Questions tagged [cryogenics]
Questions regarding use, design, storage, consumption, or other considerations of materials, propellants, systems, or biological samples stored and/or used under very low temperatures, often under larger than ambient pressure.
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Semi-Cryogenic HTP/LH2 engine?
Also see HTP as oxidizer for main propulsion
(for more info on history of H2O2/HTP in rocketry)
Note: HTP and H2O2 will be used interchangeably
I know the Black Arrow LV (The first orbital lipstick) ...
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Why is the hot part of Webb's MIRI cryocooler in the 300K area?
Longer wavelengths require cooler temperatures to detect efficiently. The MIRI detects all the way out to 25 μm and so needs to be cooled to 7 K.
Webb can passively cool down to 40 K with its sun-...
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Does a cryogenic liquid propellant engine exist capable of using multiple fuels?
For example, a rocket engine which can use both liquid methane and liquid hydrogen.
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Why is an inflatable balloon inside a fuel tank not used to prevent fuel from "sloshing around"?
After seeing all the Starship failures, having something with a membrane keep things in place seems like an obvious solution. Has it been considered or tested - or do we simply lack a material that is ...
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Why are propellant tanks filled from the bottom?
It seems that the norm is to (fast-) fill fuel and oxidiser tanks from the bottom. For example, on this drawing of the Saturn S-IC stage you can see the LOX and RP-1 fill valves at the bottom of the ...
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Cryogenic storage in Starship header tanks
Since Starship uses cold liquid oxygen and methane fuel in its header tanks, how will these cryogenic tanks been kept full and cold on long missions in space?
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How does the open expander cycle separate the fuel for the pump and combustion chamber? [closed]
I'm designing a single open cycle expander rocket engine using propane. However, I've been unable to find out whether or not the fuel is split into the turbine and combustion chamber before or after ...
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ULA's ACES upper stage with IVF - Why are they using internal combustion engines?
I recently read out about ULA's ACES (Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage) upper stage with IVF (Integrated Vehicle Fluids), which crazy as it sounds, has two six-cylinder engines developed by Roush that ...
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Falcon-9's subcooled LOX is continuously refrigerated in-situ, what about its subcooled RP-1?
@Uwe's answer to Why would sub-cooled LOX tanks need to “topped-off” until the last minute or so? explains how subcooled LOX is kept cold and dense by "in situ refrigeration"; helium is bubbled ...
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How is Cryogenic fuel kept... Cryogenic in rockets [duplicate]
How is cryogenic fuel & oxidizer kept at cryogenic temperatures in rockets? I am mostly interested in the first stage of launch vehicles rather than something like a Centaur that keeps hydrolox ...
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What is the record for LOX staying liquid in space?
Liquid oxygen can be used for breathing, for fuel cells, and as an oxidizer for propulsion. However, it is cryogenic, and will slowly boil off in storage, even in a spacecraft. What is the longest ...
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Why did SpaceX swap the LOX and CH4 tanks between Mk1 and SN1?
According to most sources, the Starship Mk.1 had its LOX main tank (not talking about the header tanks here) on top and its main methane tank below. But it seems the SN1 revision, and all subsequent ...
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How difficult is it to convert a hypergolic based Moon human lander to a cryogenic one?
Recently a study performed by Aerojet Rocketdyne indicated that in order to achieve a 2024 landing using storable propellants will be required. Given that NASA is looking to reduce program risk in any ...
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In a rocket engine, do the propellants come out as liquid or gas if they’re cryogenic?
My cousin and I were talking about this and we could not come to a conclusion. Obviously it is very hard to keep cryogenic propellants at a liquid with the temperatures involved, but if they ...
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Cryogenic systems in kwajalein Island- Spacex- falcon 1
Is the LOX (liquid oxygen) required for the falcon-1 launch transported or produced?
If transported, how?
If produced, did they set up a cryogenic oxygen plant in Kwajalein?
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How cryogenic oxygen was heated up for CM cabin repressurization?
In related question How was temperature and humidity maintained inside the Apollo mission capsules?
the basic concept of conditioning Apollo mission capsules environment is described.
After ...
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How do Expander Cycle Engines Inject Liquid Fuel During Startup?
My understanding is that the H2 in an expander-cycle engine is vaporized by the heat from the combustion chamber and nozzle wall. This is used to power a turbine and then get injected, in gas phase, ...
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Can anyone suggest me some resources for studying about the different types of cryogenic valves and their design aspects [closed]
Book titles, videos, articles or any other resource that I could refer
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Could in situ (in-rocket) evaporative cooling/refrigeration be used for methane or hydrogen cryogenic propellants?
@Uwe's excellent answer to the question Why would sub-cooled LOX tanks need to “topped-off” until the last minute or so? explains that the LOX is sub-cooled in situ within the rocket's tank using ...
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Why can’t cryogenic propellants be storable, at least on the ground, via refrigeration?
Cryogenic fuels (liquid hydrogen, liquid methane)1 and oxidisers (liquid oxygen)2 are the rocket propellants of choice where raw performance is the overriding concern, due to the very high performance ...
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How would a body be stored in a dark hole in the moon?
How well would the human body stay preserved if it was frozen while pressurized and vacuum sealed before being placed in a crater on the Moon? Would the temperature be more reliably stable on the moon ...
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LOX as annular heat sink
I'm thinking of my time spent working with cryostats. Liquid helium pot on the inside, and surrounded by a liquid nitrogen jacket. And the whole thing insulated with vacuum and superinsulation. (...
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What methods are proposed for storing cryogenic fuels (esp. hydrogen) in space for months or years?
Current Launch vehicles and upper stages must only keep their fuels for minutes or hours, so they are only insulated to keep boiloff to a few % per day - I've seen 21% per day quoted for Centaur on ...
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Cryogenic liquid pressurization resulting in overpressurized tank
I want to pressurize a cryogenic liquid (LN2 in this test. Eventually LOX).
I have a setup similar to this and follow a similar procedure to what is described, but I don’t see the same tank pressure ...
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How will Robotic Refueling Mission-3's liquid methane tank remain full for six months without any boil off?
Space.com's Lasers, Crystals and 36,000 Worms Will Ride a SpaceX Dragon to Space Station says:
To fly on those journeys, astronauts might have to someday harvest fuel from the surface of the moon ...
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Why are LOx plumbing not insulated?(ref: Huzel and Huang)
In the book Modern Engineering for Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines, the following excerpt appear in chapter 9 - Interconnecting Components and Mounts:
The liquid-oxygen lines were not ...
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Air-launching an Electron-like LOX-based rocket from a plane; technical challenges?
@GremlinWranger's answer and comments to the question Is it coincidence that the Electron has very similar dimensions to the Pegasus? motivates my asking for the technical challenges to air-launching ...
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Insulation used in the plumbing line of the actual rockets
While using the pipes for plumbing of the liquid propellants at pretty low temperature because of which ice form on the line if not insulated or poorly insulated, which can lead to liquid to gas ...
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How does SpaceX plan to deal with boiloff on the trip to Mars?
Both BFR (Big Falcon Rocket) booster and BFS (Big Falcon Spaceship) are to run on Raptor engines, fueled with liquid methane and liquid oxygen - cryofuels.
The trip to Mars will take at least a couple ...
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What is the advantage of using Helium over Nitrogen when used for pressurising LOx?
In this Twitter post of the plumbing line diagram(left half) by LauncherSpace, one can notice that Helium is used for pressurising LOx while Nitrogen is used for pressurising Kerosene.
Why the ...
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Why do Ariane rockets not have ice break off on liftoff?
In a recent question asked here, it was asked what debris falling from a Rocket Lab Electron Rocket was during launch.
e.g.:
The answer, was that it was ice that had formed after cryogenic fuel/...
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Filling the propellants in the rocket tanks
After putting the rocket on the launch pad the propellants are filled.
But before that how to maintain the lower temperatures of the tanks so that when filling the propellants don't boil off?
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Cryogenic engines till date
How many cryogenic engines are there till date.
Names are mostly necessary.
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How was the Centaur stage fueled in the Space Shuttle?
The Space Shuttle had the ability to launch Centaur booster stages stored inside of the Shuttle during launch. How was this stage fueled, being fueled with cryogenic fuels?
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Falcon-centaur or Falcon-ACES?
For very high delta-V missions (eg outer solar system) the Falcon family really starts to suffer from that fact that its second stage is still using RP-1/LO2 rather than LH2/LO2 with a consequently ...
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ULA's plan for LH2/LOX 2nd stage that can maintain propellant for an extended period of time?
Business Insider's (long) article SpaceX's biggest rival has a 'genius' plan to cut its rocket launch costs more than 70% contains the statements sourced from ULA's CEO Tory Bruno:
Vulcan should ...
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Propellant boil-off in zero G
The Falcon Heavy test flight included a demonstration of capability to coast for several hours and then re-light the second stage for a final burn. During the coast, the cryo propellants are absorbing ...
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Is ISRO Making a Methane Engine?
I'd read some stray comment on the internet claiming that ISRO is working on a methane-LOX engine, just as a technology demonstrator. Is this true?
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The principle behind regenerative cooling?
In regenerative cooling the fuel is passed around the nozzle before being pumped into the combustion chamber right? I don't really see how this affects cooling itself, since the heat captured around ...
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Liquid Helium (4.2K) sealed, then raised to sub-LOX temperature (~70K) - what is the new pressure?
In this question there is discussion of the large differences in temperature between liquid helium-4, subcooled liquid oxygen (sub-LOX) and cold kerosene (RP-1). Approximate temperatures are 4.2K, ~...
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Has solidifying liquid propellant been considered for space exploration?
Liquid hydrogen is $0.071 g/cm^3$
Solid hydrogen is $0.086 g/cm^3$
Since denser fuel is desirable, has solid hydrogen been considered for use in space exploration?
I suspect the very low ...
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Autogenous pressurization with sub-cooled propellant
In his IAC 2016 talk, Elon Musk said (at 28m 4s in the video) that the ITS booster tanks would use autogenous pressurization. This means there is gaseous oxygen resp. methane in the tank. To stay ...
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Is the "cryogenic helium" system in recent discussions actually LHe for cryopumping?
I am wondering if the "cryogenic helium" system discussed in articles about the 1-Sept-2016 SpaceX Falcon 9 anomaly (see this answer for a good summary to date) is not actually related to the high ...
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How did the Space Shuttle keep its cryogenic fuel cold?
As I understand it, the Space Shuttle used cryogenic fuel in its main engines and it kept a supply onboard for the duration of its mission for a deorbit burn. Since Space Shuttle missions often lasted ...
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Does the NK-33 engine require subcooled kerosene so cold that it turns to wax?
It was mentioned in this answer and in several other places on the internet that the kerosene fuel used by NK-33 engines needed to be subcooled enough so that it reached the same density as the LOX, ...
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Could IR space telescopes and other very cold devices use Zeeman slowers effectively in the near term?
Infrared telescopes need to be very cold (often below 10 K) to be effective. So do a few other miscellaneous things, including superconductors, if we ever use them in space for e.g. mass drivers or ...
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Are cryo tanks heavier than normal tanks (on a per surface area basis)?
From my related question, it turns out cryo tanks are not double-walled for insulation purposes. So now I will continue along a similar line and ask, aren't cryo tanks heavier than normal tanks on a ...
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How big a weight problem is ice sticking to a rocket?
Cryo tanks are so cold, they tend to condense moisture out of the air, creating ice covering a lot of the rocket.
I've seen many videos where this ice starts shedding at launch, but I still have to ...
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A cryo tank within another cryo tank...is it a sound engineering concept?
Here's the idea: A large spherical LH2 tank is placed inside a spherical LOX tank.
The reason I thought of this is so the inner tank doesn't need to be insulated. It doesn't need to be a double-...
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What cryogenic selective surface materials have high Technology Readiness Level?
NIAC ("NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts") has approved the following research application for 2015 funding:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/cryogenic-selective-surfaces
Cryogenic Selective ...
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