Underwater launch systems: how to get out of the water into orbit or into space?
Do you think I want to tell once again about the "killers of cities", these secretive predators of the deep sea, that with their volley they can wipe the surface, comparable to an area larger than 300 of megacities in the world? Not. More precisely, not quite "no"! "Smash swords into plowshares"[3]: it will be about the almost peaceful launch vehicles Zyb, Volna, Shtil, Surf and Rickshaw. To be precise, at birth they were very real martial and could wipe almost any country of the world off the face of the planet.
Marine Rocket and Space Systems
March 1985, after a series of burial of "Kremlin elders", the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU was taken by MS Gorbachev: former party organizer of the Stavropol Territorial Production Agricultural Management.
“Smell” in the air ... no, not by a thunderstorm, but pulled by manure (I would say shit): “publicity” and “restructuring”, “cooperation” and “new political thinking”, “pluralism” and “disarmament”.
It's about how State Rocket Center KB them. V.P. Makeeva (Miass) solved the issue of "conversion" in the era of "restructuring" and after it.
In 1985, the company actively continued to develop combat missile technology for the needs of the Navy of the USSR: it successfully upgraded the D9РМ and D19 missile systems, developed and tested new combat equipment, developed and tested the full-scale tests of the P-39UTX / 3XXUMXX Bark -X strategic complex. -Nx-xnumx.
With military products GRTS and its performance characteristics can be found at the links:
→ Combat missile systems.
→ Main characteristics.
→ Underwater start. The result of the activity of KB engineering / Video review /.
At these times, the leadership decided that KBM needed to find and conquer its niche in rocket and space topics. One of the directions of these works was the proposal to use ballistic missile submarines (SLBMs) to put payloads into space. First of all, they drew attention to SLBMs that are to be disposed of after expiration of their service life and in accordance with the Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms.
Let out pots and pans or do what we are good at?
The work was carried out in the following directions:
- launching launches from submarines re-equipped with combat missiles, rescue vehicles into the upper atmosphere or into space for the purpose of scientific research, obtaining materials and biological products under microgravity conditions;
- creation of launch vehicles on the basis of SLBMs for launching small-sized spacecraft;
- design of rocket and space complexes on the basis of technical solutions, worked out on combat sea and land missiles;
- development of small spacecraft (“Compass”);
- creation of information-measuring complexes (Miass).
The pioneer in this area has become a refurbished rocket. PCM-25 (URAV Navy - 4K10, NATO - SS-N-6 Mod 1, Serb): Zyb launch vehicle, which was used to conduct unique experiments in a short-term weightlessness, provided on the passive trajectory section (time of weightlessness 15 minutes, microgravity level Xnumx-3g).
The unit consisted of 15 exothermic furnaces, information-measuring and command equipment, a parachute system for soft landing. Various raw materials were placed in exothermic furnaces, in particular, silicon-germanium, aluminum-lead, Al-Cu, high-temperature superconductor and others, of which during the experiment in weightless conditions at temperature in furnaces from 600 ° C to 1500 ° C obtained materials with new properties.
18 December 1991 for the first time in the domestic practice from a nuclear submarine of the type “Navaga” (667А project “Navaga” - according to the classification of the United States and NATO - “Yankee”) was launched a ballistic launch vehicle with the technology module "Sprint". The launch was successful, and the scientific customer NPO Compomash received unique samples of new materials. Thus, the first step was taken in the rocket and space subject of MSC.
But not everything went so simple: happened GKChP, then the USSR itself ceased to exist, the government and the general line thereof, Chubais and Gaidar, Yeltsin and his generals, and other new figures changed
political beau monde. Racket and the formation of new business "elites":
The reduction in the volume of defense issues has put in front of the staff of the SRC "KB them. Academician V.P. Makeev "the task of intensified search for new" civilian "high-tech areas, which would allow to keep highly qualified personnel, material and technological base, in fact, give the opportunity to" survive. "
In June, after long ordeals and vicissitudes of 1992, a new decree of the “new” government (Russian) was issued, which allowed the enterprise to deploy work on the creation of civilian rocket-space systems based on the converted SLBMs using ground, air and sea launches.
Rapid adaptability to new trajectories, energy-mass perfection of SLBMs combined with high reliability and safety indicators provide an opportunity during the training and practical shooting and launching in confirmation and extension of the service life to use them as means of delivery into the near space of payloads for various purposes.
In the interest of conducting new experiments in zero gravity, the “Ether” ballistic biotechnological unit was created with the “Medusa” scientific equipment, designed for high-speed cleaning of special medical preparations in an artificially created electrostatic field during the flight. December 9, 1992 off the coast of Kamchatka from a nuclear submarine of the Pacific fleet a successful launch of the Zyb launch vehicle equipped with Medusa equipment was carried out, and in 1993 another similar launch was carried out. During these experiments, the possibility of obtaining high-quality drugs, including the anti-tumor interferon Alfa-2, under short-term zero-gravity conditions, was demonstrated.
The Sprint block was intended for testing the processes of obtaining semiconductor materials with an improved crystal structure, superconducting alloys, and other materials under weightless conditions. The “Ether” block with the biotech equipment “Medusa” was used for research of the technology of purification of biological materials and the production of highly pure biological and medical preparations by electrophoresis.
Unique samples of monocrystals of silicon and some alloys (“Sprint”) were obtained, and in the “Medusa” experiments, according to the results of studies of the antiviral and antitumor interferon “Alpha-2”, it was possible to confirm the possibility of space purification of biological preparations under conditions of short-term weightlessness. In practice, it has been proven that Russia has developed an effective technology for conducting experiments under conditions of short-term weightlessness using sea-based ballistic missiles.
The logical continuation of this work was the launch of the Volna launch vehicle in 1995.
The Volna launch vehicle, based on the RSM-50 (SS-N-18) SLBMs, with a starting mass of about 34 tons, is used primarily during ballistic trajectories to solve problems of developing materials production technologies under short-term conditions. microgravity and other research.
Combat use of an RSM-50 SLBM from the submerged position of the submarine is provided at sea conditions up to 8 points, i.e. practically achieved all-weather use for scientific research and launches of the launch vehicle.
The commencement of commercial use of an SLBM can be considered the launch of the Volna launch vehicle from the Kalmar submarine of the 1995 BDRM project in 667. The launch was made on the ballistic route of the Barents Sea - Kamchatka Peninsula at a distance of 7500 km. The thermoconvection module of the University of Bremen (Germany) has become a payload for this international experiment.
When launching the Volna, the rescued shuttle shuttle Volan is used. It is intended for conducting scientific and applied research in zero gravity conditions by launches along suborbital trajectories.
To launch research equipment of increased mass (up to 400 kg) is an improved version of the rescued Volan-M aircraft. In addition to the size and weight of this option is different original aerodynamic layout.
In the rescue vehicle, in addition to scientific instruments with a mass of 105 kg, an onboard measuring system is located. It provides control of the experiment and control of flight parameters. SLA "Volan" is equipped with a three-stage parachute landing system and instrumentation operational (no more than 2 hours) search apparatus after landing. In order to reduce the cost and development timeframe, technical solutions, components and instruments of mass-produced rocket complexes were borrowed to the maximum extent.
In the process of start-up performed in 1995, the level of microgravity amounted to 10-4... 10 -5g at the time of zero gravity 20.5 minutes. Studies have begun that show the fundamental possibility of creating a rescued aircraft with scientific equipment weighing up to 300 kg, launched by the Volna launch vehicle along a trajectory with a zero-gravity time of 30 minutes with a microgravity level of 10-5... 10-6 g.
The Wave rocket can be used to launch equipment on suborbital trajectories to study geophysical processes in the upper atmosphere and in near space, monitor the Earth's surface, conduct various, including active, experiments.
The payload placement area is a truncated cone with a height of 1670 mm, a base diameter of 1350 mm and a blunt radius of the tip of the cone 405 mm. The rocket provides removal of payloads with a mass of 600 ... 700 kg on a trajectory with a maximum height of 1200 ... 1300 km, and with a mass of 100 kg - with a maximum height of up to 3000 km. It is possible to install on the rocket several elements of the payload and their sequential separation.
In the spring of 2012, the EXEPRT capsule was launched from a submarine in the Pacific Ocean with the help of the Volna Russian rocket and space complex, commissioned by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
The EXEPERT project is implemented under the direction of the European Space Agency.
The Stuttgart Institute for the Study of Design and Design Technology and the German Aerospace Center have developed and manufactured a ceramic fiber nose piece for the ЕХРЕРТ capsule.
In the nose part consisting of ceramic fiber, sensors are located that record environmental data during the return of the capsule to the atmosphere, such as surface temperature, heat flow, and aerodynamic pressure. In addition, in the nose there is a window through which the spectrometer records the chemical processes occurring in the front of the shock wave upon entry into the atmosphere.
→ Specifications PH "Wave".
Booster "Calm"
The family of light-class launch vehicles: “Calm”, “Calm-2.1”, “Calm-2P” was developed on the basis of the R-29РМ SLBM and is intended for launching small-sized spacecraft into near-earth orbits. Booster "Calm" has no analogues in the world in terms of energy and mass indicators achieved, provides the removal of payloads weighing up to 100 kg into orbits with a perigee height of up to 500 km with 78,9 inclination.
During the revision of the standard R-29РМ SLBM, some changes were made to launch the spacecraft. A special frame has been added for the installation of a launching spacecraft and the flight program has been changed. At the third stage, a special telemetry container with service equipment was installed to control the removal of ground services. The designers also had to solve the problem of heating the head fairing during the launch of the rocket and its escape from under water, which could damage the spacecraft.
The spacecraft is placed in a special capsule that protects the payload from thermal, acoustic and other influences from the upper stage. After reaching the given orbit, the capsule with the spacecraft is separated, and the last stage is taken away from the flight path of the device. The capsule is opened and the cargo is released after the stage has gone a distance, excluding the impact of the working engines on the spacecraft.
The first launch of the RMS "Calm-1" was made on July 7 1998 of the year from the board of the nuclear submarine K-407 "Novomoskovsk". The payload was two satellites of the Berlin Technical University (Technische Universitat Berlin, TUB) -Tubsat-N and Tubsat-Nl.
The larger of the Tubsat-N satellites has the overall dimensions of 320x320x104 mm and a mass of 8.5 kg. The smaller of the Tubsat-Nl devices is installed at launch on top of the Tubsat-N spacecraft. Its overall dimensions are 320x320x34 mm, weight - about 3 kg.
The satellites were put into close to the estimated orbit. The parameters of the orbit of the third stage of the PH after removal from the spacecraft were:
- inclination of the orbit 78.96 °;
- The minimum distance from the Earth’s surface is 405.7 km;
- The maximum distance from the Earth’s surface is 832.2 km;
- period of circulation 96.83 min.
At the third stage of the carrier, a special container with a mass of 72 kg is installed. The container contains telemetry equipment for monitoring a number of parameters and equipment for conducting orbital monitoring.
The nuclear submarine K-407, from which the launch was carried out, is part of the third fleet of the Northern Fleet and is based on the Sayda-Guba naval base in the Deer Bay near the village of Skalisty (formerly Gadzhiyevo, then renamed again to Gadzhiyevo) Murmansk areas.
This is one of the seven ships built on the project 667BDRM "Dolphin" (Delta IV according to NATO classification).
PH "Stiel-1" allows you to put into a circular orbit with a height of 400 km and an inclination of 79 degrees, a payload of 70 kg.
The design of the upper stage of the prototype is designed to accommodate four compact warheads in isolated small-sized volumes. Due to the fact that modern commercial spacecraft have a low density of layout and require a relatively large integral space, the full use of the energy capabilities of the PH is impossible. That is, the design of the PH imposes a limit on the volume occupied by the spacecraft, constituting 0.183 m3. The energy of the launch vehicle allows one to output spacecraft of greater mass.
Re-equipment of the P-29RM rocket into the “Calm” launch vehicle is made with minimal modifications, the spacecraft is placed on the seat of one of the warheads in a special capsule that provides protection from external influences. Rocket launch is carried out from the submarine or surface positions of the submarine. The flight is carried out in inertial mode.
A distinctive feature of this complex is the use of the existing infrastructure of the landfill "Nenoksa", including ground launch facilities, as well as serial ballistic missiles R-29RM, removed from combat duty. Minimal improvements on the rocket will ensure high reliability and accuracy of the payload in orbit at a low launch cost ($ 4 ... 5 million).
The Stihl-2 PH was developed as a result of the second stage of the modernization of the P-29PM ballistic missile. At this stage, to accommodate the payload, a payload compartment is created, consisting of an aerodynamic fairing discharged in flight, and an adapter on which the payload is placed. The adapter provides docking of the payload compartment with the carrier. The volume of the compartment for placing the payload is 1.87 m3.
The complex was created on the basis of the P-29РМ submarines (RSM-54, SS-N-23) ballistic missiles and the existing infrastructure of the Nyonoks Northern Polygon located in the Arkhangelsk Region.
The infrastructure of the landfill includes:
Rocket-space complex "Shtil-2".
Ground launch complex.
The latter includes a technical and launching position, equipped with equipment for storage, pre-launch operations and rocket launch.
The complex of control systems provides centralized automatic control of the complex’s systems in all operational modes, control of pre-launch preparation and launch of the rocket, preparation of technical information and flight task, input of the flight task and control of the rocket for outputting the payload to a given orbit.
Information and measuring complex - provides reception and registration of telemetry information during the flight, processing and delivery of measurement results to the launch customer.
Numerous launches from the ground test stand and submarines have shown the high reliability of the prototype serial missile R-29РМ (the probability of a successful launch and flight of at least 0.96 is achieved).
Ground launch complex allows you to:
Carry out up to 10 starts per year.
Launch a series of spacecraft with a minimum interval of up to 15 days.
Provide for a long time the standby mode with high readiness of the rocket for launch.
Receive during the flight of the rocket telemetry information from the board using the information of the test site and remote measuring points.
The launches from the ground launch complex ensure the formation of orbits in the orbit inclination range from 77 ° to 60 °, which limits the scope of use of the complex.
When launching from a submarine mine, a launch is possible in the range of latitudes from 0 ° to 77 °. The range of possible inclinations is determined by the coordinates of the starting point.
At the same time, it is still possible to use the submarine for its intended purpose.
To improve the conditions for placing the payload, a version of the “Stiel-2.1” launch vehicle with a head fairing was developed.
When the rocket was equipped with a larger head fairing and a small-sized accelerating unit (“Calm-2Р”), the payload mass increased to 200 kg, the volume for placing the payload significantly increased.
The use of a submarine as a launch facility allows launching launch vehicles “Calm” to virtually any orbital inclination.
The aerodynamic fairing was sealed to ensure dust and moisture protection of the payload. The design of the aerodynamic fairing allowed the execution of hatches on the side surface for supplying additional connections of the payload with the equipment of the ground launch complex.
Launches could be conducted from a ground launch complex or from a submarine mine in a surface condition.
The main characteristics of the PH complex "Calm-2" are given in Table.
The “Shtil-3А” rocket (PCM-54 with a new third stage and the additional overhaul engine, in case of launch from the An-124 aircraft (according to the Aerospace project)) is capable of delivering the 200-XNXX payload to the equatorial orbit of 700 height — 950 km .
At the insistent requests of the workers (voyaka uh & Co), I interrupt so as not to muddle the mind of the reader. However, don't get disconnected, I haven't covered systems yet "Surf" and "Rickshaw", and also about how quickly you can again "Shouting forged on swords."
The ending should ...
Original sources and quotes:
[1]Rock and roll under the Kremlin. Book 4. Another spy / Koretsky DA
[2]USSR foreign policy in the second half of the 1980-ies. / Voloshina V. Yu., Bykova A. G. Soviet period of the Russian stories (1917-1993)
[3]Bible. Old Testament, Book of Isaiah (ch. 2, verse 4)
* I didn’t write anything new, I just put together and added photos and videos. Basically everything is borrowed from:
SRC "KB them. Academician V.P. Makeeva "I.I. Velichko, N.A. Obukhov, G.G. Full, A.P. Shalnev "SEA ROCKET-SPACE SYSTEM"
Press Service of the SRC "KB them. Academician V.P. Makeeva
“Launch vehicles based on ballistic missile submarines” © Ivan Silent 2002 year
* Reconsider technical terms and I don’t see a good text.
Photos of video, graphics and links:
TV channel STAR
www.miasskiy.ru
www.navsource.org
www.makeyev.msk.ru
www.img-fotki.yandex.ru
www.niskgd.ru
www.cableman.ru
www.habrastorage.org
www.studfiles.ru
www.ntpo.com
www.rosatomflot.ru
www.navsource.narod.ru
www.arms-expo.ru
www.fishki.net
www.makeyev.ru
www.topwar.ru
www.zonwar.ru
www.igordiksa.com
www.sovtime.ru
www.yaplakal.com
www.militaryrussia.ru
www.fas.org/nuke/guide/russia/slbm
www.directory.eoportal.org
Information