Are Aerospikes Better Than Bell Nozzles?
3,779,722
Published 2019-10-18
00:00 - Intro
06:20 - How Nozzles Work
16:00 - How Aerospikes Work
19:55 - The Problems With Aerospikes
32:50 - Comparing Aerospike Engines To Bell Engines
41:30 - What The Experts Say
51:35 - Future Aerospike Prospects
54:00 - Summary
Article version for easy reading and references - everydayastronaut.com/aerospikes
Today we’re going to look at the history of aerospike engines, go over how nozzles work including things like overexpansion, underexpansion and even expansion ratios, we’ll look at the pros and cons of the aerospike, the physical limitations and problems, then we’ll compare the aerospike to some other traditional rocket engines.
But that’s not all, I obtained never seen before photos and videos of some aerospikes, we’ll get opinions from some people who have actually worked with aerospike engines, look at some promising prospects and compelling concepts and by the end of the video we’ll hopefully know whether or not the holy grail of rocket engines is just waiting to be utilized or if aerospikes just simply aren’t worth it.
Special thanks to @MartianDays on Twitter for the scale engine renders! - twitter.com/martiandays
And also thanks to Charlie Garcia for helping me learn so much! - youtube.com/user/dragonrider66511
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All Comments (21)
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"this is a really long video" Don´t be so modest Tim. This is not a video. This is a high quality documentary.
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we should award a "no-bell prize" for the first company to get one to orbit.
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I watched you go full nerd for a whole hour. You did an amazing job. I can't imagine how many nerd hours went into the making this documentary. Truly, self publishing has come of age. My hat is off to you.
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The comparison of the arrow spike engine to the rotary engine at the end of this video was brilliant
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Main argument for aerospike: they’re so cool Main argument against aerospike: they’re too hot
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Genuinely one of the best 1 hour 'documentaries' I've seen. Those on TV are always dumbed down, hyperbole, unbalanced, or full of filler B-roll. This video was packed full of well-researched facts, videos, interviews with leaders in the industry. Thanks for making this and sharing it for free with the world.
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48:04 God I love his smurk as he answers "Oh there is stuff you can do! :)"
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I really love this video, I did a 10-page report for one of my engineering classes discussing aerospike rocket motors. I only had a chance to do so much research before the deadline so it's awesome to see this full-length video go so in-depth and go so much further with research than I could.
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Truly surpassed the title of “YouTube video” this is a documentary
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Everyday Astronaut has truly outdone himself on the aerospike video. What an amazingly researched video. Simulations from Stanford, restored footage from Aerojet Rocketdyne, great animations, reading through NASA's decades old documents & reviews from Elon Musk, Tory Bruno and Peter Beck.
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I like when Peter is swearing you use the old fashioned telemetry 'beep' to censor him! The ultimate nerd censor beep! (quindar tones)
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I just watched the whole hour long video and it was ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT!!! You explained things so well that even though I'm a complete newbie when it comes to rocket science, I could still understand the vast majority of your content. This must have taken an immense amount of effort, and I can't wait to see what you do next. You've definitely earned my subscription!
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This is what journalism should always be like. My understanding is that the Everyday Astronaut is not an engineer of any sort, yet he has presented this issue more clearly than anyone else. I had been reluctant to watch this, assuming that it would be filled with mistakes and lacking in analysis, but I'm happy to see that I'm wrong. Good job, and thank you.
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Me: "I need to chill for an hour" Everyday Astronaut: "I got you covered"
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I didn't get around to seeing this vid until Dec 2022, having been referred to it by a Scott Manley vid, so I wonder if you have an update in the works. After all, a lot can have happened in the 3 years or more since it was posted. I was really glad to see this, as I had only the vaguest idea of what an aerospike engine was, though I had heard of them for a long time, but hadn't gotten around to reading up on them. A couple of ideas I had while watching this, with regard to ablative cooling. 1) A solid fuel aerospike engine. It wouldn't likely be reusable anyway, so ablative cooling would be the way to go. That would be for a strap-on booster or for a ballistic missile. 2) For a reusable engine, a replaceable ablative section for the areas most susceptible to heat overload. The other thing that struck me was the similarity (superficial, at least) of an aerospike to the tail cone of a turbojet engine.
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I forgot to thank you for your thought provoking knowledge. You are the type that does think out of the box. The very kind of people we need in this world.
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Peter Beck summarized it perfectly: the advantages that the physics promise are lost due to engineering problems. Magnificent video!
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My Brain at 3 in the morning: plz go to sleep me: yeah yeah...but are aerospikes better than nozzles tho ?
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With 28 engines on the Space-X Heavy and looking at the inward angle of the Firefly Aerospike, it looks like Space-X has accomplished the same end result which is basically to vector the thrust inward around the outside to compensate for the expansion as the ship goes up in altitude, basically what you said in the video, combine this with multiple stages and there you go!!!
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Amazing video! Can’t believe my eyes. I’ve been searching for more than a decade an easy explaination, without equation, for why nozzles even exist. Thanks so much
