Talk:Merlin (rocket engine)

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[edit] Fastrac

Is it true that the Merlin engine uses the same technology as NASA's (cancelled) Fastrac project? --NeuronExMachina 03:19, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I don't know all of the details, but here's an article on Fastrac and one on TRW's Low Cost Pintle Engine (LCPE) for future reference. Both engines were designed at roughly the same time and Tom Mueller, now VP of Propulsion at SpaceX, was on (led?) the LCPE team for TRW. Because of this, I would expect that Merlin would look more like LCPE than Fastrac. The merlin engine has roughly the same thrust as Fastrac and about 1/10 the thrust of LCPE. I guess I wouldn't be surprised to see a SpaceX design that looks an awful lot like LCPE coming out in the future.Dschmelzer 17:42, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

There's some discussion on the a-rocket mailing list that indicates SpaceX may have associated the turbopump with the Fastrac design, but that it's actually a clean sheet design. This level of detail is well beyond my expertise though. Dschmelzer 19:27, 23 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Article name

Should this article be at Merlin (rocket engine), sort of like Kestrel (rocket engine)? --NeuronExMachina 07:42, 18 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Done --Duk 20:19, 4 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Propose merger

I'd like to propose that Merlin 1B and Merlin 2 be merged into Merlin (rocket engine). The two child articles are very brief stubs, and not much outside information is available about the separate models. These models can adequately be covered as sections for the main Merlin article. If enough detail about one model becomes available in the future then it can be broken out. At this point the breakout just results in unnecessary clicking. --StuffOfInterest 17:21, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Sounds good --Duk 17:29, 17 November 2006 (UTC)

Done. With the possible launch in a couple of days it seemed to prudent to get the cleanup done before the likely visitors show up. --StuffOfInterest 00:22, 18 January 2007 (UTC)