Astrobotic Technology reportedly broke a hotfire record on a more efficient rocket engine designed for cislunar and logistics missions, the company announced today.
The continuous burn of 300 seconds (five minutes) with one of their two Chakram engine prototypes was one of several tests the company conducted at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL.
The company says the Chakram design—a rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE)—could cut costs and increase capacity on future missions—especially cislunar ones.
Supersonic spin: RDREs get their thrust by generating supersonic detonation waves that whip around the outer body of the engine, which is shaped like a ring. The controlled detonation could boost engine efficiency up to 15% while also reducing engine size, according to Astrobotic.
While the tech is not yet space-proven, the terrestrial engine demo worked “flawlessly,” Travis Vazansky, Astrobotic’s RDRE program manager, said in a statement. The NASA-supported hotfires were done on a budget of less than $1.5M.
To the Moon? Astrobotic received NASA CLPS contracts to launch spacecraft to the Moon using the company’s Peregrine and Griffin landers.
- The company’s first Moon attempt, Peregrine Mission-1, reentered Earth’s atmosphere in 2024 after several issues prevented a lunar landing attempt.
- Astrobotic will try again this year with its Griffin Mission-1, which will carry payloads including Astrobotic’s FLIP rover, and OIP Sensor Systems’ LandCam-X for ESA.
The company’s RDRE doesn’t have a flight date, but Astrobotic said it eventually plans to add the engine tech to Griffin, two reusable rockets called Xodiac and Xogdar, and a future OTV.
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