Rocket Engine Cycles - How Do You Power a Rocket Engine?

This was a good course"Rocket Engine Cycles- How Do You Power a Rocket Engine?" discussing number of engine types with a main focus on engine cycles. Here we look at where cycle defines energy as pristo, turbo charged and super. Also, the full flow closed cycle, the tap-off, the open cycle or the combustion cycle going into some depth as to how the cycles operate (as a sample the Merlin 10 with a gas generator engine). This as fairly one of the more known cycle types where the exhaust gases that were used are dumped overboard into the open air wasting some of the propellant.
Looking further into rocket engines and their cycles, starting the course off somewhat with Newton's third law being for every action there is and equal and opposite reaction. This being said as tiny molecules react to high velocity so the converting of pressure and heat inside the combustion chamber creates kinetic energy and so forth.
Here in this course we also had a look at the cold gas thruster which is reviewed as a simple system that is reliable but not really as efficient as other systems but used mainly in smaller rocket engines. Despite their low efficiency they have been used in three space shuttle missions in the rocket jet pack.
A higher performance engine the mono-pressure fed engine taps into the energy of the propellant or dual propellant engine. Another engine the electric pumpe fed engine could run a rocket engine with pressure from the pump and an electric motor and could be powered by an added battery here also (in some cases battery powered could weigh upwards and over a ton). This engine has been used before and has made it to orbit.
Some time is spent on rocket fuel that could be used to power the propellants and the pumps. It was interesting to look at what might be used at the developmental stages in order to get into orbit but with a farther distance in mind also. It seems this will need more testing and drone missions but the industry is on it's way to the future. Now the instructor also goes on to go to further depth with the varied cycles with the oxygen rich open cycle, also known as the gas generator cycle and the fuel-rich closed cycle and on to the simple but high performance tap-off cycle or also known as the full flow staged combustion cycle. The Firefly would be the first rocket to each orbit with the tap-off cycle. One other cycle that has pumps but doesn't have a gas generator is the expander cycle using the heat of the engine to run the engine.
To quote the summary in the last section "There is no best cycle, only trade-offs and compromises in efficiency and reliability." Again this was a good course that spent some valuable time discussing basic rocket engines and their cycles with very relevant information on the subject with regard to today's rockets that have either went into orbit or have made an attempt. Thank you for the video course material this was helpful.

Thank you,

Tina Lombard o
Class Central