Great minds can do wonders and things one has no idea. That’s the ability of us humans to make things little close to perfection with time and with improvements and with every extra equation. Space industry is blooming right now and Indian private space agencies are showing some extraordinary ideas and results as well.
Rocket engines are tough to build, and they’re even tougher to 3D print because all the details have to be ‘just right’ for the rocket to work successfully. But, an Indian space startup based out of Chennai has pulled off this mammothian task.
IIT-Madras incubated space startup Agnikul Cosmos said on Tuesday it has successfully test fired it’s semi-cryogenic rocket engine Agnilet, which is completely 3D printed as a single component in a single run of a 3D printer.
Normally, rocket engines have 100s of different parts that have to be built individually. This includes things like injectors which inject fuel into the engine, cooling channels that ensure the engine doesn’t overheat and the igniter which actually kindles propellants to push the rocket off the ground.
“This entire engine – Agnilet – is just one piece of hardware from start to finish and has zero assembled parts. We don’t think anyone in the world has ever pushed 3D printing of a rocket engine to this extent and we couldn’t be happier to have conceived, designed, realized and test fired this engine, fully in India.” Srinath Ravichandran, chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Agnikul Cosmos, said.
“We are relieved that we would not have to track or manufacture numerous parts to realize a rocket engine from now on. All that remains after printing is bare minimum post processing after which the engine can directly be assembled in our launch vehicle,” Moin SPM, Co-founder and COO of Agnikul Cosmos, said.
Agnikul may be the first to be successful, but it’s not alone.
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