In Russia, create a super-heavy rocket with an eye on the moon and Mars
Vladimir Putin chaired a meeting on the development of a new Russian space center, which is being built in the Amur Region. After the meeting, it became finally clear that after years of 10, the Russian Federation plans to finally abandon the use of the Baikonur cosmodrome, located in Kazakhstan. The head of Roscosmos, Oleg Ostapenko, noted that if today almost 60% of all Russian space vehicle launches are carried out from Baikonur, then by 2025, such launches will be sporadic. At the same time, more than 50% of all spacecraft from our orbital group will be launched from the launch sites of the Vostochny cosmodrome.
In order for these plans to materialize, it is planned to build three launch pads at the new Russian cosmodrome. The first one will be used for Soyuz-2 medium-class launch vehicles. It is reported that the first Soyuz-2 rocket with the Aist-2 and Lomonosov spacecraft will have to start from Vostochny space center in summer 2015, and from 2018, manned launches will be made from the new Russian space center . The second launching table is planned to be used to launch into space the Angara-5 PH, belonging to the heavy class. The first launch of the Angara-5 rocket, which will replace the Proton, is scheduled for December 2014.
The launching table for launch vehicles of this class at the cosmodrome was planned to start building in 2016, but Oleg Ostapenko proposed to move the start date of construction more than a year in advance. He noted that work could begin as early as 2014. This will allow not to lose the time and potential of the builders, besides the necessary preparatory work at the object has already been carried out. As early as December 2013, the necessary reconnaissance work was carried out and the locations of the objects of the new Russian space rocket complex Angara were determined. At present, the experimental transportation of a cargo package of the Angara LV with rail transport from Moscow to Uglegorsk has already been completed. Also, design and exploration work has been started to ensure the construction of the technical and launch complexes.
September 2 finally clarified the fate of the third launch pad and the launch vehicle, which should be launched from it. It will be used to launch extra-heavy rockets. After the development of the entire family of new Angara LVs of the light, medium and heavy classes, Russia plans to begin work on the creation of an entirely new class of launch vehicles with payloads in 120-140 tons, Dmitry Rogozin noted. “At the turn of the year after 2020, we have to go to the creation of such missiles. This will be a confirmation of the dominant role of the Russian Federation in matters that concern heavy-class launch vehicles, a return to the best that was created in the USSR, ”said the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, who oversees the development of the military-industrial complex.
Dmitry Rogozin assured that the plans for the construction of the launch pad for the Angara launch vehicle have not changed. However, due to a number of ideas proposed by Roscosmos, it is already possible to pledge funds to create a launching table for superheavy missiles. In addition, the head of Roscosmos, Oleg Ostapenko, noted 2 of September that the number of launch complexes for launching the heavy Angara launch vehicle could be reduced from 4-x to 2-x. And the money saved in this way will be spent on the development of a new super-heavy launch vehicle.
It is worth noting that the idea of developing a super-heavy launch vehicle in Russia is not new and has been in the air for quite some time. This topic has been actively discussed by the Russian rocket and space community since the closure of the Energy-Buran program at the beginning of the 1990s. The new post-Soviet Russia of those years simply had no place to fly on such missiles with a carrying capacity of 100 tons. However, later 25 years after the first (and, as it turned out, the last) flight of the Buran spacecraft, the Russian government and Roscosmos again began to talk about the need to make flights that go beyond the limits of near-Earth space. For these purposes, need extra-heavy rockets. For example, the Saturn-5 launch vehicle designed by Wernher von Braun when launched to the moon of the Apollo-15 manned spacecraft was calculated to bring payloads into the low orbit 140 orbit, of which 47 tons were sent to the Moon.
Roscosmos has already determined the timing of the appearance of super-heavy missiles in Russia. According to Oleg Ostapenko, in order to move further, you need to proceed to the ambitious stage of development of the Russian cosmonautics, which will be associated with the exploration of deep space and high near-earth orbits. Fundamentally important and decisive in solving this problem will be the development of a modern space rocket complex belonging to the superheavy class. In the 2014 year, it is planned to start implementation of the preliminary project and the competitive selection of such a rocket. Design work on a launch vehicle of this class will begin in 2016.
For the implementation of this ambitious project Roscosmos requested from the budget 200 billion rubles. The money will go to the development of a space rocket complex of the super heavy class, which can be launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome. This information is contained in the draft "Federal space program on 2016-2025 years" (FPC), the text of which was sent for approval to the government. The document says that at 2025, the ground plan is to complete the ground stage of experimental development of a super-heavy class space rocket complex, which will deliver a low-mass payload of at least 80 tons to a low-Earth orbit, and by using an upper stage of manned spacecraft of new generation with mass not less than 20 tons, on the near-moon polar orbits.
Roskosmos is asking for funding in the amount of 151,6 billion rubles for the period from 2016 to 2025 for the development of a super-heavy class space rocket complex. In addition, the FPC project implies an increase in the energy capabilities of the rocket due to the development of a new oxygen-hydrogen upper stage. The start of the experimental ground testing of the new upper stage is scheduled to begin in 2021 year. Roskosmos specialists estimated 60,5 billion rubles in cash costs for its creation and testing.
Naturally, the question arises: which companies will be engaged in the creation of a super-heavy rocket? Today there are at least two similar projects in the country. The first of these is the further development of the Angara launch vehicle family, on which the specialists of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center work. Thus, the Angara-5 rocket carrier, which is planned to be launched into space before the end of 2014, should put tons of payload into low-Earth orbit 25. However, the center stated that in perspective, the Angara-7 rocket could increase the mass of the output payload by 2 times - up to 50 tons. Whether it will be possible to increase the mass of the output payload yet is not yet clear. The second project was presented in 2009 year. He was represented by competitors of Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center - RSC Energia, TsSKB-Progress (created and manufactured by Soyuz) and the Makeyev State Rocket Center.
This triumvirate of companies rather easily bypassed the Khrunychevs in the competition for the creation of a new heavy launch vehicle, which was once announced by Roscosmos. The companies promised to launch a new heavy launch vehicle Rus-M, which has a payload capacity of 2015 tons, by 50, and in the future, bring this figure to 100 tons. But the apparatus weight that the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center possessed was higher, and after Roscosmos was headed by Vladimir Popovkin, all work on the Rus-M project was stopped, Angara again came to the fore.
It is rather difficult to say just what way the new leadership of Roscosmos, headed by Oleg Ostapenko, will risk going. Especially, taking into account the fact that all rocket and space centers are currently passing under the wing of the United Rocket and Space Corporation (ORCK) created not so long ago. Such a transition will probably facilitate the selection of the most realistic and effective projects for the development of a super-heavy-class launch vehicle. There is a possibility that the rocket will be fundamentally new, for example, equipped with high-power nuclear power plants, on which specialists of the Keldysh Center are working. According to estimates by RSC Energia specialists, a nuclear rocket launcher will be able to reduce the cost of launching a payload into near-moon orbit by more than 2 times compared to existing liquid rocket engines (LRE).
However, the LRE has not yet fully exhausted its capabilities. Using fuel based on a mixture of not kerosene and oxygen, but oxygen and liquefied natural gas, according to calculations carried out by experts of NPO Energomash, will give an additional increase in power in the amount of 10%. So enough options. With favorable developments, the new Russian super-heavy class rocket will be able to ascend into the sky from the Vostochny cosmodrome in the next decade.
It is worth noting that at the September meeting of 2, the discussion finally turned to really large-scale space exploration tasks. Now, scientists will have to decide not so much on the need to create a super-heavy rocket launcher (the issue has already been resolved), but on the distribution of work on its creation among enterprises in the industry. It is necessary that the task is to be under the force for all organizations that are involved in the project. In order that its complexity in the future does not become an excuse for delays in the creation or possible accidents. That is why NPO Energomash, TsSKB Progress and RSC Energia should unite their efforts, using the existing reserve of the Energia and Rus-M launch vehicles, and in the course of 3-5 for years to introduce a super-heavy rocket. Such works, among other things, will allow the capacities of all these organizations to be loaded, as well as a large number of other companies that are involved in the process of scientific and production cooperation.
A super heavy class launch vehicle may be needed by Russia for solving large space missions. For example, the exploration of the Moon, the flights to Mars, as well as the resumption of its manned program instead of participation in an international project. Also, the rocket can be used in the interests of programs to ensure the security of the state, such as the insertion into orbit of a heavy automatic Polus spacecraft (Skif-DM). This satellite was once launched into orbit by an extra-heavy rocket “Energy”.
Information sources:
http://expert.ru/2014/09/3/marsianskaya-tyaga
http://www.finmarket.ru/news/3803190
http://www.odnako.org/blogs/roskosmos-do-konca-goda-obsudit-proekt-sozdaniya-sverhtyazheloy-raketi-nositelya
http://www.forbes.ru/news/266793-putin-odobril-sozdanie-sverkhtyazhelykh-raket-nositelei
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