aerospike engine
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aerospike engine
[‚e·rō¦spīk ′en·jən] (aerospace engineering)
An advanced liquid-propellant rocket engine that uses an axisymmetric plug nozzle, in combination with a torus-shaped combustion chamber and a turbine exhaust system that injects the turbine drive gases into the nozzle base, to achieve a geometry that is only one-quarter the length of a conventional rocket engine, as well as automatic altitude compensation, resulting in superior low-altitude performance.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
References in periodicals archive
The first hot-fire tests of the FRE-2
aerospike engine are expected to take place in early 2016.
Similar performance improvements would also result from utilizing the first-stage aerospike engine to attain LEO orbits.
However, the team will take advantage of any such advancements in scientific material to further improve the aerospike engine's performance in the future.
VentureStar will also be cheaper because the
aerospike engines are built into the spacecraft.
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