NASA Sets New Guinness World Record (44 Engines on a rocket)

[tjmagneto]

Just how many engines can NASA put on a rocket? 42 would have been a nice answer but NASA used 44, with most of them sounding more for show than go at first. The first thing that I thought of after reading the article was KSP

Quote

The Charged Aerosol Release Experiment II, or CARE II, studied the effects of dusty plasmas – charged particles that can occur naturally in the mesosphere -- and the bulk of the rocket engines were burned to form an exhaust cloud of dusty plasma used for the experiment. Only three of the CARE II engines contributed to launching the rocket. Another four engines were spin motors, which are used to reduce the impact dispersion of the rocket. The remaining 37 engines provided the exhaust cloud.

 

Edited August 20, 2016 by tjmagneto

[Scotius]

Any photos of that rocket before it...dispersed? It must have looked like a flying pancake LOL

[pincushionman]

How little does a motor need to contribute to be a "rocket"? Hate to be a naysayer here, but if only three rockets contributedto the lift and four provided spin…then you only had seven motors on your rocket.

[Kryten]

At most this is equaling the record, not setting one. N1 had 30 engines on first stage, plus two roll control motors; 8 on stage 2; and four on stage 3, making 44. I can't find any definitive statement on whether or not the flight with the non-dummy LOK also had functioning 4th and 5th stages, but if it did that makes 46 engines.

[Reactordrone]

6 hours ago, Scotius said:

Any photos of that rocket before it...dispersed? It must have looked like a flying pancake LOL

Payload size seems pretty normal so I'm assuming the rockets are very small.

 

http://sites.wff.nasa.gov/code810/news/story193.html

[Bill Phil]

5 hours ago, Kryten said:

At most this is equaling the record, not setting one. N1 had 30 engines on first stage, plus two roll control motors; 8 on stage 2; and four on stage 3, making 44. I can't find any definitive statement on whether or not the flight with the non-dummy LOK also had functioning 4th and 5th stages, but if it did that makes 46 engines.

Last I checked the upper stages never ignited.

8 hours ago, pincushionman said:

How little does a motor need to contribute to be a "rocket"? Hate to be a naysayer here, but if only three rockets contributedto the lift and four provided spin…then you only had seven motors on your rocket.

It's the presence of the motors I think... 

[Lukaszenko]

If I taped 50 bottle rockets together, would I set a new record?