Questions tagged [cryogenics]
Questions regarding use, design, storage, consumption, or other considerations of materials, propellants, systems, or biological samples stored and/or used under very low temperatures, often under larger than ambient pressure.
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Why are LOx plumbing not insulated?(ref: Huzel and Huang)
In the book Modern Engineering for Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines, the following excerpt appear in chapter 9 - Interconnecting Components and Mounts:
The liquid-oxygen lines were not ...
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Air-launching an Electron-like LOX-based rocket from a plane; technical challenges?
@GremlinWranger's answer and comments to the question Is it coincidence that the Electron has very similar dimensions to the Pegasus? motivates my asking for the technical challenges to air-launching ...
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Insulation used in the plumbing line of the actual rockets
While using the pipes for plumbing of the liquid propellants at pretty low temperature because of which ice form on the line if not insulated or poorly insulated, which can lead to liquid to gas ...
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How does SpaceX plan to deal with boiloff on the trip to Mars?
Both BFR (Big Falcon Rocket) booster and BFS (Big Falcon Spaceship) are to run on Raptor engines, fueled with liquid methane and liquid oxygen - cryofuels.
The trip to Mars will take at least a couple ...
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What is the advantage of using Helium over Nitrogen when used for pressurising LOx?
In this Twitter post of the plumbing line diagram(left half) by LauncherSpace, one can notice that Helium is used for pressurising LOx while Nitrogen is used for pressurising Kerosene.
Why the ...
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Why do Ariane rockets not have ice break off on liftoff?
In a recent question asked here, it was asked what debris falling from a Rocket Lab Electron Rocket was during launch.
e.g.:
The answer, was that it was ice that had formed after cryogenic fuel/...
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Filling the propellants in the rocket tanks
After putting the rocket on the launch pad the propellants are filled.
But before that how to maintain the lower temperatures of the tanks so that when filling the propellants don't boil off?
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Cryogenic engines till date
How many cryogenic engines are there till date.
Names are mostly necessary.
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How was the Centaur stage fueled in the Space Shuttle?
The Space Shuttle had the ability to launch Centaur booster stages stored inside of the Shuttle during launch. How was this stage fueled, being fueled with cryogenic fuels?
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Falcon-centaur or Falcon-ACES?
For very high delta-V missions (eg outer solar system) the Falcon family really starts to suffer from that fact that its second stage is still using RP-1/LO2 rather than LH2/LO2 with a consequently ...
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ULA's plan for LH2/LOX 2nd stage that can maintain propellant for an extended period of time?
Business Insider's (long) article SpaceX's biggest rival has a 'genius' plan to cut its rocket launch costs more than 70% contains the statements sourced from ULA's CEO Tory Bruno:
Vulcan should ...
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Propellant boil-off in zero G
The Falcon Heavy test flight included a demonstration of capability to coast for several hours and then re-light the second stage for a final burn. During the coast, the cryo propellants are absorbing ...
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Is ISRO Making a Methane Engine?
I'd read some stray comment on the internet claiming that ISRO is working on a methane-LOX engine, just as a technology demonstrator. Is this true?
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The principle behind regenerative cooling?
In regenerative cooling the fuel is passed around the nozzle before being pumped into the combustion chamber right? I don't really see how this affects cooling itself, since the heat captured around ...
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Liquid Helium (4.2K) sealed, then raised to sub-LOX temperature (~70K) - what is the new pressure?
In this question there is discussion of the large differences in temperature between liquid helium-4, subcooled liquid oxygen (sub-LOX) and cold kerosene (RP-1). Approximate temperatures are 4.2K, ~...
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