The Self Eating Autophage Rocket Engine Explained
Channel: Scientia Plus
Date: 2020-10-21

A team of engineers from the University of Glasgow and Oles Honchar Dnipro National University in Ukraine has built and test-fired a new style of "autophage" rocket engine that eats its own structure from the bottom up during the flight. They believe it could lead to cheaper, more efficient, and less wasteful small satellite launches.

Rather than using a heavy tank to store its fuel, the autophage rocket's main structure is a cylindrical propellant rod consisting of solid, strong plastic fuel on the outside with a core of powdered oxidizer.

As the rod is pushed into the hot engine, it gets vaporized, producing thrust via exhaust gases as well as more heat to burn the next bit of the propellant rod. So the rocket gets shorter as it eats itself from the bottom up.

Many solid fuel motors, the researchers say, don't have the capability of being throttled. With the autophage engine, that's not a problem. You simply increase the speed at which you're feeding the propellant rod if you want more thrust.


00:00 Intro
00:45 The Autophage Engine
01:29 Problems With Liquid & Solid Rocket Engines
02:05 Parts & Working Principle
03:41 The 2018 Experiment
04:24 Funding

Research Paper: 
1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324595612_Autophage_Engines_Toward_a_Throttleable_Solid_Motor
2. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/150598999.pdf

Hazegrayart YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/Hazegrayart

Consider Supporting on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scientiaplus
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/scientiaplus

For Educational Purpose Only.

FOLLOWED YOUTUBE FAIR USAGE POLICY WHEN REUSING CONTENT FOR THIS VIDEO.
All Images and Videos Used in this Video belongs to the respective owners mentioned within the video.

Image Credits :
Dotted Yeti/Shutterstock
University of Glasgow
Dnipro National University
yuropman/Reddit
ESA
Science Photo Library
Barbourproductsearch.com
PRO draft
Coleman
Space.com
Aeromag.com

Video Credits:
Hazegrayart
Vimeo 
NASA

ALL THE INFORMATION GIVEN IN THIS VIDEO IS TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE. FEEL FREE TO CORRECT ME WITH PROOF IN THE COMMENT SECTION.

#autophageengine #autophagerocketengine #throttablesolidmotor #nasa #UniversityofGlasgow #DniproNationalUniversity #spacex #starship #starshipsn8 #starshipraptor #raptorengine #elonmusk #PatrickHarkness