Mockups do not fly into space
Americans for spaceflight have something besides a trampoline. And where is our new generation of ship?
Five years ago, at the International Air Show in Zhukovsky, visitors saw a mock-up of a new-generation Russian spacecraft. How far did its creators progress in project implementation? We were asked to comment on the situation by one of the organizers of our rocket and space industry, the Hero of Socialist Labor, ex-minister Boris BALMONT. This is also interesting because on December 4 the first launch of the newest interplanetary 20-ton American ship Orion was assigned, intended for flights with the crew not only in near-earth orbit, but also to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids.
In Florida, an 700-tonne heavy-duty Delta-4 high-altitude rocket with an 22-storey home has already been installed at the launch site of the Air Force Cosmodrome (Cape Canaveral). It stands inside the 100-meter service tower. From the open side of the tower, three huge rocket boosters are clearly visible, connected to each other in a package scheme.
Now in the remaining month and a half, test checks of all media systems will be conducted. An important feature: the new space-rocket complex has an emergency rescue system (SAS), which was not on the space shuttle. In the event of an accident, the SAS will instantly separate the ship from a rocket at the start or taking off, lead the module with the crew to the side and provide a landing.
To begin with, Orion will complete two orbits around the earth in 4,5 hours. For the flight, an elliptical, strongly elongated orbit was chosen with a maximum distance of thousands of kilometers on 5,8 (15 times the ISS trajectory). The ship for deep space is being tested, and therefore the Orion is sent to the most dangerous Van Allen radiation belts in 4 thousands of kilometers from Earth. It is important to find solutions to protect crews and vehicles from powerful radiation fluxes. By the way, manned Apollo, flying over 40 years ago with astronauts on the moon, only crossed the Van Allen belts. Now, however, the new ship has to pass a more serious radiation exam, having spent much more time in extreme conditions.
Another important task is to check the new thermal protection of the ship. "Orion" before returning to Earth will accelerate to 32 thousands of kilometers per hour.
The ship will enter the dense layers of the earth's atmosphere, taking upon itself the terrible blow of hot plasma (its temperature will reach 2,2 thousands of degrees). Approximately the same is waiting for the ship after the flight to the moon. Designers want to see the viability of "Orion" in this mode of descent in the Earth's atmosphere. After extinguishing the speed, the ship will smoothly descend by parachute and splash down in the Pacific Ocean.
It is also necessary to check the performance of a new computer producing 480 million operations per second. This is 25 times faster than today's computers on the ISS and 4 thousands of times - a great ancestor who worked on Apollo ...
Immediately I recall the recent joke of the Vice-President of the Government of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Rogozin, about the trampoline, in which the Americans will have to throw their crews onto the ISS in the event of failure to cooperate with Roscosmos. As we see, the USA has something besides the trampoline - they are consistently implementing their space program. And where is the Russian spacecraft of a new generation, the layout of which was presented in Zhukovsky at MAX-2009? Maybe, without much publicity, it has already been manufactured in the RSC Energia workshops, has passed ground tests and will soon be launched into space, will compete with Orion? No, our ship is not only not made in a complex flight version - it is not known at all when it will be possible to proceed with its assembly.
“It’s bitter for me to see the growing backlog of Russian cosmonautics,” says Boris Balmont bluntly. - Moreover, we had the opportunity to create a new promising ship, ahead of competitors. Scientific, technical, production potential, experience - we still have all this no matter what. The weakest link is inefficient management of the industry, failure in the organization of work. Infinite coordination, development of programs and development strategies, competitions ... There is a lot of fuss, but this is an appearance of work, and the efficiency is extremely low.
And really! In 2004-2006, work was under way on the Clipper reusable ship project, which the European Space Agency was also interested in at the beginning. Interest dried up, we decided to create an interorbital tug "Parom". And in 2009-m announced a new competition to create a promising ship. The winner was the corporation "Energy". Developed more than a hundred technical assignments, prepared contracts with related companies. Made aerodynamic models: But here is a new turn. Today they say that it would be necessary to make such a ship, which immediately can fly to Mars. And again, coordination, paperwork. As a result, unmanned tests moved from 2015-th to a later date. And there is no certainty that it will be possible to send the ship on the first flight at least in 2018. Especially in today's conditions, when the state’s finances are very tight.
It’s not very clear how this whole mechanism works, Balmont wonders. - The company "Energy" is now subject to the United Rocket and Space Corporation. The general direction of development is determined by Roscosmos. From Roscosmos received specific tasks. And how the money is distributed, for whom the last word - my interlocutors, by no means ordinary workers in the industry, do not understand. Now there are two chiefs at the factories - the president and the general designer, and in the industry two governing bodies. There are many bosses, but little confusion. Manpower leapfrog, heads of enterprises are changing. And reforms, reforms ...
Again, do not avoid comparisons. In the United States, a contract with the Lockheed Martin concern for the development, construction and testing of the Orion ship was signed in 2006. Not everything went smoothly either. Barack Obama in 2010, even offered to abandon the program. Nevertheless, after 8 years, the ship is ready for flight tests.
- Why do private foreign space companies quickly achieve results? - asks Boris Balmont. - Yes, there are much less bureaucratic barriers, highly qualified specialists are involved, the process is skillfully organized and the money is spent rationally. Engineer, entrepreneur, billionaire Ilon Musk took up space exploration and founded SpaceX just 12 years ago. And today his company presented the world with a reusable Dragon (it flies so far in the cargo version for the ISS), as well as two good rockets, and the Falcon 9 has significant competitive advantages over other carriers. At the same time, Mask's costs are many times less than for similar developments in our country, and the timing is generally better not to compare ... For objectivity, I must say that the first space “private traders” began to appear in Russia: “Dauria Aerospace” Sputnix, Selenohod ... It would be good for the state to create a favored mode for such firms. And Roscosmos officials could learn from NASA the organization of large-scale support for private companies. And most importantly: the reforms should not confuse the situation in the industry, but solve the accumulated problems. While this is not visible.
By the way, when in the Soviet Union in 1976, they began to create a super-heavy rocket “Energy” (mass −2,4 thousand tons, it put 100-ton cargo into orbit), more than 1 thousand enterprises joined the work, over 1 million people. All the threads of the project converged in the Interdepartmental Coordinating Council, whose chairman was appointed Boris Balmont.
“Each manager then took upon himself all the responsibility in his own area of work and made decisions within the framework of a common task,” recalls my interlocutor. - There was the strictest personal responsibility. And a thousand enterprises acted as a single mechanism. After 11 years, "Energy" launched into space. I would stress that the costs of its creation were much smaller than the incomparable in power of the current “Angara”, which has been created for more than 20 years ...
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