4 ms·
It blew my mind that just the fuel pump for just one engine has a power rated in the tens of thousands of horsepower/kW.
by foobarian 2y ago
It blew my mind that just the fuel pump for just one engine has a power rated in the tens of thousands of horsepower/kW.
- schmidtleonard 2y agoYep, those pumps have to push the propellant into the explosion harder than the explosion pushes back. That takes serious power!
- KennyBlanken 2y agoNot only that - spacex uses the highest chamber pressures, enormously high compared to almost any other engine.
- foobarian 2y agoSo thinking where the leverage is - is it like hydraulics where the input cross-section is a lot smaller than the output cross-section? That's kinda what the nozzle looks like.
- schmidtleonard 2y agoYes, but also the propellant explodes after being pumped in, so you pump in a tiny volume and exhaust an enormous volume.
- aaronblohowiak 2y agoYou pump in a huge volume and exhaust an inconceivable volume
- schmidtleonard 2y agoThat's fair, lol.
- dotancohen 2y agoNo, because the fuel is not a working fluid pushing a piston. All the "leverage" is at the turbopump impeller blade.