Why SpaceX's Raptor is the best engine ever made...?

Why SpaceX's Raptor is the best engine ever made...?
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If someone asks "Is the SpaceX Raptor the world's most powerful rocket engine?"
We can immediately say "No."
The most powerful rocket engine ever flow are the solid rocket booster motors of the space shuttle at 1200 tons of thrust each.
The most powerful liquid propellant engine is the RD170 a 4-chamber engine flow on the Russian Energia boosters producing about 750 tons of thrust each.
But SpaceX's Raptor is definitely the best engine ever made!
Why?
Find out in today's episode of Alpha Tech:

SpaceX Raptor has been in development for the better part of a decade, going through a number of iterations. At its core, it’s like other engines, burning chemical fuel to produce thrust.
However, the significance of the Raptor engine was not only on the thrust number but a few other important things:

The Raptor engine is designed for the use of deep cryogenic propellants—fluids cooled to near their freezing points, rather than using the cryo-propellants at their boiling points as it is more typical for cryogenic rocket engines. The use of subcooled propellants increases propellant density to allow more propellant mass to be stored within the vehicle’s tanks. Engine performance is also increased with subcooled propellants. Specific impulse is increased, and the risk of cavitation at inputs to the turbopumps is reduced due to the higher propellant fuel mass flow rate per unit of power generated. The oxidizer to fuel ratio of the engine would be approximately 3.8 to 1, as stated by Elon Musk.

Musk revealed that their target performance for Raptor was a vacuum specific impulse of 382 s (3,750 m/s), with a thrust of 3 MN (670,000 lbf), a chamber pressure of 300 bar (30 Mpa; 4,400 psi), and an expansion ratio of 150 for the vacuum-optimized variant.
Why SpaceX's Raptor is the best engine ever made...?

[professordanfurmanek]

Absolutely outstanding video! Great balance of technical information with common sense applications.

[odacruz]

This is becoming my favorite SpaceX channel

[gustavinus]

The pace.... the pace... just when the whole world got lazy AF, SpaceX increased the pace into something unbelievable...

[kevinreeves]

love, the beautiful work you all do very nice

[gitanod]

Here's a thought that just maybe Elons' engineers have thought of ( or maybe they have and this idea is just not possible )

How about a rocket system that has one BIG fuel and oxidizer duel turbo pump. Basically the same as the turbo pumps in each rocket engine only much MUCH BIGGER ) This pump would serve the same function as all the little ones on each individual rocket engine, feeding the fuel and oxidizer to all the engines thus eliminating the need for each engine to have it's own pump(s). This main pump would be a monster and cost a pretty penny but money and weight would be saved because each rocket engine would not need its own fuel and oxidizer pump. One undesirable aspect is that the fuel and oxidizer lines from the monster pump to each engine would have to be able to take the higher pressures than the lines currently in use.

Just a thought that's been rolling around in my head every time I see all those engines hanging off the bottom of the super heavy first stage

[JontyLevine]

0:07 is a Space Shuttle engine, but it's the _wrong_ Space Shuttle Engine. Looks more like an RS25 to me than a solid fuel booster.
And speaking of solid fuel boosters, the SLS boosters are more powerful still, even though they've yet to fly.

[vanguard]

Raptor is right up there, if not the best. Combustion chamber pressure is remarkable. The SSME is close. F-1 has an historical place in a list of best rocket engines ever. BE-4 cannot even be considered at this point.

[uuzds]

SX300 What? Super Alloy. I believe you meant Inconel . . pronounced as Inc. (as in the abbreviation for incorporated), Caw, Nell. Inconel, a Super Allow whose name is trademarked w/ Special Metals Corporation, has many applications in Aviation. Mainly in extreme High Temp recip engine or turbine components, such as spark plugs or hot section injector nozzles. It's not cheap and hard to machine/fabricate due to it's hardness and High temp properties. And of coarse, SpaceX has their own formulation of this metal produced just for them. The same is true with their Stainless Steel used for making StarShips, the standard 304L SS blend has been tweaked for welding and structural purposes.

[wes]

There is a world of difference between a milliNewton and a megaNewton. Please get it right.

[wes]

Help me understand why rocket engine thrust is often given as foot-pounds force, when I think it should be pounds force, Newtons, or kilograms force.

[helderalmeida]

So SpaceX is going to orbit by farting all the way up lol

[billcichoke]

Simply brilliant...if it ever worked. Until THAT happens, it's like EVs and public schools...keep throwing money and hype at it saying success is just around the corner and the next chunk of government money.

[farmergiles]

Raptor is the *best engine* ever made? I'm not a rocket engineer, and couldn't say on the technical merits. But I can recognize hype. Looked at another way, you can say that the Raptor hasn't been made *yet* . That's because it's still in development, still requires static firing in combination within the rocket design it's intended for, hasn't been proved in flight, hasn't been reused in multiple flights enough to know anything about prolonged durability and reliability, ....

This is not to talk it down. *It's in development.* It will have to prove itself in practice, or it will not ever become "the best". This is not a technicality! It is a flight requirement, a must for mission application, a must for mission success, an absolutely critical life-support element for the missions that are projected.

What ought to be said, and can be said legitimately, is that it is the most complicated and the most flexible design ever, with the *most potential* of any engine under development to satisfy the far more ambitious missions that we are looking to happen, far more ambitious than any missions ever done. Isn't that good enough?

[RRCS]

These videos would be much better if they got the units right! Pounds, not foot-pounds, and MegaNewtons, not milliNewtons.

[markoverton]

This booster for the starship launch, has me concerned, after resent test burns with just a few engines has had the exhaust trench breakup its heat shield and damage engines, if any one reading this has ever put an acetylene torch at full chat to concrete surface you will understand the problem, I can see how all the engines will work with all that heat and huge volume of water in
such a closed space, as water increases its volume by 1500 time once turned to steam, call me daft I don’t think it will happen, it most likely will lift then engines will be overcome by the I call it’s sturbulance, on such a scale the lift trust will be compromised, I prey lam wrong as success of this first flight must work, the catching of the return booster will be awesome, wishing the space x team a mass of luck 👍

[francisdavis]

Roger: That means the narrated doesn't really know what he's saying. Specific impulse can be in 'seconds' (lbf-sec/lbm) or exhaust velocity in meters per second or ft/sec. Isp is the primary performance driver.

[SkydiveHake]

Looking at the accomplishments of spacex, makes me think we should break apart nasa due to their inability to evolve.

[christopherlemfors]

HI ELON, ME CHRIS, LOVE WHAT YOU ARE

[SteveWalkey]

A Raptor a day keeps some Doctors in pay!

[jimfife]

Yeah, and thrust isn't measured in foot-pounds.