New GAR-E Hot Fire Test - August 22nd, 2024
New GAR-E achieved MACH's first sustained in-chamber ethanol and nitrous oxide hot fire at Launch Canada 2024 on August 22nd.
Attempt sequence
Two ignition attempts failed on August 20th. In the first, the gerb was expelled when the main valves opened and combustion occurred outside the chamber. The retention mechanism was changed before the second attempt. In that run the gerb fired, but the thermocouple did not reach the programmed threshold, so the main propellant valves remained closed.
The August 21st attempt combined a second igniter with a gerb. Video and a chamber-pressure spike showed brief ignition in the chamber, but combustion was not sustained. The ignition sequence was changed again before the August 22nd firing.
Result
The August 22nd run produced sustained combustion in the chamber. Post-test inspection found burn-through immediately upstream of the throat. A separate injector review identified fuel maldistribution; adding a second fuel inlet was proposed for a later injector.
Measurement limits
The chamber-pressure channel was invalid during the successful run. Startup thrust samples were also lost; the surviving force data covered the end of the burn, not the complete startup transient. Command-state telemetry was not recorded, so the ignition and valve times in the plot are inferred.
The force trace therefore cannot establish peak thrust or total impulse for this firing. A later PDR likewise states that the available GAR-E hot-fire thrust data did not have enough fidelity to determine thrust-coefficient efficiency.
Test Video
Test Data
Burn Telemetry
Team Photo
