Cryogenic Rocket Engine

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Cryogenic Rocket Engine
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Meaning of Cryogenics

• In physics, cryogenics is the study of the
  production of very low temperature(below -150 C,
  -238 F or 123 K) and the behavior of materials
  at those temperatures .

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Cryogenic technology

• Cryogenic technology involves the use of rocket
  propellants at extremely low temperatures.
• The combination of liquid oxygen and liquid
  hydrogen offers the highest energy efficiency for
  rocket engines that need to produce large amounts
  of thrust.
• Oxygen remains a liquid only at temperatures
  below minus 183 Celsius and hydrogen at below
  minus 253 Celsius.

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History of Cryogenic Technology

• The United States was the first country to
  develop cryogenic rocket engines.
• with RL-10 engines, registered its first
  successful flight in 1963 and is still used
  on the Atlas V rocket.
• Then The Japanese LE-5 engine flew in 1977
  ,French HM-7 in 1979 , Chinese YF-73 in 1984 .
• The Soviet Union, first country to put a
  satellite and later a human in space,
  successfully launched a rocket with a cryogenic
  engine only in 1987.

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The first operational cryogenic engine
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Cont.
(Russian) - N 1
(AMERICAN) - ATLAS V
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Cont.

• To India the U.S., Japan and France would either
  not provide the technology or do so only at an
  exorbitant price.
• The 11D56 cryogenic engine had been developed for
  one of the upper stages of the mammoth N1 rocket,
  the Soviet equivalent of Saturn V. But after four
  successive launch failures, the N1 project was
  scrapped and its engines were mothballed.
• The deal violated the Missile Technology Control
  Regime, which was intended to prevent the spread
  of missile-related technology, and fell foul of
  the U.S. laws meant to enforce its provisions.
  Despite warnings from within the organization,
  ISRO opted to go ahead with the import. In May
  1992, the U.S. imposed sanctions on ISRO and
  Glavkosmos. A year later, Russia, which received
  the contract after the break-up of the Soviet
  Union, backed out of the deal.

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Cont.

• ISRO then had no option but to develop the
  technology on its own.
• At the time, ISRO gave the impression that much
  of the technology had already been acquired and
  further development would be quick.
• A GSLV with an indigenous cryogenic engine would
  be ready to fly in about four years, Chairman
  U.R. Rao told in July 1993. Instead, it has
  taken 16 years.

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Working

• It involves a complicated staged combustion
  cycle' to increase the engine efficiency.
• Hydrogen is partially burnt with a little oxygen
  in a gas generator. The hot gases drive a
  turbo-pump and are then injected at high pressure
  into the thrust chamber where the rest of oxygen
  is introduced and full combustion takes place.
• Before going to the gas generator, the incredibly
  chilly liquid hydrogen is used to cool the thrust
  chamber where temperatures rise to over 3,0000
  Celsius when the engine is fired.

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Production Manufacturing

• The Indian cryogenic engine is produced by Godrej
  and the Hyderabad-based MTAR Technologies working
  together as a consortium.
• Instead of ISRO first mastering the technology
  and transferring it to industry, the two
  companies were involved from the start and even
  the early prototypes were built by them.

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Why didn't the cryogenic engine of India ignite?

• The GSLV D3, which lifted off well from
  Sriharikota on Thursday, April 15, 2010 later
  plunged into the sea as the indigenous cryogenic
  engine failed to ignite.
• The vehicle lifted off as planned at 4.27 p.m.
  and its performance was normal up to the end of
  its second stage till 293 seconds from the
  lift-off.
• An authoritative former ISRO official said It
  is very clear that the cryogenic engine did not
  ignite when you look at the curve of the
  vehicle's trajectory
• the vehicle developed problems when the cryogenic
  upper stage should have ignited 304 seconds after
  the lift-off, and it fell into the sea

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Advantages

• High Energy per unit mass
• Propellants like oxygen
  and hydrogen in liquid form give very high
  amounts of energy per unit mass due to which the
  amount of fuel to be carried aboard the rockets
  decreases.
• Clean Fuels
• Hydrogen and oxygen are extremely
  clean fuels. When they combine, they give out
  only water. This water is thrown out of the
  nozzle in form of very hot vapour. Thus the
  rocket is nothing but a high burning steam engine
• Economical
• Use of oxygen and hydrogen as fuels is
  very economical, as liquid oxygen costs less than
  gasoline.

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Drawbacks

• Boil off Rate
• Highly reactive gases
• Leakage
• Hydrogen Embrittlement
• Zero Gravity conditions

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The next generation of the Rocket Engines

• All rocket engines burn their fuel to generate
  thrust . If any other engine can generate enough
  thrust, that can also be used as a rocket engine
• There are a lot of plans for new engines that the
  NASA scientists are still working with. One of
  them is the Xenon ion Engine. This engine
  accelerate ions or atomic particles to extremely
  high speeds to create thrust more efficiently.
  NASA's Deep Space-1 spacecraft will be the first
  to use ion engines for propulsion.
• There are some alternative solutions like Nuclear
  thermal rocket engines, Solar thermal rockets,
  the electric rocket etc.
• We are looking forward that in the near future
  there will be some good technology to take us
  into space

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Any Queries
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