en.Wedoany.com Reported - Astrobotic recently successfully completed hot fire tests of its Chakram Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Eight tests were conducted across two prototypes, with a cumulative run time exceeding 470 seconds and no hardware damage observed. One test achieved a sustained burn of 300 seconds, believed to set a record for the longest continuous hot fire test of an RDRE.
During testing, each engine generated over 4,000 pounds of thrust, making Chakram one of the most powerful rotating detonation engines ever demonstrated. Apart from two brief ignition tests, all others reached thermal steady state and operated stably. Bryant Avalos, Principal Investigator for Astrobotic’s Chakram program, stated: “Chakram far exceeded our expectations… The 300-second burn was the icing on the cake. This demonstrates that RDRE technology can support a wide range of missions, from lunar landers to orbital transfer vehicles.”
This test marks a significant milestone in Astrobotic’s development of rotating detonation engines. The company plans to apply this technology to the Griffin-class lunar lander, Xodiac and Xogdor-class reusable rockets, and orbital transfer vehicles. The RDRE uses supersonic detonation waves rotating around an annular exterior to combust propellants, enabling it to extract more useful work from the same amount of fuel compared to conventional rocket engines, with the potential to improve specific impulse by 15%. Its development is supported by NASA SBIR contracts and Space Act Agreements, involving novel injector designs and PermiAM metal additive manufacturing technology.
Project Manager Travis Vazansky praised the team for achieving success within a modest budget. Co-investigator Monica Traupmann noted that the test data has laid a solid foundation for the next phase of development. The company will subsequently focus on key design improvements such as regenerative cooling, throttling, and mass reduction.
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