Does ARCAspace's Water & Electric Powered Rocket Make Sense? 

Especially as fuel "disappears" when you burn it, meanwhile you gotta take those batteries all the way with you!

Yes, 48 megawatts is a lot of power.

This is outside my area of expertise, but wouldn't all those batteries eventually become a lot of hazardous waste anyway? You can only re-use them so many times right?

@@SgtHappyHands at the crazy load rate they would need to be discharged in this rocket concept, the batteries could be used a couple of dozen times at best, with performance measurably degrading every launch.

@@charlesfowler4308 You can drop the batteries. Use air bag lithobraking like Spirit and Opportunity for the packs. Funny enough, this design makes the rocket extension cord possible. It's all gravity losses and TWR for first stages. If the first two seconds of flight are tethered, that's that many fewer batteries needed. Add a simple rammed air generator and you can get the landing power regenerativly. I wouldn't even call it a traditional first stage, more like a Kickstarter stage maximizing TWR and only TWR, so the ISP stages can do their jobs.

*SWEEEEEET!!!!* 😊😊😊😊

Hahahaha! That's a good one.

Wonder what the ISP of that reaction is...

Dmitry is gonna steal your idea, look out for the press release seeking sponsorship from the Coca Cola brand

I wonder if that failed *_"New Coke"_* would improve the Isp? 😊

TBF as we moving forward in battery tech and fusion technology, or if just using some chemical, this thing could be really neat idea. Its not like its a bad idea having water powered rockets, if we gonna be launching rockets every day in a future space-age.

@@MouseGoat Its actually kinda cool if you consider mined water in the next 100 odd years.

LiPo: Lithium-Polonium?!!

Well actually, the exhaust in the form of water vapor higher up in the atmosphere can become a potent greenhouse gas, way worse than CO2. The CO2 knocks the water cycle off balance by slightly raising temperatures, but straight up adding water vapor to the atmosphere at these altitudes is even worse for the delicate balance.

Water vapor as a form of self reinforcing feedback loop requires global higher levels of evaporation driven by the sun and enabled by higher average temperatures.

Stuck a bunch of electric oven bits in a sphere, good to go.

I doubt it is going to work out... but hey, if they can pull it off power too them.

Jebediah Junkyard?

No one's gonna top that.

1 Question: why is there first a typical nozzle, and now Scott talks about an SSTO that has an aerospike? If they want to launch the rocket on an aerospike engine, why do they make experiments with standard nozzles? btw aerospike SSTO sucks

Lol good one

But "clean"... 😂

Go to 5:41 and look at that specific impulse, 50-65 seconds. An SRB gets about 300 seconds in vacuum. This is more the efficiency of a nitrogen cold gas thruster.

Hey I am sure EU will very much like to fund this Green new initiative! And I hope that fund is ''repurposed'' to fund actual rocket!

I could be mistaken, but isn't water vapor one of the most potent greenhouse gases?

@@Verpal EU actually doesn't fund bad ideas like this one. The closest fund dedicated for experimental stuff like that is actually Horizon 2020. Look its projects up.

You wouldn't have launch at the lunch pad? ARCA is giving away FREE FUEL with every order, take a seat and enjoy the show. ARCA POP-CORN and cold fuel, what could be better?

Must be hungry while editing

L U N C H T I M E

That's not a typo, Rockets at Breakfast and Dinner are perfectly safe and zero-emission.

@@Fred_the_1996 this killed me

*Neon Genesis Evangelion music starts

On the launchpad: Rocket explodes. Arca: Curses! Out-of-spec Chinese knockoff cable!

hey, how about Bluetooth power

They could heat from the ground with a laser

@@michaelcombrink8165 DONT POINT IT AT ME

@@koseq7 Pun patrol.... hmm.... It would be a great idea to start a dedicated pun patrolling society on reddit!

This conversation is getting super heated.

@@koseq7 oh shit, pun patrol bot has escaped the reddit platform.. ..this is how we get SkyNet.

@Andy Solomons What's the problem? Can't take the _punishment_ ?

badumtssss

Too many beans.

When the whole office goes out for "taco Tuesday".

They could hook up all the customers asses in Taco Bell as a fuel source.

::Taco Bell intensifies::

Yeah. Same here with my home made curries.

And Scott has been called out as deterring investors with this video.

@@philb5593 no shit, you shouldn’t be investing in it lol

I think there were only two or three with the water heater. It's the chicken gun and remote-steered cars that happen over and over and over.

Nope, this is a legendary episode and every fan knows it

Cement truck... (Mic drop)

And the heater rocket

@@TheRysiu120 The moment Scott mentioned it, I IMMEDIATELY knew which episode he was talking about.

Rockets eat fuel for lunch And humans for breakfast

Fly safe.... no wait... eat safe!

lol at lunch

I was about to comment this lolz

English isn't their first language. How much Romanian do you know?

Well.. As it's heat they're after, a thermal runaway in the batteries might not be a bad thing. :) Would make them single use only though.

Actually, this Picture Looks as if it was from their "hoverboard", I don't know what they'd be using ducted fans for on a rocket. That aside, these are 5000 mAh 5s packs, coming in at 92.5 Wh per pack, about 64 packs in the picture for a total capacity of ~6 kWh. These have enough capacity to provide 42 MW for 0.5 seconds precisely (of course, at a rated burst discharge of 35C, they would need 100 times this amount of cells to be able to actually provide 42 MW, with a total weight of 38 tons (each pack weighs in at 590g) - exactly 1.5 times their stated thrust of 25 tons. So no, this "rocket" is not going anywhere.

@@kain0mBut if you could beam the power to the rocket... hmm hmm …

Maybe there's also a steam turbine with an electric generator, heat recovery, solar pannels and a little Peter Pan who wouldn't grow up. :)

@@nt78stonewobble And as an added bonus you could use the antenna (for the beamed power) as a sail!

Does it work?

@@epincion Yes. Well? No.

Criminal Romanian scumbag now back in his home country, trying to coax and dupe more investor money since his Ponzi-aerospike scheme ended in his arrest in New Mexico. Interpol and Europol should be on the lookout for this con-man!

Jerry Rupprecht ☆ Romania? Isn't that where MOST Hackers operate from? Guccifer? "Me: Totally Legit"

I'm betting that all that funding for their various projects is NOT going where it's supposed to. Whether to the projects they actually want to do or just generally disappearing into pockets, their lack of focus tells me there's something up.

with the added benefit of building a space elevator on ascend 700IQ move

Considering that battery weight that may be a more reasonable proposal.

@@iangrapes6659 Yep. Even a 5 Megawatt electricity generator & a big tank of diesel would probably be lighter than all those batteries

@@passthebutterrobot2600 but then again power density wouldn't be great

@@passthebutterrobot2600 Power It with lasers

Having Launch at Lunch Pad now. Got my ARCA raincoat ready. Today's special is, ARCA home-made french fries and a glass full of ARCA FUEL. What can go wrong? Tips are not going to ARCA, will be sent to ROSA .

I'm more concerned about second breakfast.

This is going to become a running gag XD

THe hydrogen-oxygen rocket engines produce ... steam ... which is environmentally benign, same as what the sun evaporates off the oceans.

I tell you, those rockets are worse than cows..

Walgreens is too high class for this... Wal-Mart however...

The one from walgreens would probably make it further

Alan to be fair I would give them money just to fuck with engines

EXACTLY!

Fucking rockets, man. Forget the highways

I sort of agree. I've been following them for quite a long time, and I don't see their point at all. But, they are actually doing it, they are actually building a booster using their very own hardware and doing real tests, and I can't argue with that. I hope they get something positive out of it.

Yep, must be cool to be in the project and people with a passion often learn a lot even if the main project fails. Who knows they might spawn another Musk or Manley from there.

Only problem is they are doing it on investor money and these investors were probably sold on the idea that they have a viable concept.

@@bawlzack7877 Well if their pitch was "We will try all kinds of cool stuff and see what happens" then fine, if they straight out lied then of course not.

Oh they keep building stuff all the time all right; they just hardly ever actually test any of it, and fly anything almost never.

Hahahaha! Well put!

*Elon Musk : for sure*

I have a feeling if they fired everyone who did drugs on the Apollo program it might have never gotten off the ground.

Olivia Lambert you go first ...they’ll say. 😂🐸

NASA people are not like JPL people. VERY different worlds! I could believe most of NASA in the 50s and 60s was "drug" free, meaning they all drank like drag queens and smoked like chimneys.

They even have hot water to run the washing machine

That might be where they got their idea...

Wonder if they could make a controlled steam explosion just the rocket off the ground then light it's engine at the top of it's appogee. Funny but not practical lmao

@@pulsarsbeam6411 Well, technically, that what the valves & anciliary equipment do. With the _upshot_ being, that you can reuse it.

I thought of Evel Knievel at Snake River Canyon.

That's basically what they're doing… And frankly, it's not a bad idea. If it adds less than a million dollars of cost to, say, a Falcon 9 launch, but adds a million dollars worth of payload, then there's little real reason NOT to use such a kick stage. Only thing I can think of is that you don't get to test the Merlins before releasing the clamps.@@pulsarsbeam6411

Oh good, I wasn't the only person who noticed that. Those things puff after a couple runs _on the ground_ -- what will happen to them when they're used _in space?_

Made in China, for ROCKETS? WHY NOT, IF YOU THINK LIKE ARCA, HAHA.

Shoestring budget. Desperate times etc etc

@DreamSmasher Yeeeeeeeah no. IMagine how much water it wastes, for one. How insane the amount of batteries the fuckin thing has for two, the cost of lithium in general... Yeah I'll keep my money in hydrogen cars.

I think I would use a cryorocket and have it heat up a couple peripheral steam rockets

And if there’s a propellant spill, instead of spilling scalding water, you spill hydrogen and oxygen, which will evaporate instantly on contact with the hot Florida air and mix with the atmosphere.

@@alt8791 is that a sprucccc reference???

Aerojet Rocketdyne RS-25 no, it’s a real facts reference.

Well it does interact with atmosphere somewhat and does create few toxic gases.

LOL, but actually all rockets that burn hydrogen are steam rockets.

har har har

this looks for me too. When I see the first time their project I got excited, but we never see any result...

That's probably why he's not in America now You do that too much and an investor/s can take you to court and get control of the company under certain conditions.

At least they are doing stuff with it. Potentially useless stuff... but stuff none the less. They could be just spending it all on blow.

@@josephmarsh5031 exactly, at some point i think some of them might point to this at a engineering job interview ;)

Yeah he was investigated and charged because during the divorce his wife said something to that effect to the police or her new boyfriend, lol. I think the company receives government money at times too. And like Scott is being a little silly here. The ride on hoverboard did sell units and generated both capital and publicity for the company. Honestly I don't think it's a scam. The CEO is just an incredibly hardworking and ambitious young guy from Romania who has run into a little more than the average amount of set backs and has tried to do incredible and original things on a limited budget. If anything I could say that this cab was rare But I thought nah, forget it, yo homes to Bel-air!

I was just hoping they could get aerospike airborne even if nothing pan out after that.

I don't think it's a scam, I've been following Arca since early last year. I think Arca have given an insight into the reality faced by many startups, not many actually succeed, but we don't hear about them. I hope they can keep going, I'd love to the aerospike in operation.

Not taking into account the fact that everything takes energy and materials to produce. It's not like rockets pop out of thin air. Materials have to be mined etc.

Batteries have to be charged. Burning fuel to make electricity to charge batteries wastes energy compared to just burning the fuel outright as propellant - you loose effeciency with every step. Of course, you could in theory use solar or wind power, but in real life these have their own list of shortcomings. On the other hand, coal is more abundant than oil, and good luck making a rocket that uses coal as fuel...

@@Keldor314 No shit, turning coal into a liquid was a popular thing back in the 1850's. Pretty easy too.

@@Keldor314 With a HOME-MADE FIBERGLASS BOILER?

Why did he say that?

That one seemed to be one of their good ideas, yeah.

Having a lawyer for a wife can be both the greatest blessing and the worst nightmare...

There actually is a company working on that, no joke. They do mining with high speed impact cannons and want to use it to launch microsats. Can't remember the name.

Robert Smith Well mass drivers have always sparked interest

You could build a ginormous rail gun that would shoot a rocket inside a case, which opens up once high enough for the rocket to take over. The only downside I foresee is the crew being liquefied.

@@pleasestandby5954 I was thinking of the Bull guns

@@pleasestandby5954 would be a perfect plan on the moon or any celestial object without an atmosphere.

Reevaluate your subscriptions....?

ZedNinetySix Oh, just like the pathological sociopath Elon & Co. and his fluffers: HE INVENTED ELECTRICITY, ELECTRIC CARS, BATTERIES, ROCKETS, REUSABLE ROCKETS, HE INVENTED TUNNELS TOO (Boring Co.)!!!!1!11!111

They act as if they invented the steam rocket. "We don't use old-fashioned (with disgust) traditional rockets. This new steam is the future!" They say. But Evel Knievel used a steam rocket. "Mad" Mike Hughes used steam rockets. It's an old idea.

It must be made from brass and launched from zeppelin.

@@s0meb0dyunkn0wn4 I would fund that. :-D

@@s0meb0dyunkn0wn4 Actually, you could get some altitude boost with a large zeppelin! Just make sure the balloon survives superheated steam and you're set!

LOL, that is some ballon you got there..

If you wanted to design a steampunk rocket, this is a good place to start. If you want a practical rocket...

Yes. And a badly designed at that. The battery section produces less thrust than it weighs. Never mind replacing it with something better, they could just remove it, and improve what sad performance this has.

@@MVHiltunen Considering it's electrically heated, why not just heat it on the launchpad and insulate the tank really well so it stays hot? As a first stage presumably it's not gonna be burning all that long, it doesn't have to stay heated does it?

@@masterofthelag8414 It indeed seems to be preheated already. The pressure rating of the vessel sets limits to how hot you can make it initially. When it starts expanding, the temperature of the whole water column starts to fall, and before long it will no longer even boil. At that point the rocket is dead weight.

John Doe ☆ 3 million liter coke bottle!

I really like those water rockets from the 60s where you pump up the sir pressure & they spurt all over everything and jump up about 20 feet. Kind of like Scott's logo.

I doubt it would work. Assuming the first stage is 3/4 water and the specific impulse is 125 s, you only get 1800 m/s delta-V, which means with gravity losses you're barely at Mach 4. Turbojets get you there far more easily and even those are a bit impractical.

@@ThomasKwa What? How can you say you get to mach 4? The booster is a tiny part of the rocket, its weight and speed will depend on that rocket more than the booster, right? And Isp of 125s is basically half of the SRB used on Atlas 5 (245s). Considering how cheap these would be and how low the dry mass of the water bottle is, it MIGHT be worth it, no?

MrRolnicek, another point you did not mention which I think speaks in their favor: You cannot control the thrust of solid rocket booster which they are trying to replace. That means SRBs will never support vertical take off and landing (VTOL), however their system is supposed to be capable of that. So a super simple system, filled with water, which give the rocket a boost and then lands, to be refilled with water again. That sound like a pretty cheap way of boosting rocket over time to me.

Does the whole booster have to be a pressure vessel if all of the water is already superheated?

@@ThomasKwa In their paper they claim altitudes of 3000 m and velocity boosts of Mach 2.They claim this will allow them to boost payload of attached rocket with 30%. Would that not be worth it? I mean you just spend electricity and water. The think is supposed to support propulsive landing, and can thus be reused.

Because Uranium isn't exactly commonly available due to regulations.

@@Rob-yu6tk Says the cheap ripoff of Rosetta...

bEcAuSe hOt mEtAl bAd

Just a few ...

Especially when it inevitably crashes

Just use coal like a steam train, lol

There are several surface-to-orbit designs based on nuclear thermal rockets, but they use liquid hydrogen. It’s a bad idea in general, since nuclear rockets really don’t have the thrust to launch from Earth.

Uranium fission e.g. nuclear thermal saltwater is amazingly good for space only operations. Best way to use water / steam propulsion for surface launch is via ground based lasers for remote heating of the propellant

Were you watching in 1080p? When a video is uploaded it takes a few minutes for 1080p to become available.

@@motmontheinternet mine did it to i just clicked it and i had to wait like a minute or so before it stopped loading and started

@@motmontheinternet im not sure probably not. I was just providing some good-natured ribbing. Although RU-vid hasnt been my favorite, ethics-wise, lately.

It is just a less efficient engine than traditional ion engines with Xenon gas. But admittedly as water is denser, it has better TWR but ultimately will have less ISP overall. It might find its uses, need to land somewhere, that's what the ion engiens can't do since they lack the necessary TWR. Could come in handy for landing small payloads on the Moon. But for interplanetary journeys, Ion engines are better for small payloads For inhabited spacecraft, Nukes are the (for now) only way to go, I'm afraid. You just need the water for the ship itself (radiation shielding and water for the life of the astronauts, you just don't want to vent your precious water into space. Until more powerful magnetoplasmic engines or fusion engines or whatever warpdrive thingys are invented, the nukes will be the only engine for crewed flights to other planets, acceleration can make some gravity for the comfort of the astronauts and their health, plus making the trip shorter to the same purpose. But small landers as Beresheet could use some electrical water engines, especially if they land in an area with weter ice and if they are eqquipped with a ISRU for the return trip.

There is water all over our galaxy and getting fuel from the moon or asteriods is a huge efficiency savings than carrying it out from earths surface. Check out youtube channel "Tmro" they have an interview with a company doing Space Tugs powered by microwave super heated water.

@@quoniam426 "Until more powerful magnetoplasmic engines or fusion engines or whatever warpdrive thingys are invented, the nukes will be the only engine for crewed flights to other planets, acceleration can make some gravity for the comfort of the astronauts and their health, plus making the trip shorter to the same purpose. " Are you talking about an Orion Drive style ship driven by nuclear bombs? Cause Nuclear thermal rockets don't have the ISP to fire for particularly long. Centrifuges are a much more feasible means of producing artificial gravity during long trips than thrust.

"has the Isp of nuclear rockets" yeah, 67 vs >900

Planetfall) Not entirely true. The NERVA engine back in ‘68 had an isp around 900s and did full thrust test burns that exceeded an HOUR of full thrust on a number of occasions. They even went through the trouble of flight rating it for a proposed mission to Mars in 1982, though it never actually flew.

no

Fortunately steam pressure vessels never explode

@@flyingskyward2153 looooool

@@flyingskyward2153 They don't! (As long as you just call it a rapid unscheduled release of pressure or something novel)

I get the joke and had the same reaction. But some propellants (especially oxidisers) form contact/shock explosives in the rubber seals in the plumbing, or self-disassociate violently upon shock (which is fun if you get hydraulic backlash (hammer) in the pipes). While others are completely stable until mixed/burnt/exposed-to-a-catalyst.

All earth to orbit rockets use a substained explosion. Even steam. Just plug any rocket nozzle-boom ! It was even studied to use nuclear bombs, one after another, under the rocket, to go to space (moon?) I wonder if Manly has done a video on that one !

competition :D

'competitor' maybe... 'competition' not really

letsgetverydrunk Yeah, hopefully they can get back to the aerospike eventually.

Just as soon as they get that repeal of the laws of physics through the senate...they're good to go.

so a ton of batteries?... per second 😂🤣

That would technically be a plasma thruster.

Yes. Get close to the Planck temperature and that steam will give you a specific impulse higher than you need for sure.

just skip the waters and go for the spark plug plasma rocket?

@@markus5888 shoot with big hot laser from ground.

Dream big, design small. The reason mad scientists don't really exist is because 1) magic doesn't work in real life, and 2) gonzo ideas are primarily useful for making mad scientists explode.

I remember a flat earther building a steak rocket that successfully launched, however he made it just under a km

@@nikkothegoblin a steak rocket you say? I'm intrigued, yet sceptical.

You know what, I’m not even going to correct that. A steak rocket sounds sick

Well, the Mythbusters did launch a salami rocket, so I don't see why a steak one wouldn't work...

@@AttilaAsztalos But the salami rocket was a failure, only propelled by the Nos gas :p

Steam punk for sure..

Tweed spacesuits would be amazing...

Nose baggers be warned!Daddle your fly rinks and heave your gas pipes we set out to put giggle mugs on the jamiest of jams. There is no parish pick-axe as dapper nor saucebox as afternoonified, as this dark cully door-knocker and duds.

...fishbowl for helmet?

@@AttilaAsztalos And ARCA SPACESUITS FROM A FLEA MARKET. CHEAP ONES ARCA CERTIFIED. ONLY IN ROMANIA. GO ARCA POTATO HEADS, GETTER DONE.

You have been chosen by ARCA to have Launch at the Lunch Pad. Every order comes with a nice cold glass of fuel, FREE. How exciting this will be, just don't forget that rain coat. They will pick you up at the launch bar at the Airport. Then enjoy your ride in the Aerospike car, how cool is that. Send us all a Post card when you arrive.

I'm very jealous. Imagine how many R/C batteries and other gear they can repurpose for personal enjoyment :-)

@@benbaselet2026 Well at least they purchased all the defective batteries from China.

Fleecing the starry-eyed greenies who don't know enough about actual rocket science to find the flaws.

That is a brilliant ideea, i am thinking at thisfor years..

xD

And it has more than 2 isp

@Jim - "jesus crust" LOL!

Jesus Crust is having his last launch on the lunch pad now. Hope he brings his Jesus rain coat. Then tells Mister Potato Head the pearly gates are closed until further notice. ARCA POTATO HEADS HAVE SINED, "Thou shalt not steal". Deported from the U.S.A. for LIFE, BANNED AFTER DEATH.

Most power in Romania is from coal. Coal powered rocket

If half of your rocket is batteries and your rocket is not reusable... I have doubts on how eco-friendly or cheap it is. Just using cryogenic hydrogen+oxygen might be better. If they manage to reuse it than it might work but still a lot of doubts on how many times will you be able to use it.

@Dave54600 one flat earther also developed steam rocket. It succesfully flew 1800 feet into the air. So flat earthers are ahead in this field

@@tedarcher9120 As is pretty much everywhere, if you didn't know.

Nice burn.

It still is, IMO.

That depends on what you had for lunch

H2O arcjets powered by an OP reactor with almost no radiators?

Jep, the Teakettle modus. First thing that came to my mind while watching the video.

​@@leerman22 Direct energy conversion of ions to electricity and using a fusion reaction that doesn't produce neutrons as a byproduct makes for very little waste heat (still enough that you'd see glowing red radiators SOMEWHERE, but maybe they're using the engine bells for that since they already need to contain extremely high temperatures).

@@44R0Ndin There's still a lot of photon energy to deal with. Ignoring photon energy 100W of charged particles collected for 90% efficiency means there is still 100W of heat to remove without melting anything. All other systems like life support and weapons need their own cooling. The reaction mass is far hotter than any material can take so there would have to be red-yellow-white hot radiators somewhere ofc. The engine bells alone wouldn't keep up with that without melting. Children of a Dead Earth ship design is so much more realistic it just needs a very efficient Epstein Drive.

I thought teakettle is just standard solid core fusion rocket? So same as NTR, but replace fission reactor with fusion reactor, and with water as reaction mass. Epstein's original prototype was a fusion rocket of some sort with some custom modification that made it magical. Why would you use fusion-electric propulsion when you could be using fusion thermal?

You nailed it, Buddy!

There are 1,000 fun ways to move a rocket around if you first imagine you have a reliable source of tons of energy that doesn't weigh much.

Павел Котов *Nods in E.T.*

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