Igniter

Of course, simply injecting fuel and oxidizer into the chamber at high pressures is not enough to start a rocket engine; some sort of ignition system is needed to supply the activation energy required to facilitate combustion, like a spark plug in an internal combustion engine. For this purpose, Prometheus will use what is called a torch igniter. This ignition system involves the mixing and combustion of gaseous fuel and oxidizer in a separate prechamber mounted on the injector parallel to the flow. The energy provided by the igniter is then used in the main combustion chamber for ignition. The torch igniter will use gaseous propane as its fuel and gaseous oxygen as its oxidizer, which will be ignited via spark plug. Like the main engine, the igniter’s body will also consist of copper. This torch igniter design was chosen over others due to its reusability and its extensive documentation in academic literature, which allows us to create more accurate models and predict the igniter’s performance with greater confidence.