Cryogenic Rocket
Engine
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 .
Cryogenic technology
o Cryogenic technology involves the use of rocket propellants
at extremely low temperatures.
o The combination of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen offers
the highest energy efficiency for rocket engines that need to
produce large amounts of thrust.
o Oxygen remains a liquid only at temperatures below minus
183 Celsius and hydrogen at below minus 253 Celsius.
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.
The first operational cryogenic engine
(Russian) - N 1
(AMERICAN) - ATLAS V
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Advantages
High Energy per unit mass:
Propellants like oxygen andhydrogenin
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
Hydrogenand 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 andhydrogenas fuels is very
economical, as liquid oxygen costs less than gasoline.
Drawbacks:
Boil off Rate
Highly reactive gases
Leakage
Hydrogen Embrittlement
Zero Gravity conditions
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
