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Prometheus (rocket engine)

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The Prometheus rocket engine is a European Space Agency development effort to create a reusable methane-fueled rocket engine potentially for the Ariane 6 or its successor rocket.[1]

The engine is aimed to be reusable with substantially lower costs than traditional engines manufactured in Europe. The cost goal is to manufacture the Prometheus engine at one-tenth the cost of the Ariane 5's first-stage engine.[2]

This engine is to cost no more than 1 million euros.

  • Some parts will be made by 3d printing.
  • It will use the Gas-generator cycle.[3]
  • It will have a thrust of 100 tons.
  • Combustion chamber pressure will be approximately 100 bar (10,000 kPa).[4]
  • The engine is made to be reusable 3 to 5 times.

History

The European Space Agency began funding the Prometheus development in June 2017 with €85 million provided through an ESA capital mechanism called the Future Launchers Preparatory Program.[1]

Patrick Bonguet, who leads the Ariane 6 launch vehicle program at ArianeSpace, indicated in June 2017 that it is possible the Prometheus engine could find a use on a future version of the expendable Ariane 6 launcher. In this scenario, a "streamlined version of Vulcain rocket engine called Vulcain 2.1 would have the same performance at Vulcain 2. The expendable Ariane 6 is expected to make an initial launch in 2020.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Henry, Caleb (5 October 2017). "France's Prometheus reusable engine becomes ESA project, gets funding boost". SpaceNews. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  2. ^ a b Henry, Caleb (8 January 2018). "France, Germany studying reusability with a subscale flyback booster". SpaceNews. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  3. ^ Iannetti, A.; Girard, N.; Tchou-kien, D.; Bonhomme, C.; Ravier, N; Edeline, E. (July 2017). PROMETHEUS, A LOX/LCH4 REUSABLE ROCKET ENGINE (PDF). 7th European Conference for Aeronautics and Space Sciences. doi:10.13009/EUCASS2017-537. Retrieved 2 March 2019.
  4. ^ https://www.eucass.eu/doi/EUCASS2017-537.pdf
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