The rumored problem with hot gas thrusters on Starship is the relatively low pressure of the propellant tanks. Electric pumps solve that, but add complexity. But what about pulsed thrusters?
1
109
I'm imagining something like this: Supply => main valve => regulator => check valve => accumulator => Tesla valve => injector
1
57
Potential issues would be vibrations (obviously) and controlling the mixture ratio. If the thrusters could be made small enough, vibrations might be minimized by clustering, with igniters timed so there's a continuous combustion.
1
33
Mixture ratio could be addressed by placing the regulator *after* the accumulator, but my gut says they'd get trashed by the pressure spikes.
1
20
Now that I think about it, the average specific impulse of all this probably wouldn't be much better than a thruster that's just pressure-fed.

Oct 1, 2026 · 11:18 AM UTC

17
Sort replies: Relevant Recent Liked