NASA马歇尔航天中心的航天发射倡议项目办公室正在研制新一代以煤油为燃料的可重复使用运载器发动机。目前正在研制两种型号的样机,包括波音的罗克达因公司的RS-84原型发动机和TRW航天与系统公司的TR107原型发动机。 煤油推进的运载火箭并不是新想法,早在20世纪60年代末期将宇航员送上月球的“土星V”火箭的F-I发动机就是使用煤油作为推进剂。但目前研制的第二代煤油发动机和F-1将有很大区别。这种新设计的燃烧循环系统更加合理,推进剂在注入燃烧室之前会被预先加热,燃料和氧化剂都得到了重复利用。为了得到更高的推力,煤油将在更高的压力下燃烧,这种新一代煤油发动机的燃烧室压力约为 NASA Marshall Space Center’s Space Launch Initiative’s project office is developing a new generation of kerosene-reusable carrier engines. Two prototypes are being developed, including the Rockstar RS-84 prototype engine from Boeing and the TR107 prototype engine from TRW Space and Systems. It is not a new idea that kerosene-propelled launch vehicles use kerosene as a propellant for the Saturn V rocket F-I engines that brought astronauts to the moon back in the late 1960s. However, the second-generation kerosene engine currently under development will be very different from F-1. This new design of the combustion cycle is more rational and the propellant is preheated before it is injected into the combustion chamber and the fuel and oxidizer are reused. In order to get higher thrust, kerosene will be burned under higher pressure, this new generation of kerosene engine combustion chamber pressure is about