Re: Engine design breakthrough

On Sat, 17 Apr 2004 [email protected] wrote:
> Breakthrough in long lived rocket engines:
> http://www.spacedaily.com/news/rocketscience-04j.html

This is actually a perfect example of the NASA Way of Doing Things:  make
the problem artificially hard, and then struggle for years to solve it. 
(And if you eventually do, issue a press release claiming a breakthrough.)

Gary Hudson once observed that no part of the RL10 gets hotter than about
350degC in operation.  So it's hardly surprising that DC-X's RL10s lasted
for DC-X's entire career, a dozen flights and many more static firings,
with no major maintenance.

True, engine walls that see extremely harsh conditions have limited lives,
deteriorating in various ways.  The fix is to design your engines better. 

                                                          Henry Spencer
                                                       [email protected]