How NASA Reinvented the Rocket Engine

Links to everything I do:

Credits:
Writer/Narrator: Brian McManus
Writer: Josi Gold
Editor: Dylan Hennessy
Animator: Mike Ridolfi
Animator: Eli Prenten
Sound: Graham Haerther
Thumbnail: Simon Buckmaster

References:

Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images
Thank you to AP Archive for access to their archival footage.

Thank you to my patreon supporters: Abdullah Alotaibi, Adam Flohr, Henning Basma, Hank Green, William Leu, Tristan Edwards, Ian Dundore, John & Becki Johnston. Nevin Spoljaric, Jason Clark, Thomas Barth, Johnny MacDonald, Stephen Foland, Alfred Holzheu, Abdulrahman Abdulaziz Binghaith, Brent Higgins, Dexter Appleberry, Alex Pavek, Marko Hirsch, Mikkel Johansen, Hibiyi Mori. Viktor Józsa, Ron Hochsprung

[RahulAhire]

Saw the M1 abram tank video. Your animation have come a long way from blue graph paper design to now realistic 3D renders. I really loved it

[Penultimeat]

When you started describing the needs for the injectors, I new you were gonna mention Tesla Valves! Very cool that they have some palpable practical use case.

[clapetto]

I need to make a small correction: at 8:05 the compressor is actually the segment 2-3, as it increases pressure while reducing volume. Point 1-2 is actually a fictitious transformation used for calculation purposes from what I remember, as it's not really a cycle sincr the exhaust is not really cooled down and then reused.

[bencabot]

This video was really cool to watch! I work in a lab with one of the guys who designed the NASA RDE, and one of my other coworkers is cited here, it's awesome to see detonation combustors getting some more attention on YouTube!

[SugarFreeEngineering]

Excellent video; I actually did my Master's research and published a paper on GRCop-42 in partnership with NASA. It's a fascinating material and has a ton of promise. We looked at 3D printing it using high-pressure cold spray deposition, bonding it with another super alloy called HR-1, and doing many experiments with various ways to heat treat them. I'd be happy to answer any questions, and link my article or video of the my presentation. Either way, this video made my day and certainly brought a smile to my face. Thanks for the great work!

[zemperus]

Another 3D printed, Oxide-dispersed (ODS) sintered composite alloy named GRX-810 is also developed for NASA. Very cool stuff, material engineering.

[thepilotman]

It's actually crazy that I watched the full version of SmarterEveryDay with the Saturn V walkaround and they spent a lot of time discussing the engine baffels and problems before hand. Stuff like this proves there is another way to do things. re-inventing the wheel is sometimes the way to go!

[sfoti]

The best April Fool's day video is a completely normal video that makes the viewer question everything the entire time.

[johnslugger]

*We researched this in 1982 when working at Aerojet/Rocketdyne and they are very LOUD engines (((())). We also dropped lead pellets into the flow and come up with a hybrid machine-gun that shot 25, 000 rounds of .30 Cal. per second at 3100 feet per second. The US Navy still thinks this type of "Detonation Gun" could take down hyper-sonic war heads by creating a near solid wall of high speed flying lead or ceramic pellets.*

[Hyo]

They have progressed so much, omg! I’m hyped to possibly see a RDE being used for space missions during my lifetime. Thanks for the video ❤

[treymoore]

I’m a minute in to this video and can’t tell if it was intentionally published on April 1 or not…

[TheImmortuary]

It didnt look like the area under the curve was that much different, but then I realised the x axis was logrithmic.

[Tron-Jockey]

Did anyone else notice that that design of the special inlet/injector valves (referred to as fluid diodes), shown at 10:54, is a version of Nikola Tesla's "fixed-geometry passive check valve designed to allow a fluid to flow preferentially in one direction, without moving parts", patented in 1920, U.S. Patent 1, 329, 559. I believe this was confirmed by UPI Science News article, May 17, 2021

[CinemaDemocratica]

"Sir we've got a problem with explosions happening in the combustion chamber."
"Have you tried setting off explosions in the combustion chamber?"

[yaseen]

How exciting! I was fortunate enough to work on a detonation research project for my master's thesis at university. It took us something like 7 different tests over a month long test campaign to finally get a detonation, very finnicky stuff!

[kaitlyn__L]

Thank you very much for explaining how this integrates the aerospike nozzle. I saw it in the test units, and wondered if this was actually the next phase in the aerospike research they were doing a couple decades ago, or whether this was something totally different. I can now see it’s kind of both — you could do an aerospike engine without rotating detonation, but as you point out they are natural partners.

[AniMageNeBy]

Interesting! Heard about this some years ago, but back then it was considered not viable because of instability. Guess they're slowly getting better.

[virutech]

Absolutely gorgeous visuals, just WOW

[Marisa_arts]

I'm not sure if I said this bey, but I was making and thinking about this type of engine for my sci-fi settings and I'm glad that I wasn't the only one who have since it is really cool and just a system we need!

Other than that it is an Aerospike Bell Cone Thruster combo with the spike being just exposed enough for the flames to reach.

Though there are some issues I see when it comes to Space use and that is the fact that we don't have an atmosphere to keep the pressure intact. One solution I thought about was to make the cone retractable to get a traditional bell thruster but still keep the normal pulse feature so it can still be on trajectory. Other than that, fusion or ion systems can help with that once there.

[ShireIO]

11:01 This is a Tesla valve, it's been around for over a century. Fascinating it's seeing use again in such cutting edge technology.