Comment by chasd00 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by chasd00 | Hacker News Reader

I think there was a russian engine that literally had 2x4's on fire stuck in the combustion chamber in place of torch ignitors or TEAB.

If anyone's interested the experimental high-power rocketry hobby is pretty fun, there's a lot to learn and hack on. A lot of people focus on propulsion and formulating, profiling, and flying various solid fuels they develop themselves. This guy is highly regarded https://www.nakka-rocketry.net/

Others focus on flight controllers, GPS trackers, and other electronics. https://altusmetrum.org/ (i think one of the two owners of altusmetrum is a pretty famous Debian Linux guy from back in the day)

There's also "hybrid" engines that use a solid fuel and a liquid oxidizer ( nitrous oxide ). Ex, this guy is probably the most well known in the hybrids side of the hobby https://contrailrockets.com/

Finally, there's the halfcat guys https://www.halfcatrocketry.com/ who do amateur liquid bi-prop engines in an approachable way. I've working on a design of my own based on their designs and plan to do a static fire in the Fall and hopefully a flight before end of year. The downside with liquid engines in the hobby is governing bodies Tripoli and NAR don't allow these engines at sanctioned launches. You either have to launch privately (including coordinating/paperwork with the FAA on your own ) or at FAR https://friendsofamateurrocketry.org/

Yes, the Soyuz (the workhorse Soviet/Russian launcher for crew, smaller satellites, and space station cargo) is ignited that way (and it's mentioned at the Everyday Astronaut page linked above, just under the "Ignition on the Ground" heading). There are pyros on top of the wood, so it's really just a really large electrically ignited match.

IIRC the Soyuz family have five ground-start engines (propellant pump sets) which feed a total of 20 main and 12 steering combustion chambers across the center core and 4 boosters, so they need to light 32 of them for each launch.

Multiple combustion chambers per engine was their way to mitigate combustion instability; Rocketdyne blew up a lot of engines before they figured out a different approach (involving baffles on the injector plate) in the Saturn V's F1 engine.

The V2 used baffles, too.

You probably already know of him, but you should check out BPS Space on youtube if you enjoy long-form video edutainment. Much like Tim Dodd, Joe makes videos full of detail and information about topics he is clearly passionate about. In the case of BPS Space that is pushing the limits of amateur rocketry in a uniquely hacker/programmer friendly manor.

BPS Space is what got me into building my own thrust vectoring rocket during COVID lockdowns.

https://github.com/AdamMarciniak/CygnusX1

It was super fun to bring together lots of different disciplines and skills. 3D printing, software, soldering, circuit design, simulation etc.

Ultimately, I got so obsessed with it I got burned out and had to take a break for a bit but came back fresh and finished it. Did a few flights over the year with more and more interesting things culminating in a dual stage flight. I've still got the rocket ready to go anytime. Just gotta wait for the weather to clear up.

> I think there was a russian engine that literally had 2x4's on fire stuck in the combustion chamber in place of torch ignitors or TEAB.

Yes, this is mentioned in the article with a picture.

> literally had 2x4's on fire stuck in the combustion chamber

I REALLY wouldn't want to be the person tasked with starting that fire.

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