Kalistan

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New Dawn Liquid Fuel Rocket produces 4.5 tons of thrust



ISCA builds first protoype Liquid fuel Rocket engine
"New Dawn" Engine uses alcohol/LOX fuel mixture to produce thrust
Spencer Space and Test Center, Duchy of Suldanor
January 31, 5564

The Imperial Space and Communications Agency (ISCA) has announced the first successful tests of a liquid fuel rocket engine capable of producing 9000 pounds of thrust.  "This engine is the largest rocket engine produced to date in the Empire," said Propulsions Division lead Dr. Pierre Chang.  "This engine is quite a bit larger than anything else we have produced anywhere in the Empire, and utilizes some of the initial designs returned from Beiteynu, combined with technology we already possessed for rocket artillery.  The engine uses a combination of fuel alcohol and liquid oxygen injected into a combustion chamber and then ignited.  The hot gas escapes out the nozzle to produce the thrust."

The prototype engine is not strong enough yet to lift a rocket capable of reaching even the edge of space.  "But this successful test is a significant step forward," said Dr. Chang.  "We have successfully demonstrated the correct fuel to oxygen mixture to prevent spontaneous combustion of the fuel tank, and have developed a successful vacuum insulation to create a cryogenic tank to keep the Oxygen in liquid form.  This takes us several steps toward the fabrication of our first actual rockets."

Liquid fuel rockets have significant advantages over solid fuel rockets.  "Though liquid fuel rockets won't provide as great a thrust as the solid fuel counterparts, one of the best advantages of them are that we can start and stop a liquid fuel rocket," said Dr. Chang.  "Once you ignite solid rocket fuel it goes until it burns itself out.  But the you can shut off a liquid rocket with the flip of a switch.  This will not only allow us to address matters if things don't go as planned, but it will also allow us to reuse rocket bodies.  You can also throttle thrust in a liquid fuel rocket to help lift heavier payloads.  They do require additional systems but, this tradeoff doesn't offset the advantages provided by the liquid fuel design."

The first prototype burned on Spencer Space and Test Center for about 10 seconds and produced the equivalent of 9,043 pounds of thrust.  "This is about half of what we will need to produce a rocket capable of making it to the very edges of space," said Dr. Chang.  "Obviously more testing is needed, but after a series of failures over the past few months, it is nice to finally get a win."  Chang says that new variations on this design will be augmented by additional practical information and schematics supplied by Kalistani scientists who are currently studying in Beiteynu.  "At our current rate, we are still several years away from a working prototype rocket.  But today we are closer than we were yesterday."

Below is a video of the test firing of the rocket engine prototype called New Dawn. this week on Spencer Space and Test Center.

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ8lm6LtN8I]