Rocket Lab, a California-headquartered aerospace company, has completed the 100th build of its 3D printed Rutherford rocket engine.
Rocket Lab’s Rutherford engine is the first electric-pump-fed to be used in an orbital rocket. According toPeter Beck，该发动机是Rocket Lab的创始人兼首席执行官，“在使Rocket Lab能够使频繁而可靠的小卫星成为现实中，发挥了不可或缺的作用，”
“这证明了我们创新的设计和制造团队，我们已经完成了短短几年内将要做的一切。”
有希望的“无与伦比的性能”和“ 100％发射可靠性”卢瑟福是该公司追求私人太空探索的基石。
卢瑟福液体发动机
2009年，火箭实验室推出了第一个火箭Ātea, a suborbital sounding rocket used to take scientific measurements in space. The Ātea weighs only sixty kilos and can carry a payload of up to two kg.
After the success of Ātea’s launch, Rocket Lab introduced the Electron, a two-stage launch vehicle, which uses the Rutherford liquid-propellant engine. Made of carbon composites the Electron can carry up to 225 kilos of payload.
One of the unique things about the Electron is that the Rutherford engines used in the rocket are powered by 3D printed liquid propellants which are capable of peaking a thrust of 120N. The Electron uses nine Rutherford engines and each propellant in the engine is 3D printed using electron beam melting (EBM) technology.
Now the company is celebrating the success of 100th print of its Rutherford engines.在实现这一里程碑时，火箭实验室推进副总裁拉克兰·柴尼特（Lachlan Matchett）说，“卢瑟福的独特设计无疑与传统的火箭推进系统的谷物相抵触，因此要进入100架飞行的发动机，超过28,000秒的发动机测试运行时间和7个成功的推出是对团队的骄傲时刻，”
上个月，第七电子火箭从新西兰的火箭实验室发射综合大楼进行了测试。在接下来的十二个月中，该公司计划在其亨廷顿海滩工厂生产200辆卢瑟福引擎。
Reducing payload costs
In recent years, additive manufacturing has become one of the most endorsed technologies in the space industry with some organizations promoting its use for可持续太空旅行。这样做的一部分原因是3D打印零件更轻，因此它们会影响车辆的整体重量。
在太空行业中，这是一个巨大的好处，因为有效载荷的成本可能在每公斤10,000至100,000美元之间。如果可以通过使用3D打印零件来减少火箭的总重量，那么可以削减有效载荷成本，并且可以增加火箭的有效负载能力。
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Featured image shows the team of Rocket Lab celebrating the 100th 3D print of the Rutherford engine. Image via Rocket Lab.
