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The New Zealand based commercial space company Rocket Lab has unveiled their new rocket engine which the media is describing as battery-powered. It still uses fuel, of course, but has an entirely new propulsion cycle which uses electric motors to drive its turbopumps.
To add to the interest over the design, it uses 3D printing for all its primary components. First launch is expected this year, with commercial operations commencing in 2016.
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Rocket Lab Unveils "Electric" Rocket Engine
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QOTD:
"My life is a soap opera, but who gets the movie rights?"
(Score: 3, Informative) by subs on Friday April 17 2015, @12:17PM
Point taken, but without more detailed engine data we won't know for sure. At present, their website is rather light on that, my I guess they're still working out basic stuff.
And yeah, upon closer examination, your 4-5MPa seems more realistic, though I came up with a somewhat different nozzle area to match their figures. RP-1/LOX, ~270s at SL, ~16.6kN (implying ~6.2kg/s flow rate), chamber at ~4.5MPa I calculated around 25 sqcm throat and a 6x expansion ratio to the nozzle exit (nozzle exit diameter ~14cm). Anyhow, adjusting for this lower pressure the work required appears closer to 1MW on the pump (allowing for some electrical losses along the way), or around 30kWh for a 2 minute burn - a battery pack weighing in at ~200-300kg and that's without the compressors, motors and electrical equipment. Not a deal breaker in a 10 ton rocket, but certainly not light. By comparison a complete ~2MW turbopump can weigh less than 1/4 of that and you could feed all 9 engines with it, significantly reducing the number of components. I'd have hard time imagining this scaling up, though.
In any case, maybe performance here was second to cost. Pure electrical systems can be quite cheap. Anyhow, thanks for setting me straight on the chamber pressure.