерой более 1 м3, но они их не поставляли даже союзникам. Если это прототипирование, подчеркиваю "если", то налицо колоссальный технологический прорыв.
Для сравнения, по традиционной технологии такое сопло будет иметь производственный цикл пол-года (плюс, минус). По аддитивной технологии - недели две, три. Плюс ко всему по всем показателям (прочность, точность профиля, геометрия тракта и гидравлические характеристики и т.д.) сопло изготовленное на 3D принтере будет несравнимо лучше паянного.
Но, опять же, если там такое сопло. Я запросто могу ошибаться.

https://glav.su/forum/2-science/101/4305129-message/#message4305129

Цитата: Senya от 08.03.2017 07:33:43
А можно чуть развернуть для ликбеза? Что такое утяжины, отчего они образуются, как выглядят? И примерно на двух третях высоты - это не сварной шов?

перегрев пишет:
Утяжиной на жаргоне называют деформацию (прогиб) внешней оболочки сопла (камеры) между фрезерованными ребрами внутренней оболочки. Происходит он при пайке, выглядит примерно так

Вот на здесь хорошо видно как это выглядит на реальной матчасти

P.S. Да мне тоже показалось, что там сварной шов.

[Salo]

https://glav.su/forum/2-science/101/4305145-message/#message4305145

Цитата: v0v от 08.03.2017 09:50:22
Вот тут пишут про использование аддитивной технологии в BE-4:
https://3dprint.com/163811/add itive-manufacturing-blue-origi n/

Насколько я понял, только вот этот насос (предварительный бустер, если буквально переводить, тапками не кидайтесь!) производится по 3-D технологии:

перегрев пишет:
Абсолютно не настаиваю на сопле. Но и корпус бустера (совершенно корректный термин, кстати) тоже звоночек не из веселых. Здоровый, зараза. Раз в пять больше тех образцов, изготовленных по аддитивным технологиям, что я видел вживую. Вот все то, что я писал про сопло справедливо и для такого железа.
P.S. Кстати по ссылке, методом прототипирования также изготавливаются корпус турбины, роторы ТНА, гидротурбина бустера... Нда уж

[Salo]

https://glav.su/forum/2-science/101/4306625-message/#message4306625

Цитата: slavae от 08.03.2017 15:23:14
Возможности лаборатории аддитивных технологии АО «НПО «ЦНИИТМАШ»
PDF-ка по железным принтерам, искал ссылки за последний месяц.

Не только ЦНИИТМАШем единым, не только... Как говорится "не только лишь все ЦНИИТМАШ"
Но между "возможностями лаборатории" и реальным железом (даже не серийным) дистанция огромного размера. Например для производства порошка установка сложнее и дороже, чем сам принтер
Насколько я знаю работы в этом направлении у нас интенсивно ведутся, но отстаем мы сильно.

https://glav.su/forum/2-science/101/4307156-message/#message4307156

Цитата: VVSector от 09.03.2017 14:20:11
Думаю, через год уже и не сильно будет.

И через год будет "сильно". "Не сильно" будет когда будет промышленное производство порошков из отечественных материалов. К слову, принтер проще сделать, как мне говорили, чем атомомайзер, так вроде называется хрень для производства порошков. "Не сильно" будет когда пойдет какая-то серия изделий изготовленных по аддитивной технологии.

Цитата: Цитата
Уж очень большие дядьки с оооочееень большими ресурсами это дело сейчас двигают.

Тут да, тема в приоритете.

Цитата: Цитата
А уж порошки, порошки - всякие вольфрамии с молибдениями и титаниями разными...Еще в 2013 году в Питере докладывалось, что уже можем выдавать килограммов детали в час больше чем французы, к тому же с точностью контуров на порядок выше "ихней".

Я Вас умоляю! Докладывать у нас умеют как нигде. Но дело не в этом. Отставание есть, но никакой трагедии я в этом не вижу. В конце концов наивно ожидать, что мы как бык овцу покроем тех, кто такую технологию придумал. Главное, что этой технологии уделяется огромное внимание.

Цитата: Цитата
Понимание есть и оно абсолютно четкое - за этим будущее. Слышал даже слова "новая технологическая эра/передел" , с чем согласен.  Перспективы захватывающие, вплоть до полного ухода в небытие традиционных методов обработки металлов.

Опять таки да. Технология прорывная. Главное критически не отстать.

P.S. Присутствовал на одном крупном совещании для которого был подготовлен большой доклад по достижениям по прототипированию на одном, отдельно взятом предприятии .В наличии были практически все-все-все "эффективные менеджеры"+приглашенные эксперты и консультанты. Так вот доклад не состоялся. По слухам, из-за убедительной просьбы "кровавой гэбни" не афишировать

[Salo]

Поймал себя на мысли: Раптор уже испытывают, но ни одного фото двигателя, или его макета не опубликовано.
Только 3D модели.

[Salo]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2017/03/20/jeff-bezos-muses-underappreciated-engine-components-bearings/#more-61044

Jeff Bezos Muses About Those Underappreciated Engine Components – Bearings
  March 20, 2017  Doug Messier  News  
Finding its bearing: Orbit plot with starting shaft location (red dot) marking each revolution as shaft spirals to its center during propellant fluid film pressurization. (Credit: Blue Origin)

By Jeff Bezos
Although the BE-4 turbopump is smaller than your refrigerator, it generates 70,000 horsepower from a turbine running at nearly 19,000 revolutions per minute that pumps cryogenic propellants to pressures just under 5,000 pounds per square inch. To react the forces generated by the rotating turbine and impellers inside the pump, production rocket turbopumps to date have used traditional ball and roller bearings. For BE-4, we're doing something different – we're using hydrostatic bearings.
 
A hydrostatic bearing relies on a fluid film supplied by a high-pressure source to provide support for the shaft and cause it to float without contacting the static structure except at startup and shutdown. The BE-4 main turbopump uses hydrostatic journal bearings for radial support and hydrostatic axial bearings to carry axial thrust. The system is bootstrapped. The high pressure fluid films for the bearings are supplied by the propellants themselves – liquefied natural gas and liquid oxygen – tapped off from the pump discharge flows.
Material selection is a critical consideration for this approach, as there is physical contact between the bearing surfaces during the start transient before the fluid film is fully established and during the shutdown transient as the fluid film dissipates. With lab-scale tests and full-scale bearing rig tests using actual pump hardware, we evaluated over 20 material combinations in over a hundred tests, leading to our baseline material and coating choices.
Extensive rotordynamic and computational fluid dynamics analyses have shown the feasibility of this design, and recent powerpack tests confirmed that this approach works during the startup and shutdown transients – the most critical phases. The shaft orbit plot below shows that the turbopump lifts off smoothly and centers during a typical start transient, demonstrating a smooth ride on a film of propellant.
Why do we go to all this trouble instead of just using traditional bearings? Engine life. We're relentlessly focused on reusability, and properly designed hydrostatic bearings offer the potential for longer engine life without refurbishment. This is one of the many engineering decisions we've made that we hope will lead to reusability – not just in principle – but to practical, operational reusability. If "reusability" requires significant refurbishment, inspection, and re-validation between flights, then it simply won't lead to the far lower launch costs we need to achieve our vision of millions of people living and working in space.
We'll keep you up to date as our testing progresses in the coming weeks.

Gradatim Ferociter!
Jeff Bezos

[Salo]

 Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust  2 ч2 часа назад
At CSIS #SpaceSecurity event, Blue Origin's Brett Alexander says first BE-4 engine hotfire test "coming up soon."

[Salo]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/03/heres-why-the-imminent-test-of-jeff-bezos-be-4-rocket-engine-is-a-huge-deal/

Burn, baby, burn. —
Here's why the imminent test of Jeff Bezos' BE-4 rocket engine is a huge deal
A good test would prove the doubters wrong and further advance new space.
 Eric Berger - 3/28/2017, 4:03 PM
 
Enlarge / Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos has an important engine test coming up soon.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
 
Key Blue Origin officials have begun to drop hints about the imminent hot-fire test of the company's new rocket engine, the BE-4. Jeff Bezos recently said to expect a full-scale engine test "in the coming weeks." And last Wednesday the company's director of business development, Brett Alexander, said during a Center for Strategic and International Studies panel discussion the test "was coming soon."
For many people, a rocket engine is just a rocket engine. But Blue Origin's new engine is a big deal for a number of reasons, not the least of which is its 550,000 pounds of thrust at sea level, more powerful than a space shuttle main engine, which had 418,000 pounds of thrust. Beyond the brawn, however, there are other reasons to anticipate a successful test.

Спойлер

A new kind of engine
During a tour of his rocket factory in Kent, Washington, last year Bezos explained the philosophy behind the BE-4 engine. "In principle, rocket engines are simple, but that's the last place rocket engines are ever simple," he said. Nonetheless, Blue Origin sought to make an engine that was not too complex, nor one that required ultra-premium materials. The designers didn't want to create a work of art that pushed the limits of engineering—rather, they wanted a reliable workhorse that could be flown again and again, perhaps as many as 100 times as the company pushes the boundaries of reusable spaceflight.
Blue Origin began developing the engine in 2012 for its own purposes, but in 2014 the rocket company United Launch Alliance came to them about a replacement engine for its next-generation rocket, Vulcan. The company, which launches the majority of US military payloads with its Altas V rocket, needed to move on from its use of the Russian RD-180 engine, as the national security community was no longer comfortable buying from Russia during a time of rising tensions.
The RD 180 is a very high-performance engine, operating at extreme temperatures and pressures. Higher pressures translate into marginally more performance but at a high cost of development time, money, and uncertain reusability. "Our strategy is, we like to choose a medium-performing version of a high-performance architecture," Bezos said. "The RD-180 is both—a high-performing version of a high-performance architecture. That's a very challenging engine to develop, and it really complexifies everything. With a lower pressure, you can still get very high performance."
As a result of its design philosophy, Bezos said the BE-4 engine should cost about 30 to 40 percent less than the RD-180 engine. It should also, in theory, be more durable and capable of reuse without worrying about the failure of components due to the extreme pressures and temperatures inside an RD-180 engine, which is flown once and then discarded.
The BE-4 also uses a new kind of fuel for a first-stage engine, liquid methane. Whereas hydrogen has a higher specific impulse (which is good), it is difficult to work with and requires large and bulky tanks to store because it is not dense. In some ways, because of its ease of use and potential for harvest on worlds such as Mars, methane is the rocket fuel of the future. When Elon Musk sought to design his Raptor engines, for his rocket to transport humans to Mars, he settled on liquid methane-liquid oxygen fuel as well.

Prove doubters wrong
Earlier this month Ars first reported on efforts by some Congressmen to nudge United Launch Alliance away from the BE-4 engine toward a different engine being developed by Aerojet Rocketdyne, a traditional aerospace company with a legacy of developing large, powerful rocket engines. The BE-4 engine "is unproven at the required size and power," the letter stated. The Congressmen seemed to be pushing Aerojet because the company had promised to produce its AR-1 engine in Huntsville, Alabama, creating 100 new jobs near NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
This is the kind of bias that SpaceX has had to fight for the better part of a decade, as it sought funding from NASA, US military, and other government agencies for its lower-cost Falcon 9 rocket. Among some in Congress, there remains a general mistrust of "new space," a newer generation of aerospace firms whose express goal is to lower the cost of access to space, rather than to just win the next government contract.
The Center for Strategic & International Studies recently reported on five different options the US Department of Defense had as it seeks to transition away from the RD-180 rocket engine for national security launches to one made in the United States. If the highest priority factors are minimizing costs and supporting the long-term competitiveness of the US space launch industrial base, the report said the Air Force should pick either the BE-4 or AR-1 engine. Moreover, if the BE-4 hot fire tests are successful, the report stated, the Blue Origin engine seems the obvious choice because it would cost less, is almost fully paid for by the private sector, and will be ready sooner.

If successful, then...
Successfully testing the BE-4 engine would therefore, at a single stroke, both prove that "unproven" companies can get the job done in space and validate the use of a relatively untested new rocket fuel—methane—in a large engine. It would also lead to a blue-blood rocket company, United Launch Alliance, choosing the upstart BE-4 engine over that from a traditional aerospace company, Aerojet Rocketdyne.
A proven engine would also go a long way toward making Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket a reality. This reusable, heavy lift booster, powered by seven BE-4 engines, could fly by 2020 and become a major player in the global satellite launch industry—and may also eventually bring hundreds of human beings into orbit.
The promise of the upcoming test, then, is pretty straightforward. SpaceX has long stood alone as a new space outlier in the global launch community, running up against traditional aerospace companies and government launch businesses in Russia, China, and Europe. It is possible to dismiss one tech entrepreneur dreaming about reusable rockets as a naive optimist or rich, rocket boy pretender. But it is much harder to dismiss two of them who have both developed their own engines.

[свернуть]

[Salo]

Мы чужие на этом празднике жизни:
https://ria.ru/science/20170330/1491098786.html

Огневые испытания метанового ракетного двигателя пройдут до 2021 года
11:44 30.03.2017
 
МОСКВА, 30 мар — РИА Новости, Александр Ковалёв. Первое огневое испытание нового кислородно-метанового ракетного двигателя намечено провести в первой половине 2019 года или в 2020 году, заявил в интервью РИА Новости генеральный директор НПО "Энергомаш" Игорь Арбузов.
"Огневые испытания еще не проводились. В соответствии с новой версией Федеральной космической программы (ФКП), они смещены на более поздний срок: скорее всего, пройдут в первой половине 2019 года или в 2020 году. Но могу вас заверить, работы в этом направлении ведутся. Новая ФКП не предполагает изготовление летного образца в ближайшее время, поэтому еще предстоит определиться с перспективами использования этого двигателя в составе какой-либо ракеты-носителя", — отметил он.
Глава НПО "Энергомаш" также пояснил, в чем заключаются преимущества метанового двигателя перед традиционной схемой керосин/кислород. "Этот двигатель в меньшей степени подвергается разрушению в процессе эксплуатации, поэтому может применяться в составе многоразовых ракет-носителей, на возвращаемой первой ступени. Выделения сажи в процессе работы на метане практически нет, что позволяет использовать такой двигатель несколько раз", — отметил Арбузов.
По его словам, новые технологии позволят сократить время и снизить трудоемкость процесса очистки внутренних полостей, благодаря чему готовить метановые двигатели к повторному использованию возможно быстрее, чем классические, работающие с применением керосина и кислорода.
"Хочу отметить, что именно в этом направлении активно работает сейчас американская компания Blue Origin. Они уже собрали первую версию двигателя BE-4 и в скором времени поставят ее на испытательный стенд. Посмотрим, что у них получится. Внимательно следим за их деятельностью, но могу заверить, что мы от Blue Origin не отстанем", — заверил глава НПО "Энергомаш".
Вместе с тем, по его словам, создание двигателя BE-4 может после 2020 года внести коррективы в график поставок двигателей РД-180 производства АО "НПО Энергомаш" для американских ракет Atlas-5.
"График поставки наших РД-180 в США для Atlas-5 согласован с американскими партнерами и неукоснительно соблюдается. Наверное, работы по созданию своих двигателей американскими компаниями могут внести какие-то коррективы в наш график поставок, но только после 2020 года. Все будет зависеть от темпов создания рабочего двигателя, результатов его огневых испытаний и постройки летного образца в составе ракеты", — заключил Арбузов.

[Salo]

tnt22 пишет:
    :|  
 http://spacenews.com/bruno-vulcan-engine-downselect-is-blues-to-lose/
Bruno: Vulcan engine downselect is Blue's to lose
by Jeff Foust — April 5, 2017
 
Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos speaks in front of his company's New Shepard suborbital vehicle on display at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs April 5. Bezos said the company still plans to start flying people on suborbital space tourism flights by the end of 2018, although the company has yet to start selling tickets or even setting a ticket price. Development of New Shepard, he said, is informing the company's plans for an orbital launch vehicle, New Glenn, that will use the same BE-4 engines that United Launch Alliance is considering for its Vulcan rocket. Credit: Chuck Bigger for SpaceNews
 
COLORADO SPRINGS — United Launch Alliance is prepared to sel ect Blue Origin's BE-4 engine for its Vulcan launch vehicle this year if the engine passes an upcoming series of tests, the company's chief executive said April 5.
In an interview during the 33rd Space Symposium here, Tory Bruno said that tests of the BE-4 engine, scheduled to begin "very soon" at Blue Origin's test site in West Texas, are the last major hurdle the engine must clear before ULA decides to use it on Vulcan.
"The economic factors are largely in place now and the thing that is outstanding is the technical risk," Bruno said. "That's why we keep talking about the engine firing."
A major aspect of the engine tests, he said, is to determine the degree of combustion instability the BE-4 has when the engine starts. "Any time when you are developing a new rocket engine, any time you change the scale or the fuel, you are at risk of this phenomenon," he said. The BE-4 engine is the largest engine developed to date that uses methane as fuel, rather than more common alternatives like kerosene or liquid hydrogen.
"We look first to the combustion instability as the chief technical risk that must be retired before we'd be able to pick an engine," Bruno said. He anticipated a series of tests, lasting for several weeks, where the engine's thrust is gradually increased to measure its performance and determine if it suffers from combustion instability.
Bruno said he was encouraged by tests of some key engine components, including the preburner, a smaller version of the main engine that powers the engine's turbomachinery. "The good news is the preburner is running like a top," he said. "We're starting to get more and more confidence that we're going to have a good experience when we run a full-scale engine."
If the tests all go as planned, Bruno said ULA could be ready to formally sel ect the BE-4 in as soon as 60 to 90 days. "But it could take longer," he added. "It's not on the calendar."
 
Tony Bruno (left), Jeff Bezos and the BE-4 engine at 2014 press conference. Credit: SpaceNews/Brian Berger

Спойлер

Rob Meyerson, president of Blue Origin, confirmed in an April 5 interview that test of the BE-4 will start in the next several weeks. One engine is already at the company's test site, with two more shipping there soon.
"We wanted to go into the test program hardware-rich," he said. With those engines and other equipment at the test site, "we can move through the test program quite rapidly." He said that testing would continue after ULA made its decision, with final certification of the BE-4 planned for late 2018 or early 2019.
While Bruno will make the decision about the engine, he will get plenty of advice. He said he recently established an independent non-advocate review (INR) team of outside experts to review the overall engine evaluation process. That team includes former Secretary of the Air Force Sheila Widnall; retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Susan Mashiko, former deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office; and Ray Johnson, former vice president for space launch operations at the Aerospace Corp.
Bruno said Congress also established a separate INR team, comprised of engineers fr om NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, to review the engine selection process. "I was actually happy to hear that they did that," Bruno said, adding that this team had access to the same data as ULA's own review team.
 
Rob Meyerson, president of Blue Origin, confirmed in an April 5 interview that test of the BE-4 will start in the next several weeks. Credit: Tom Kimmel

Bruno added that he expected the Air Force would also seek access to the test data and provide ULA with its own opinion about the engine. "I will hear all of those opinions and it will be super easy if everybody says the same thing," he said. "If they do not, then we will resolve that. And then we will make a choice."
Aerojet Rocketdyne's AR1 engine remains the alternative for Vulcan should the BE-4 run into technical problems. Development of the AR1 is 18 to 24 months behind the BE-4, he said, because it started later. "I have confidence they can get their engine to work" because of its use of a more conventional fuel, kerosene.
Blue Origin, though, has the financial edge. Bruno said ULA already has a firm fixed-price deal with Blue Origin for "a large enough quantity" of engines that covers initial Vulcan missions. Those engines will be produced initially at Blue Origin's factory in Kent, Washington.
"Their production capability actually looks quite good," Bruno said of those initial BE-4 engine plans. "My INR heads came back to me and said they are very comfortable with that production capability already."
Later engines will be built at a separate facility Blue Origin plans to develop in the next few years that will be designed to produce dozens of engines a year. "We're in the process of site selection for a full production site," Meyerson said. He declined to identify the locations being considered, but said a decision should be made in the next six months.
Bruno said that he expected to decide on the Vulcan engine this year, but wouldn't be rushed into one. "I get to make this decision, like, once. This is a big decision and if you don't get it right, it's very hard to come back fr om that," he said. "So I'm going to take my time and listen to all these experts and stakeholders and then do it."

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[Salo]

Apollo13 пишет:
https://www.reddit.com/r/BlueOrigin/comments/64uvm2/a_step_by_step_approach_to_lowcost_access_to/

Very interesting Video! Really nice to follow. Usually Blue Origin is way too secretive. Overview of the company and tons of little details. Some highlights:
 Blue origin = we are all of blue origin, Carl Sagan's blue Dot Feather is a metaphor for weightlessness. Move polluting industries to space; space is a way to be more sustainable. Thought this was really interesting. Low cost access to space Jeff Bezos inspired by Neil Armstrong and moon landings. Blue Origin is 'customer focused' because of Amazon influence. Blue Origin is actually 17 yrs old but it was very secretive for a long time. Philosophy of talking about technology after you have done it instead of when you plan on doing it. 1024 employees! Facilities in Washington, Texas, building in Florida, and small office in Virginia Building a large scale engine production facility soon in an undisclosed location First New Shepard Propulsion module crashed instead of landing. (I didn't know that) First three flights of the 2nd booster they didn't even take the engine out! Just inspections! Blue origin = Tortoise not hare. Slow and steady. Step by Step. There was a BE-1 and BE-2!!! I can't make out their stats (20:39) They were both LOX LH also. 30% of employees have 20+ yrs experience. 30% 10+ yrs experience 30% recent grads (wonder how this compares to spacex) <4% turnover. People like working at New Origin. (not quite like spaceX.....) 'Strakes' on NG help glide on re-entry. NG needs to be robust to launch in 95% of weather conditions. This will help with launch delays and just generally launching on time. NG is so big to be robust and reusable. BE-4 designed for 100 reuses (not expected to actually fly that much, overdesigned on purpose) NG numbers a conservative estimate. Better to over-preform. 2 stage for commercial and LEO payloads. 3 stage for exploration and further afield. 6 landing gear so if one breaks it can still land. LNG (Liquid natural gas) chosen because: it is green, commercially available, 1/3 to 1/4 the cost of RP-1 (especially beneficial for tons of testing). BE-4 expected to get down to 40% thrust. NG expected to fly 2nd half of 2020. Launch site refurbishment of an Atlas launch pad underway at CCAFS, just outside KSC. 1st and 2nd stage and fairings built onsite at the new factory. (not engines) Giant florida factory: 750,000 sq ft, 250 million dollars, 27 months start to finish, will be done this December! Horizontal integration like spaceX. goal of 12 missions per year by three years of flying. But want to be able to fly multiple times a month if necessary. Interesting this is so little. (compared to SpaceX who are constantly talking about launching every two weeks) As was speculated, landing will be on a ship that is moving because it is more stable. Mission control at the factory.
 Q&A:
 Ship will be autonomous! Undisclosed patented system to maneuver the NS in space. (WTF does this mean?) 5 degrees of gimbal on BE-4 3 stage NG could fly the Blue Moon Lander NG will be easier to land than NS. Because it has more mass/harder to tip over. Elon said a similar thing with ITS being easier to land. We intend to be 'market-leading' in terms of cost per kg.

Apollo13 пишет:

BE-4 was upgraded from 400k lbf to 550 at ULA's request On the BE-4 engine: "...it is now sitting on the test stand in Texas and getting ready to hot fire that engine in the coming weeks." Eutelsat is first customer for New Glenn, also OneWeb has booked 5 flights Landing area on ship will be 50m x 60m Landing burn begins at altitude of 3000 ft

[Salo]

http://spacenews.com/blue-origin-suffers-be-4-testing-mishap/

Blue Origin suffers BE-4 testing mishap
by Jeff Foust — May 15, 2017
 A Blue Origin BE-4 engine powerpack undergoing testing on a company test stand. Credit: Blue Origin
 
WASHINGTON — Blue Origin said May 14 it suffered a setback in the development of its BE-4 engine with the loss of a key hardware component of the engine in a recent test.
In a pair of tweets late May 14, the company said it lost "a set of powerpack test hardware" for the BE-4 on a test stand at the company's West Texas test site in a May 13 incident. "Not unusual during development," the company said, offering no other details about what caused the accident, or any damage to the test stand or other equipment.

Blue Origin‏ @blueorigin
We lost a set of powerpack test hardware on one of our BE-4 test stands yesterday. Not unusual during development.
 15:19 - 14 мая 2017 г.

The powerpack is a key component of a rocket engine that includes the turbomachinery that pumps propellant — in this case, liquid oxygen and methane — through the engine. The BE-4 powerpack generates about 75,000 horsepower, getting its power from a small engine called a preburner.
Blue Origin has been testing BE-4 powerpack systems since 2014, according to past company statements. The company has been gearing up for tests of the full BE-4 engine, once planned to begin in 2016 but which company officials had more recently been saying would begin in the coming weeks. The company announced in March that it had shipped the first BE-4 engine from its headquarters near Seattle to its Texas test site.
The company, in the second of two tweets about the accident, said it would bounce back quickly. "That's why we always set up our development programs to be hardware rich. Back into testing soon," it stated.

 Blue Origin‏ @blueorigin
That's why we always set up our development programs to be hardware rich. Back into testing soon. #GradatimFerociter
  15:20 - 14 мая 2017 г.

Blue Origin executives have emphasized that "hardware-rich" nature of its testing program even before this mishap. "We really wanted to go into the test program hardware-rich," Rob Meyerson, president of Blue Origin, told reporters at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs April 5. The company, he said, had two test stands for testing either the full BE-4 engine or its powerpack.
At that time, he said, the first BE-4 engine was on a test stand and the second and third engines would be shipping "soon" to the test site. "We want to have three engines in the queue," he said.
"We believe with two stands, a hardware-rich program, lots of sensors and great tools and great people, we can move through the test program quite rapidly," he said.
Blue Origin is developing the BE-4 engine both for the company's own New Glenn orbital launch vehicle as well as for use on United Launch Alliance's planned Vulcan rocket. While full-scale testing of the BE-4 has been delayed, Tory Bruno, president and chief executive of ULA, said in an April 5 interview at the Space Symposium that the engine was still the leading candidate for use on Vulcan.
"They've been testing powerpack at full scale and doing quite well," Bruno said in that interview, along with tests of the engine's preburner. "Both have been going very well, and they've been tuning their design and that tuning finds its way into the full-scale [engine]."
The other option for ULA's Vulcan is the AR1 engine under development by Aerojet Rocketdyne, which uses a more conventional combination of liquid oxygen and kerosene propellants. Aerojet announced May 8 that the AR1 recently completed its critical design review, several days after reporting successful tests of a full-scale preburner for that engine. Those milestones, the company said, keep the engine on schedule for certification in 2019.