Rocket Engine Cycles: How do you power a rocket engine?

Rocket engines are incredibly complex machines, pushing the boundaries of material science and human ingenuity. And there’s a wide range of ways you can actually power a rocket engine and make it work. They can be super simple, like just opening the valves of a tank under high pressure to having complex pumps arranged in a fashion so confusing it’s a miracle anyone ever figured out how to build them in the first place. So today we’re going to talk about cold gas, pressure fed, electric pump fed, open cycle, closed cycle, full flow staged combustion, tap off and expander cycles. We’ll go over their pros and cons and lots of fun examples of each one! Check out our article version of this video too for sources and links! - 00:00 - Intro 02:55 - Basics Of Rocket Engines 05:35 - Cold Gas Thrusters 10:25 - Monopropellant Pressure Fed 14:15 - Bipropellant Pressure Fed 17:45 - Electric Pump Fed 21:05 - Open Cycle 25:40 - Closed Cycle [Ox Rich] 31:15 - Close