HELSINKI — China is progressing with a program to develop full-flow staged-combustion-cycle methane engines to power its reusable Long March 9 super heavy-lift launcher.
Work to develop full-flow staged-combustion-cycle methane-liquid oxygen rocket engines producing 200 tons of thrust includes progress on overall design and components.
Testing includes firing prototype and scaled components similar to igniters, gas generators and thrust chambers.
Authors belonging to the Xi’an Aerospace Propulsion Institute outline the progress made by China on these and other methane-liquid oxygen engines in a recent article. The institute is the main liquid propulsion rocket engine design unit under CASC.
Clusters of 26 of the reusable engines will power the primary stage of China’s Long March 9 super heavy-lift launcher, based on designs presented earlier by officials from the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. (CASC), China’s major space contractor. CASC is known to be targeting 2033 for a primary test flight on the huge rocket.
The paper notes research began in China within the Eighties and that 10-ton and 80-ton-thrust methalox engines have now been developed. The latter have undergone successful hot fire tests and mark advancements in engine reliability and reusability.
The event of the full-flow staged-combustion-cycle methalox engines will support China’s plans for future large-scale deep space exploration, including a Mars landing and other objectives.
The paper states that core indicators make the engine comparable to the SpaceX Raptor engine that powers Super Heavy/Starship. Because the world’s second full-flow staged-combustion-cycle methalox engine it’s superior to Blue Origin’s BE-4 and other domestic and international methane engines, the paper claims. The latter engines have the next thrust, nonetheless.
The authors note challenges ahead nonetheless. Full-flow staged-combustion-cycle engines can provide high-thrust and high efficiency, in addition to advantages when it comes to reliability and reusability. But challenges include complex system configuration, difficulties in integrated layout and final assembly, and controlling the ignition process.
In addition they state that the country’s foundations for fully developing these engines stays relatively weak. Efforts in related technologies, they are saying, must be strengthened to finish the complex and technically difficult project. The goal of low price, highly reliable and rapidly reusable engines is nonetheless seen as key to national objectives. It could grow to be an iconic technology and a leapfrog advance for China’ space sector, based on the article.
The paper also highlights progress on methalox engines made by Chinese industrial entities. Noted are the Mingfeng-1 engine developed by CASIC, Landspace’s Tianque engines which power the Zhuque-2 and the variable thrust JD-1/Focus-1 engine for iSpace’s reusable Hyperbola rocket series. Longyun engines developed by engine maker Jiuzhou Yunjian, and Aerospace Propulsion’s Canglong engines are also listed.
Landspace, one in every of the earliest firms to emerge after China opened up the space sector to personal capital, operates Zhuque-2 the primary and thus far only methalox rocket to achieve orbit. The startup is now also planning a chrome steel methalox rocket. Named Zhuque-3, it’ll be able to sending 20 tons to low Earth orbit when expendable, or 16.5 tons reusable.
Meanwhile one other early mover, iSpace, recently performed a hop test with a test stage for its methalox Hyperbola rockets. It plans to follow up with a kilometer-level test within the near future.
The breakthroughs in methane engines inside China—in addition to the progress in the US, and SpaceX’s demonstration of reusability—have led to a change in long-term direction of China’s space transportation plans.
The Long March 9 super heavy-lift rocket was, based on plans going back to 2011, to be powered by 500-ton-thrust kerosene-liquid oxygen engines. These engines are at a far more advanced stage of testing. They’d nonetheless be the idea of an expendable launch system.
Newer designs presented in 2022 and 2023 show a Long March 9 design using methalox engines with no boosters. Yet another distant variant resembles the Super Heavy/Starship stack.
China can be developing a three-stage heavy-lift rocket specifically to send Chinese astronauts to the moon by 2030. That rocket might be powered by upgraded kerolox engines based on the Long March 5. The primary stage of that and a two-stage LEO version will potentially be recoverable and reusable.