Engineers at Leap71, a company based in the United Arab Emirates, have achieved a remarkable milestone in rocket technology with the development of an aerospike rocket engine prototype using artificial intelligence.
The AI, named Noyron, autonomously designed, manufactured, and tested a cryogenically-cooled aerospike engine, albeit in miniature form. This accomplishment is significant given the time frame; it took Noyron approximately three weeks to create a functional engine, whereas similar projects by NASA engineers have historically taken decades.
The aerospike engine features an inverted bell shape, allowing it to maintain high efficiency across various altitudes, unlike traditional bell-shaped rocket nozzles that operate optimally at specific heights.
Leap71 co-founder Lin Kayser explained that Noyron was inspired by the fictional AI 'Jarvis' from the Marvel Iron Man films. The team initially trained the AI on a conventional 3D-printed rocket engine before directing it to innovate an aerospike design.
Kayser noted that while many companies would have continued refining traditional rocket engines, Leap71 opted for a broader approach, pushing the AI to explore new possibilities. Noyron has proven to be a capable AI model focused on physics, but transitioning from a miniature engine to a full-scale aerospike engine remains a considerable challenge.