With jet engines, it’s relatively easy to light it up and throttle. I know you can’t shut them down mid-flight and then turn them back on while still in the air, but you can easily throttle them. Now with rocket engines, you can only light most engines 1-3 times, and their throttle ability is minimal. Why is this so?
Thanks in advance.
In: Engineering
Rockets involve very explosive fuels. So the trick is to ignite them without exploding them. Many of the engines now in use the cyrogenic reactants to cool the bell nozzle, and they use the heat of the bell nozzle to turn the cyrogenic liquid into gases – so without the heat of the burning fuels, you have to have other systems to prepare the fuel for ignition.
Solid fuel rockets like the space shuttle booster don’t have any way to turn them off. Once you ignite them, you are going….someplace, hopefully space.
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