Vinci (engine)

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Vinci

The Vinci rocket engine is to be used in the second stage of Ariane 6 . Originally, it was supposed to drive the then planned new upper stage ESC-B of the now canceled Ariane 5 ME . The ESC-B upper stage in the Ariane 5 ME was supposed to replace the previously used ESC-A upper stage with the HM-7B engine of the Ariane 5 ECA.

As the first cryogenic upper stage engine from ESA to date , Vinci can be re-ignited and works in the main flow process . Here, part of the fuel that has evaporated in the cooling system is diverted, used as the drive medium for the fuel feed pumps and then fed back into the combustion chamber (expander cycle engine).

The Vinci engine has a long thrust nozzle in order to achieve a high expansion ratio of the thrust jet and thus a high specific impulse . The thrust nozzle, which was planned for the Ariane 5 ME, consists of two parts pushed into one another and extends before the ignition after the first stage has been separated. This should reduce the length and thus the weight of the required intermediate stage adapter of the Ariane 5 ME.

The largely fully developed Vinci engine was taken over for the second stage of the new planned Ariane 6 after the end of Ariane 5 ME. However, it is now getting a fixed nozzle because the interstage adapter is long enough to accommodate the full length of the nozzle.

Technical specifications

Vinci 2005
Height (nozzle stowed) 2.2 m
Height (nozzle extended) 4.2 m
diameter 2.15 m
Dimensions 280 kg
Fuels LOX and LH2
Mixing ratio (mass) 5.8: 1
Performance LOX turbo pump 350 kW at 18 000 min -1
Performance LH2 turbo pump 2.4 MW at 90 000 min -1
Combustion chamber pressure 60.8 bar
Vacuum thrust 155 kN 180 kN
Specific impulse in a vacuum 4,561 Ns / kg
Engine power (dynamic) 353 MW 410 MW

development

Due to the failed first flight of the Ariane 5 ECA and the follow-up costs, the development of the ESC-B has been officially suspended since the beginning of 2003. Nevertheless, the development of the Vinci engine has not been abandoned. On May 20, 2005, a Vinci engine was ignited for one second in Lampoldshausen for the first time . On July 26, 2005, a test under full power followed for the first time. The test lasted 60 seconds, making it the longest test of a Vinci engine to date. A total of nine test runs were carried out by November 2005. In November 2005 a second prototype was inaugurated and tested.

At the end of 2006 it became known that ESA had signed a contract with Snecma as part of the Future Launcher Preparatory Program (FLPP) , which secured the development of Vinci until the ESA Ministerial Conference in November 2008. The first 350 seconds of a Vinci flight, including the start of the engine, have now been successfully tested. This corresponds to about half of the planned flight duration. On August 1, 2007, Vinci was successfully re-ignited under space conditions, i.e. in a vacuum. The first warm-up phase was 40 seconds, after a waiting time of a further 148 seconds, the second ignition took place with a warm-up period of the engine of 80 seconds.

At the ESA Ministerial Council in 2008 it was decided that the Vinci engine in the FLPP program would be further developed in order to be able to make a construction decision in 2011 about the ESC-B upper stage equipped with it. The first flight of the new stage could have taken place in 2015/2016. However, no construction decision was made in 2011 and in 2014 the ESC-B stage including the further development of Ariane 5 was canceled. Instead, it is to be used in the second stage of Ariane 6, which was decided in 2014.

Web links

References

  1. ↑ a b ESA: Second Vinci engine ready for testing (English)
  2. ↑ ESA: Thumbs up for 60-second firing (English)
  3. ^ Council of Ministers meeting to define the role of space travel in achieving global goals
  4. ↑ European ministers give space travel a new dynamic and strengthen its role
  5. ↑ The further development of Ariane 5