The TR-106 or low-cost pintle engine (LCPE) was a developmental
rocket engine designed by
TRW under the
Space Launch Initiative to reduce the cost of
launch services and space flight. Operating on
LOX/
LH2
Liquid hydrogen (LH2 or LH2) is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecular H2 form.
To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point of 33 K. However, for it to be in a fully liq ...
the engine had a thrust of 2892 kN, or 650,000 pounds, making it one of the most powerful engines ever constructed.
Overview
The goal of the development was to produce a large, low-cost, easy-to-manufacture booster engine. The design used a single element coaxial
pintle injector
The pintle injector is a type of propellant injector for a bipropellant rocket engine. Like any other injector, its purpose is to ensure appropriate flow rate and intermixing of the propellants as they are forcibly injected under high pressure into ...
, a robust type of injector. It also used ablative cooling of the combustion chamber and nozzle instead of the more costly to manufacture regenerative cooling.
The use of the pintle injector allows the engine thrust to be widely
throttleable, as was the case for the
lunar module descent engine
The descent propulsion system (DPS - pronounced 'dips') or lunar module descent engine (LMDE), internal designation VTR-10, is a variable-throttle hypergolic rocket engine invented by Gerard W. Elverum Jr. and developed by Space Technology Labo ...
.
Status
Tom Mueller was a lead engineer for development of the LCPE, a 650,000 lbf thrust LOX/LH2 engine.
In the summer of 2000, this LCPE was successfully hot fire tested at 100 percent of its rated thrust as well as at a 65 percent throttle condition at NASA's
John C. Stennis Space Center
The John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC) is a NASA rocket testing facility in Hancock County, Mississippi, United States, on the banks of the Pearl River at the Mississippi–Louisiana border. , it is NASA's largest rocket engine test facility. ...
in Mississippi.
TRW changed the
pintle injector
The pintle injector is a type of propellant injector for a bipropellant rocket engine. Like any other injector, its purpose is to ensure appropriate flow rate and intermixing of the propellants as they are forcibly injected under high pressure into ...
configuration three times during testing to explore the engine's performance envelope; engineers also replaced the ablative chamber once while the engine was on the test stand—demonstrating the LCPE's ease of operation.
Test results demonstrated that the engine was stable over a wide variety of thrust levels and propellant ratios.
Development of the engine was temporarily discontinued with the cancellation of the Space Launch Initiative.
In 2002 TRW was acquired by
Northrop Grumman and development of a LOX/RP-1 engine (
TR-107
The TR-107 was a developmental rocket engine designed in 2002 by Northrop Grumman for NASA and DoD funded Space Launch Initiative. Operating on LOX/RP-1 the engine was throttleable and had a thrust of at a chamber pressure of , making it one of ...
) continued, under contract to
NASA, for potential use on next-generation launch and space transportation vehicles.
Legacy
Tom Mueller became TRW vice president of propulsion. In 2002,
Elon Musk asked Mueller to join him as a founding member of SpaceX.
Technology lessons from the Low Cost Pintle Engine project were used in the development of the
SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal of ...
Merlin
Merlin ( cy, Myrddin, kw, Marzhin, br, Merzhin) is a mythical figure prominently featured in the legend of King Arthur and best known as a mage, with several other main roles. His usual depiction, based on an amalgamation of historic and le ...
engine. Mueller joined SpaceX in 2002, becoming its head of propulsion, along with other TRW staffers. The turbopump, meanwhile, was contracted to Barber-Nichols, Inc., which derived their pump from their work on the
FASTRAC
Formation Autonomy Spacecraft with Thrust, Relnav, Attitude and Crosslink (or FASTRAC) is a pair of nanosatellites (respectively named ''Sara-Lily'' and ''Emma'') developed and built by students at The University of Texas at Austin. The project ...
turbopump. After SpaceX accused Northrop Grumman, TRW's parent, of letting engineers supervising SpaceX under a Pentagon contract use that information on Northrop's own rocket technology, Northrop Grumman then sued for theft of trade secrets. The dueling suits were settled in early 2005.
See also
*
Raptor
Raptor or RAPTOR may refer to:
Animals
The word "raptor" refers to several groups of bird-like dinosaurs which primarily capture and subdue/kill prey with their talons.
* Raptor (bird) or bird of prey, a bird that primarily hunts and feeds on v ...
References
External links
TRW Engine Development, 2000, AIAA
{{Rocket engines
Rocket engines using hydrogen propellant
Rocket engines of the United States