File:F-1 engine gas generator assembly.jpg

English: Saturn V F-1 Engine Gas Generator Assembly: This is a big boy. Built by Rocketdyne for the mighty F-1 engines of the Apollo Saturn V.

From NASA and Apollo 11 Space: The gas generator is one of the first parts designed on a new engine because it is a crucial part of determining a rocket engine’s size. It’s like a “rocket motor” inside a rocket motor. It’s an internal combustion engine that drives the whole F-1 engine. The Saturn V’s F-1 is a gas generator-cycle rocket engine produced in the United States by Rocketdyne in the late 1950s and was used in the 1960s and early 1970s.

The F-1 engine continues to be the most powerful single combustion chamber liquid-propellant rocket engine ever developed. The most striking aspect is the sheer power when the gas generator ignites and creates approximately 31,000 pounds of force. When the original F-1 engine lit up, the gas generator powered the giant turbomachinery that pumped about three tons of propellant each second into the thrust chamber and accelerated through the nozzle, producing the incredible 1.5 million pounds of thrust. The Saturn V’s gas generator was used to drive a turbine, which drove separate fuel and oxygen pumps, each feeding the thrust chamber assembly.

The turbopump is required to resist temperatures ranging from input gas at 1,500 °F (820 °C) to liquid oxygen at −300 °F (−184 °C). So, fuel was used to lubricate and cool the turbine bearings. This large amount of fuel keeps the gas generator a little bit cooler, so it doesn’t melt. It keeps it about 800 degrees Celsius.

This unit tags, both rated 1200 PSI • Dual Ball Valve, Part: EO R62819 • Gas Gen Assy, Part: EWR 285763

An artifact in the Future Ventures’ Space Collection.