This 20,000HP AI-generated rocket engine took just two weeks to design and looks like HR Giger's first attempt at designing a trumpet

HardwareThis 20,000HP AI-generated rocket engine took just two weeks to design and looks like HR Giger’s first attempt at designing a trumpetWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: LEAP 71)

An AI-generated rocket engine design, on a test bench ready to be fired

I’ve never looked at a rocket engine and thought “well that’s dull”, but this design makes all the others look positively pedestrian. That’s because, rather than the traditional process of countless engineers spending months, even years manually engineering a model in programs like CAD, this one wasdesigned in two weeks—thanks largely to AI.

Yep, that’s the sort of description Wallace,of Wallace and Gromit fame, would use to describe his latest rocket design. A “coaxial swirler”. What a time to be alive.

The engine is designed to produce 5 kN of thrust (equivalent to 500 kg/1120 lbs of lift mass or 20,000 horsepower), and Leap 71 says it would be suitable for the final “kick stage” of an orbital rocket.

The test firing took place at Airborne Engineering’s facilities in Wescott, UK, and if you’re the sort of person that likes to watch a rocket go off for giggles, boy do I have a video for you:

We just test fired a 20,000 horsepower AI-generated rocket engine - YouTubeWatch On

We just test fired a 20,000 horsepower AI-generated rocket engine - YouTube

Air-punching stuff, isn’t it? Copper seems initially like an odd choice for a rocket engine given its low melting point, but apparently it enables “compact high-performance engines” when actively cooled. For reasons that, to my admittedly dull mind, remain unclear. Still, the more you know.

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That being said, there’s a stark warning here. Leap 71 says that if cooling failed, it would melt immediately. A bit like myAMD Ryzen 7 7700Xthen. I kid, I kid.

That oddly-patterned design facilitates thin cooling channels that wrap around the chamber jacket, into which more kerosene is pumped to keep things chill, or relatively chill, I suppose, in rocket science terms. Not only that, but there’s something immediately recognisable as AI-generated in that swirling, fractal-like pattern.

The test fire was successful, as you can see, and the engine performed a full 12 second long-duration burn. That’s enough for Leap 71 to confidently declare it capable of a steady-state, which means it can essentially operated as long as needed in its capacity as a powerful booster.

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(Image credit: Future)

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That’s not to say it’s perfect, however. Some analysis performed on the engine after the test determined that the resistance of the cooling channels was higher than expected, a phenomenon attributed to the surface roughness of the 3D print. So there’s still some work to be done optimising the design before it potentially sees the boundaries of our planet, it seems.

And that’s the overall goal here. Josefine Lissner, the Managing Director of Leap 71 said: “We can now automatically create functional rocket thrusters and directly move to practical validation”

“Innovation in space propulsion is hard, and costly. With our approach, we hope to make space more accessible for everyone.”

So there we go. Aesthetically interesting, functional, and much quicker to implement than traditional designs. Perhaps AI generation might be the key to rocket engine developments of the future.

Now, I fancy a spot ofWenselydale. More cheese, Gromit?

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