3D Printing a Rocket Engine

3D Printing & Imaging Drones & Vehicles Fun & Games Rockets

3D printers are cool for printing miniature Yoda heads, tiny owls, and little tea cups. But what about printing something really useful, like, say, a stainless steel rocket engine?

Check out this project from Rocket Moonlighting. Says Hack-a-Day:

Most any rocket engine you’d find on a spacecraft – save for solid or hybrid rockets – use an engine system that’s fairly complex. Because of the intense heat, the fuel is circulated around the chamber before ignition giving a motor its regeneratively cooled nomenclature. This arrangement leads to a few complicated welding and machining processes, but surprisingly these obstacles can be overcome by simply printing a rocket engine on a 3D printer.

4 thoughts on “3D Printing a Rocket Engine

  1. MAKE is always loaded with practical projects. » Why Aren't You Outraged? says:

    […] 3D Printing a Rocket Engine 3D printers are cool for printing miniature Yoda heads, tiny owls and little tea cups. But what about printing something really useful, like, say, a stainless steel rocket engine? Check out this pr…… […]

  2. rahere says:

    The Pingback I see is actually from Chris George, who doesn’t seem to be aware of the long-running subthread of amateur rocketeers in the Maker community – whence the interest in the low cost.

  3. 3d printing engine | Computer Showroom says:

    […] blog.makezine.com […]

  4. Cartesian, Delta, and Polar: The Most Common 3D Printers - Make: | Make: says:

    […] These machines use polar coordinates. This system is similar to the Cartesian except that the coordinate sets describe points on a circular grid rather than a square. Yes, with a little rocket science, we can have a printer with a spinning bed and a print head that moves up, down, left and right. No need for forward and backward movement! On a side note, did you know that you can make a rocket engine with any of these printers? […]

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Stett Holbrook is editor of the Bohemian, an alternative weekly in Santa Rosa, California. He is a former senior editor at Maker Media.

He is also the co-creator of Food Forward, a documentary TV series for PBS about the innovators and pioneers changing our food system.

View more articles by Stett Holbrook

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