Throttleable Liquid Propulsion Demonstrator

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Throttleable Liquid Propulsion Demonstrator (TLPD) is a prototype liquid-propellant rocket engine under development by the Polish Lukasiewicz Research Network - Institute of Aviation (Lukasiewicz-ILOT) for ESA. [1] [2] It uses storable propellant: hydrogen peroxide and ethanol and a 3D-printed combustion chamber. [3] The engine has a nominal thrust of 5 kN, and using a pintle injector, the thrust can be varied between 20% and 110%. [1] TLPD is part of ESA's Future Launchers Preparatory Programme (FLPP). [4] [1] Test firings were performed in 2024 [2] [5] and 2025. [6] The 2025 test campaign added water cooling to the engine's combustion chamber, allowing for longer tests of up to a minute at a time. [7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Variable-Thrust Rocket Engine Passes Initial Hot-Fire Tests
  2. 1 2 Promising early tests for variable-thrust landing engine
  3. ↑ 3DPrinting.com (2025-02-25). "Polish Rocket Engine With 3D Printed Combustion Chamber Achieves Successful Variable-Thrust Testing". 3D Printing. Retrieved 2025-09-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. ↑ Cieśliński, Dawid; Okniński, Adam; Ranachowski, Michał; Molik, Marcin; Bartkowiak, Bartosz; Matysek, Krzysztof; Kutnik, Krystian; Gorgeri, Aleksander; Ogórek, Grzegorz; Borys, Maciej (2025-09-01). "On development of green storable liquid rocket engine with thrust variation". Acta Astronautica. 234: 560–574. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.05.020. ISSN   0094-5765.
  5. ↑ Parsonson, Andrew (2024-08-12). "ESA and Poland Test Fire Variable-Thrust Rocket Engine". European Spaceflight. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  6. ↑ Parsonson, Andrew (2025-02-25). "Poland Completes Second Variable-Thrust Rocket Engine Test Campaign". European Spaceflight. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
  7. ↑ "Vary that thrust: longer hot-fire of Throttleable Liquid Propulsion Demonstrator". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2025-09-27.
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