Building more efficient and affordable rocket engines with Horizon Europe-funded ENLIGHTEN project

The rocket engine is one of the most important and costly parts of a launcher. Developing more efficient, affordable and reusable engines is therefore essential to making European launch services more competitive and ensuring Europe can independently send satellites into space.

The EU-funded ENLIGHTEN (European Initiative for Low-cost, Innovative and Green High-Thrust Engine) project is developing a demonstrator for a new high-thrust engine powered by liquid hydrogen. Its objective is to make rocket engines cheaper to manufacture and easier to maintain and reuse.

To achieve this, the project uses advanced 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, to reduce production costs and the number of individual engine components. It also applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to develop an engine health monitoring system, allowing potential problems to be detected and engine performance to be monitored throughout its operation.

By advancing these technologies, ENLIGHTEN aims to support the development of more affordable and reusable European launchers. This will strengthen Europe's industrial expertise, improve the competitiveness of its launch sector and contribute to its autonomous access to space.