Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico

Re:Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico by foobarian on Thursday June 06, 2024 @09:34AM (#40597241)

It blew my mind that just the fuel pump for just one engine has a power rated in the tens of thousands of horsepower/kW.

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Re:Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico by schmidtleonard on Thursday June 06, 2024 @04:10PM (#40601820)

Yep, those pumps have to push the propellant into the explosion harder than the explosion pushes back. That takes serious power!

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Re:Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico by foobarian on Thursday June 06, 2024 @04:23PM (#40601944)

So thinking where the leverage is - is it like hydraulics where the input cross-section is a lot smaller than the output cross-section? That's kinda what the nozzle looks like.

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Re:Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico by schmidtleonard on Thursday June 06, 2024 @06:33PM (#40603144)

Yes, but also the propellant explodes after being pumped in, so you pump in a tiny volume and exhaust an enormous volume.

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Re:Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico by aaronblohowiak on Thursday June 06, 2024 @11:09PM (#40604930)

You pump in a huge volume and exhaust an inconceivable volume

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Re:Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico by schmidtleonard on Friday June 07, 2024 @09:26AM (#40608496)

That's fair, lol.

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Re:Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico by dotancohen on Friday June 07, 2024 @01:29AM (#40605597)

No, because the fuel is not a working fluid pushing a piston. All the "leverage" is at the turbopump impeller blade.

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Re:Super Heavy has splashed down in The Gulf of Mexico by KennyBlanken on Friday June 07, 2024 @01:31AM (#40605603)

Not only that - spacex uses the highest chamber pressures, enormously high compared to almost any other engine.

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