They also use a 9:1 engine scheme similar to Falcon 9. Nine engines on the first stage, then a single vacuum-optimized version of the same engine on the second stageRocket Lab re a really neat startup with some cool electric-pump-fed engine engine tech.
Technically not turbo pumps, since the unique thing about them is that they use electric motors instead of turbinesThe super interesting thing about Rutherford engine is it's electric fed turbo pumps, and the rotodynamic pump (which I jut learned about). They're a great little provider, and I bet they soon find themselves with a nice chunk of the small satellite market share.
Technically not turbo pumps, since the unique thing about them is that they use electric motors instead of turbines
Too bad the design doesn't really scale well for bigger rockets. I'm sure Musk would love to have electric-pumped engines on SpaceX rockets, if they didn't require so much extra weight
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What would possess you to post that?
EDIT: oh you're not talking about the Falcon.
It's so easy to forget that landing the rockets are actually not the point of it.
If all goes according to plan, DART will launch aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in June 2021. In October 2022, the spacecraft will slam into "Didymoon," the 540-foot-wide (165 meters) satellite of the near-Earth asteroid Didymos.
Telescopes here on Earth will document how the collision affects Didymoon and its orbit around the 2,540-foot-wide (775 m) Didymos. Such observations will help researchers assess the "kinetic impactor" strategy of dangerous-asteroid deflection, DART team members have said.
And we may get some up-close looks at the battered Didymoon as well. A candidate European mission called Hera would launch toward the Didymos system in 2023 and get there in 2026. It would inspect the fresh crater and make detailed measurements of Didymoon's altered orbit, with the aid of two briefcase-size cubesats.