{"id":404288,"date":"2026-04-30T03:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T03:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/404288\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T03:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T03:20:14","slug":"just-look-at-the-spiral-exhaust-flame-thrown-by-this-rotating-detonation-rocket-engine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/404288\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Look at the Spiral Exhaust Flame Thrown by This Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine"},"content":{"rendered":"

The biggest car news and reviews, no BS<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ll be the first to admit that I\u2019m no rocket scientist<\/a>. Then again, I don\u2019t think you have to be to gaze in wonder at this rotating detonation rocket engine from aerospace company Astrobotic. It boasts some crazy specs, which we\u2019ll get to in a minute, but first, we have to talk about the spiraling exhaust flame it throws. What the heck even is that?<\/p>\n

Well, it has everything to do with the nature of the engine itself. The Astrobotic rep in the video below explains it this way:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have these supersonic detonation waves that travel in circles around the outer part of this rocket engine. In fact, we didn\u2019t add just one of these supersonic waves; we had three detonation waves chasing each other around the outside of this. That\u2019s what allows for this very efficient, very rapid combustion to enable these high thrust applications.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Astrobotic
\nThe engine operated for 470 seconds with no discernible damage. Included in that was a single 300-second run, believed to be a new record for RDRE technology. Astrobotic via YouTube<\/p>\n

The visible result is some incredibly tight shock diamonds, which fans of military aircraft and space travel will definitely be familiar with. (If you\u2019re a regular on The War Zone<\/a>, howdy!) Essentially, they\u2019re created when supersonic exhaust pressure doesn\u2019t match the surrounding atmosphere. Shockwaves are then formed as the exhaust gets compressed, expands, and compresses again. If you\u2019re more familiar with 2JZs than F-22s, this is some crazy stuff.<\/p>\n

The Astrobotic rep says its RDRE\u2014named Chakram, after the ancient throwing weapon\u2014achieved more than 4,000 pounds of thrust in multiple tests at NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center. That\u2019s remarkable considering how compact the engine is. And these tests focused largely on duration, to see how well everything operates for extended periods.<\/p>\n

\u201cChakram more than exceeded our expectations,\u201d said Bryant Avalos, Astrobotic\u2019s principal investigator for the Chakram program. \u201cWith any cutting-edge technology like an RDRE, moving from design into testing, you\u2019re always worried about unknown factors that could be critical to performance. But the engine performed even better than expected. The 300-second burn was the cherry on top. Demonstrations like this show how RDRE technology could support a wide range of Astrobotic missions, from propulsion on future lunar landers to in-space orbital transfer vehicles, and other capabilities that will help expand operations throughout cislunar space.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Astrobotic<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\tAstrobotic Breaks Records for Hot Firing Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE)\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Astrobotic says the Chakram could be introduced to its existing product lineup, which includes the Xogdor VTOL reusable rocket<\/a> and two lunar landers<\/a>. The company insists that the more efficient combustion could be a boon for taking more payload up higher or faster. I\u2019ll leave all that to them, but from where I\u2019m sitting here on earth, this certainly seems next-level.<\/p>\n

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com<\/p>\n

From running point on new car launch coverage to editing long-form features and reviews, Caleb does some of everything at The Drive. And he really, really loves trucks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The biggest car news and reviews, no BS Our free daily newsletter sends the stories that really matter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-404288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}