Methalox spacecraft propulsion system
The
Prometheus
rocket engine
is an ongoing
European Space Agency
(ESA) development effort begun in 2017 to create a
reusable
methane
-fueled
rocket engine
for use on the
Themis
reusable rocket demonstrator and
Ariane Next
, the successor to
Ariane 6
, and possibly a version of Ariane 6 itself.
[1]
[2]
Prometheus is a
backronym
from the original French project designation PROMETHEE, standing for "
P
recursor
R
eusable
O
xygen
Meth
ane cost
E
ffective prop
u
lsion
S
ystem", and for the Titan
Prometheus
, from Greek mythology, creator of humanity, and god of fire, known for giving fire to humanity in defiance of the gods.
By 2020, the development program was funded, and is being developed for the ESA by
Ariane Group
.
[3]
The engine is aimed to be reusable with substantially lower costs than traditional engines manufactured in Europe. The cost goal is to manufacture the Prometheus engine at one-tenth the cost of the
Ariane 5
's first-stage engine.
[4]
[3]
General characteristics
[
edit
]
The engine is planned to have the following features:
- Methane?oxygen propellant.
- Extensive use of metal
3D printing
(up to 50% of the engine).
[3]
- Open
gas-generator cycle
.
[5]
- 980 kN of thrust (~100 tonnes), variable from 30% to 110% thrust.
[5]
- 100 bar (10,000 kPa) chamber pressure.
[5]
- 360 s specific impulse (
I
sp
).
[
citation needed
]
- Reusable 3 to 5 times.
[
citation needed
]
- Around 1 million euros production cost.
[5]
History
[
edit
]
The
European Space Agency
(ESA) began funding Prometheus engine development in June 2017 with
€85 million
provided through the
Future Launchers Preparatory Programme
, 63% of which coming from
France
.
[1]
By June 2017, Patrick Bonguet, lead of the
Ariane 6
launch vehicle program at
Arianespace
, indicated that it was possible the Prometheus engine could find a use on a future version of the
expendable
Ariane 6 launcher. In this scenario, a "streamlined version of
Vulcain
rocket engine called Vulcain 2.1 would have the same performance as Vulcain 2". The expendable Ariane 6 was then expected to make an
initial
launch in 2020.
[4]
By June 2020, the ESA was on board with this plan and had agreed to completely fund the development of the Prometheus precursor engine to bring the "engine design to a technical maturity suitable for industry". The objective of the overall program as stated in June 2020 was to utilize Prometheus technology to eventually "lower the cost of production by a factor of ten of the current main stage
Ariane 5
Vulcain 2
engine".
[3]
A Prometheus engine was started up in Nov 2022.
The engine had a successful 12 second test firing in June 2023, at the THEMIS test stand in
Vernon
, France.
[6]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Henry, Caleb (5 October 2017).
"France's Prometheus reusable engine becomes ESA project, gets funding boost"
.
SpaceNews
. Retrieved
9 January
2018
.
- ^
Patureau de Mirand, Antoine (July 2019).
Ariane Next, a vision for a reusable cost efficient European rocket
(PDF)
. 8th European Conference for Aeronautics and Space Sciences.
doi
:
10.13009/EUCASS2019-949
. Retrieved
18 August
2021
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"ESA moves ahead on low-cost reusable rocket engine"
.
European Space Agency
. 4 June 2020
. Retrieved
4 June
2020
.
- ^
a
b
Henry, Caleb (8 January 2018).
"France, Germany studying reusability with a subscale flyback booster"
.
SpaceNews
. Retrieved
9 January
2018
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Iannetti, A.; Girard, N.; Tchou-kien, D.; Bonhomme, C.; Ravier, N.; Edeline, E. (July 2017).
PROMETHEUS, A LOX/LCH
4
REUSABLE ROCKET ENGINE
(PDF)
. 7th European Conference for Aeronautics and Space Sciences.
doi
:
10.13009/EUCASS2017-537
. Retrieved
2 March
2019
.
- ^
Themis, Prometheus complete first hot-fire tests in France
External links
[
edit
]
|
---|
|
Liquid
fuel
| Cryogenic
| Hydrolox
(
LH
2
/
LOX
)
|
- China
- Europe
- India
- Japan
- Russia
- USA
|
---|
Methalox
(
CH
4
/
LOX
)
| |
---|
|
---|
Semi-
cryogenic
| Kerolox
(
RP-1
/
LOX
)
|
- China
- India
- Russia
- NK-15
- NK-33, 44
- RD-58
- RD-0105, 0109
- RD-0107, 0108, 0110
- RD-0110R
- RD-0124
- RD-107, 108, 117, 118
- RD-120
- RD-170, 171
- RD-180
- RD-191, 151, 181
- RD-193
- S1.5400
- Spain
- Ukraine
- USA
|
---|
|
---|
Storable
| Hypergolic
(
Aerozine
,
UH 25
,
MMH
, or
UDMH
/
N
2
O
4
,
MON
, or
HNO
3
)
|
- China
- Europe
- India
- Israel
- North Korea
- Russia
- 17D61
- RD-0202 to 0206, 0208 to 0213
- RD-0207, 0214
- RD-0216, 0217, 0235
- RD-0233, 0234
- RD-0236
- RD-0237
- RD-0243 to 0245
- RD-0255 to 0257
- RD-215 to 219
- RD-250 to 252, 261, 262
- RD-253, 275
- RD-263, 268, 273
- RD-270
- S5.92
- S5.98M
- Ukraine
- USA
|
---|
|
---|
Other
| |
---|
| |
---|
Solid
fuel
|
- China
- Europe
- India
- Iran
- Israel
- Japan
- USA
|
---|
- * Different versions of the engine use different propellant combinations
- Engines in
italics
are under development
|