Picture: Aconity3D
As part of an interdisciplinary collaboration with research institutions and industry partners, Aconity3D has successfully conducted a hot-fire test of a fully functional aerospike rocket engine—designed entirely by artificial intelligence and produced in a single manufacturing step using laser powder bed fusion (LPBF). The engine was printed from the high-temperature-resistant copper alloy CuCrZr.
The test was carried out using the AconityMIDI+ production system, equipped with an IPG YLR 3000/1000 AM laser system. Post-processing involved depowdering by Solukon, while the Fraunhofer ILT performed heat treatment and material refinement. The University of Sheffield’s Race 2 Space team supported test preparation. Remarkably, the first hot-fire test of the 5-kN kerolox engine was already successful.
The engine’s design was generated by “Noyron”, an AI-based computational engineering model developed by LEAP 71. Noyron integrates physical models, geometric constraints, and performance parameters into executable code, enabling it to autonomously create production-ready designs—entirely without human CAD input.
The aerospike geometry incorporates regenerative cooling, where liquid oxygen and kerosene flow through an intricate network of internal channels before entering the combustion chamber. This design maintains thermal stability during operation—typically a major manufacturing challenge for such high-performance engines.
Following the success of the 5-kN prototype, Aconity3D is now planning a scaled-up version with 20 kN thrust, designed to run on methane and liquid oxygen (LOX). The results highlight the transformative potential of combining AI-driven design with metal additive manufacturing for next-generation aerospace propulsion systems.