Is it because the first two were prototypes so they bolted on whatever they needed without care for it looking nice or did they just refine it so much that they were able to simplify the design significantly?

[–] yeather@lemmy.ca 26 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

That and the march of progress, despite what some people believe we are still evolving at a rapid pace and engine outputs have significantly increased recently.

[–] DasFaultier@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 months ago

"Progress the like of which the world has never seen the like of which." (scnr)

[–] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 15 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The first two prototypes looked like what traditional rocket engine looks like.

For example:

The RS-25 engine that equipped the space shuttle and now the SLS launcher

The Vulcain 2.1 that is on the Ariane 6

SpaceX put a lot of work on refining the engine, they also already produced more than 600 engines ! It's a crazy amount !

[–] atocci@lemmy.world 14 points 3 months ago (2 children)

It's more of a refinement thing, where anything not absolutely necessary is removed, or 3D printed straight into the structure of the thing instead of added to the side.

[–] MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I’m sure there is also a lot of diagnostic equipment that became superfluous or redundant once they figured out how the engine ran.

[–] BastingChemina@slrpnk.net 6 points 3 months ago

I think this happened mostly between Raptor 1 and 2

[–] scytale@lemm.ee 19 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Needs a human for scale.

[–] Num10ck@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

its about the size of an american car

[–] monsieur_hackerman@programming.dev 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

So... Absolutely massive then.

[–] Num10ck@lemmy.world 10 points 3 months ago

in comparison the space shuttle engines were 14ft long and 7.5 feet in diameter. too large for your mom, but just barely.

[–] masterofn001@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 months ago

About 2 humans laying end to end in an Olympic size swimming pool in a football field.

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 16 points 3 months ago

At this rate the Raptor 13 will be a platonic cone, and the 300 will be singular point in manifold space

[–] IDew@lemm.ee 13 points 3 months ago

That is pretty impressive. Going from a clusterfuck of tubes and pipes to a very clean looking engine

[–] will_a113@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

FWIW the Raptor 3 here does not include the turbopump mechanism. It would look pretty much the same as the raptor 2 (which does have the pump attached).

[–] atocci@lemmy.world 23 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

No, that's wrong. This is, in fact, the entire engine. It's not missing anything. It was test fired in this configuration. It honestly looks surreal.