"Rocket engine selection criteria."

This paper considers many of the factors and criteria which have to be considered and evaluated when selecting a specific rocket engine for a given vehicle application. The lists of criteria can be helpful as checklists in design and systems engineering of a rocket propulsion device. About ten dif...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sutton, G. P.
Format: Electronic
Published: University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives
Subjects:
Online Access:http://libarchstor2.uah.edu/digitalcollections/items/show/10626
Description
Summary:This paper considers many of the factors and criteria which have to be considered and evaluated when selecting a specific rocket engine for a given vehicle application. The lists of criteria can be helpful as checklists in design and systems engineering of a rocket propulsion device. About ten different applications are examined to illustrate the relative importance of some of these selection criteria. There will be groupings of our major types of criteria; namely, performance, operational, economic and so-called judgment criteria. In many cases the last three categories are equally or more important than the performance criteria in selecting one of several rocket engines for a specific application. The actual selection usually is a compromise to make the rocket engine responsive to several important criteria.