I've never looked at a rocket engine and thought “well that's dull”, but this design makes everyone else look positively pedestrian. That's because, instead of the traditional process of countless engineers taking months, even years, to manually engineer a model in programs like CAD, it was designed in a couple of weeks—thanks in large part to AI. .
Leap 71, a Dubai-based AI engineering company, says it created the design with its large computational engineering model Noyron. It was designed autonomously “without human intervention”, the company says, before being 3D printed in copper by German metal 3D-printing company AMCM, which was post-processed at the University of Sheffield. was, and was then removed from the test.
Each new engine iteration generated by the AI model takes minutes, compared to months of work in traditional rocket engine design. The engine uses cryogenic liquid oxygen (LOX) and kerosene as propellants, and the injector head has a “state-of-the-art coaxial swirler” to mix them.
Yes, that's the description Wallace, of Wallace and Grommet fame, would use to describe his latest rocket design. A “coaxial swirler”. What a time to be alive.
The engine is designed to produce 5 kN thrust (equivalent to 500 kg/1120 lbs lift mass or 20,000 horsepower), and Leap 71 says it will be suitable for the final “kick stage” of an orbital rocket.
The test firing took place at the Airborne Engineering facilities in Wescot, UK, and if you're the kind of person who likes to watch rockets laugh, have I got a video for you:
Breathtaking stuff, isn't it? Copper may initially seem like an odd choice for a rocket engine given its low melting point, but apparently it enables a “compact high-performance engine” when actively cooled. For reasons that, to my admittedly dull mind, remain unclear. Still, as much as you know.
That being said, there is a strong caveat here. Lap 71 says that if the cooling fails, it will melt immediately. A bit like my AMD Ryzen 7 7700X again. I baby, I baby.
This odd-looking design facilitates thin cooling channels that wrap around the chamber jacket, with more kerosene added to keep things cool, or in rocket science terms, I suppose. Stays relatively cool. Not only that, but this swirling, fractal-like pattern is instantly recognizable as an AI-generated object.
The test fire was successful, as you can see, and the engine demonstrated a full 12 second long burn. That's enough for Lap 71 to confidently call it steady-state capable, which means it can run as long as needed in its capacity as a powerful booster.
However, that doesn't mean it's perfect. Some analysis done on the engine after the test determined that the resistance of the cooling channels was higher than expected, a phenomenon attributed to the roughness of the 3D printed surface. It seems that there is still some work to be done to improve the design before we can potentially see the limits of our planet.
And that's the overall goal here. Josephine Lesner, managing director of Leap 71, said: “We can now automatically build functional rocket thrusters and go straight to practical validation”.
“Innovation in space propulsion is difficult and expensive. With our approach, we hope to make space more accessible to everyone.”
So there we go. Aesthetically interesting, functional, and much faster to implement than traditional designs. Perhaps the AI generation could be the key to future rocket engine development.
Now, I love a place in Wensleydale. More cheese, grommet?