Recent developments in rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) technology have shown significant performance advantages over standard constant pressure combustors and hence are the subject of increased R&D efforts around the globe. Basic thermodynamic studies have shown that the specific impulse benefit from the rotating detonation cycle can be as high as 10% to 15% - which is game-changing when applied to launch and in-space propulsion systems. Other performance enhancements over state-of-the art liquid rocket engines include reduced overall engine length by up to 50% or more, rapid completion of combustion requiring an order of magnitude lower chamber L*, and extremely low coolant channel pressure drop for regenerative engines due to the unique geometry and heat flux profile of the RDRE.

This ACO utilized previous technology development by NASA in regenerative AM GRCop-Alloy combustion chambers that have been operated for extended durations, with multiple starts, and subjected to extreme combustion environments. These chambers have been subjected to several thousand seconds of cumulative run time demonstrating hardware survivability and reliability. Both technological knowhow and capabilities that were gained to design and build these advanced chambers during the previous technology development work are crucial to furthering RDRE technology. Additionally, NASA has pioneered high fidelity computational fluid dynamic (CFD) models to predict operating conditions for RDREs. As such, this work utilized the highly successful and proven AM regeneratively-cooled technologies developed, IN Space's RDRE design experience, and NASA's expert pressure gain modeling capability to rapidly develop a space engine application RDRE.

Rotating detonation rocket engine technology has shown significant performance advantages over standard constant pressure combustors and hence are the subject of increased R&D efforts around the globe. Basic thermodynamic studies have shown that the specific impulse benefit from the rotating detonation cycle can be as high as 10% to 15% - which is game-changing when applied to launch and in-space propulsion systems. Significant efforts have been put into gaining only 1% of specific impulse (ISP) in traditional constant pressure engines, while an RDRE that delivers even 1 – 2% improvement would be a major advancement in spaceflight. Numerous laboratory-scale tests around the world have been conducted demonstrating sustained detonation with the majority of these tests showing that the technology is capable of exceeding the performances of traditional constant pressure engines.