Is SpaceX's Starship Raptor the King of Rocket Engines?

Is SpaceX's Starship Raptor the King of Rocket Engines? === #techfans #spacex #starship === Is SpaceX's Starship Raptor the King of Rocket Engines? This really is the era of methane-powered rocket engines. We have the famous SpaceX Raptor, Blue Origin’s BE-4, and Rocket Lab’s upcoming Archimedes engine, which is expected to make its first flight very soon. But despite all three using the same basic fuel—and all being designed to power reusable rockets—there are some massive differences in their designs, the numbers they deliver, and even the engineering philosophy behind them. And honestly, I don’t think there’s a better way to understand those differences than to put these engines head-to-head and find out: Why are they so different, and which one is actually THE best reusable methane-powered rocket engine? Is SpaceX's Starship Raptor the King of Rocket Engines? Rocket Lab’s Methane engine: Before we begin, a big thanks to this commenter, whose name I honestly have no idea how to pronounce, for suggesting the idea for this video. (nhớ cắt mấy từ tiếng Việt đi) Rocket Lab’s Archimedes is a really interesting engine that I don’t think gets talked about enough, and I’m really excited to compare it with some of the other well-known methane engines out there. That being said, let’s get right to it, shall we? The first thing you need to know about Rocket Lab’s Archimedes engine is that it uses something called an oxygen-rich staged-combustion cycle. Now what exactly does that mean? In a traditional gas-generator cycle, you burn a small amount of fuel and oxidizer in a separate chamber called the gas generator. The hot gas produced there spins a turbine, which drives the turbopumps. The turbopumps then feed propellant into the main combustion chamber. The problem is that after doing all that work, you basically throw that turbine exhaust overboard. Is SpaceX's Starship Raptor the King of Rocket Engines? A staged-combustion engine tries to avoid that waste. Instead of dumping the turbine exhaust overboard, the engine sends it into the main combustion chamber, where it gets burned again and contributes to producing thrust. So, in theory, almost all of the propellant you put into the engine eventually helps push the rocket upward rather than getting used to power the machinery and then tossed away. And Archimedes takes this one step further with an oxygen-rich design. In an oxygen-rich staged-combustion cycle, the preburner burns a relatively small amount of LNG with a large amount of liquid oxygen. That produces a hot, oxygen-rich gas, which drives the turbine. The turbine spins the pumps, the pumps raise the propellant pressure, and then that oxygen-rich gas is sent into the main combustion chamber. So yes, the turbine exhaust is basically recycled back into the engine. And that gives staged combustion a pretty significant advantage over a gas-generator engine. Because you aren't throwing away that propellant, you can get higher specific impulse, higher chamber pressure, and better overall efficiency. Higher chamber pressure also allows the engine to use more aggressive nozzle expansion and squeeze more performance out of the same basic hardware. For a reusable rocket, there’s another interesting advantage: throttling. An engine that needs to slow down dramatically for landing has to operate across a pretty wide range of conditions. And that can be a nightmare for turbopumps, turbines, combustion stability, and basically every engineer involved.