Countdown
Russia can only dream of the overwhelming technological superiority of the USSR in space
17 March The government of the Russian Federation approved the Federal Space Program (PCF) for 2016 – 2025 years, which, as is known, has been returned for revision several times. The amount of budget financing of the PCF is determined in 1,4 trillion rubles. What has changed in it after numerous amendments and sequesters? Will its implementation be able to improve the image of Roscosmos, seriously undermined by a series of unsuccessful launches in 2010 – 2015?
Due to the economic crisis, a number of programs fell under reduction. The first manned mission to the moon is delayed for five years. You can forget about the development of the returning first stage. We part with the hope of a quick solution to the problem of dealing with asteroids. In addition to these truncations, there are others. But is the crisis only to blame?
Along the "Angara"
The first manned flight from the Vostochny cosmodrome to the moon is shifted to 2030 – 2035 years. The fate of the super-heavy carrier on which such flights would be carried out is not completely clear. In the new project of the FKP, the backlog for the expedition to the Earth satellite will be created only after ... 2035. This is reminiscent of the building of communism, which was also moving away all the time. But it was impossible to fool the population endlessly. So with the plans of Roscosmos. After 20, there will be no one to ask for failure.
“Georgiy Grechko: Angara is a non-existent rocket. It was invented under Yeltsin, it is morally obsolete. ””
Most worried about the fate of the super-heavy carrier, without which Russia is difficult to implement the program of military space exploration and defense of the country (“Towards the morning dawn - on the“ Angara ”). It may be objected: not from a good life refuse such projects. With this you can not argue. But one can not ignore the fact that in world rocket science the emphasis is on increasing the carrying capacity of carriers. And we do not go in step. I repeat: super heavy is needed not only for long-distance expeditions, but also to ensure national security. Perhaps that is why it under various pretexts and pushes. One of the experts of the "MIC" does not exclude that the decision of the Scientific and Technical Council of Roskosmos to abandon the super-heavy carrier at one time was influenced by the Americans, who are now themselves seriously working on its creation. Remove competitor - holy work.
Recall: 12 in March 2015 of the year NTS Roskosmos was held, which made a “fateful” decision to forget for a while about the development of a super heavy RN and proposed the development version of the Angara-5 PH at Angaru-A5B with an oxygen-hydrogen third stage. Such recommendations, the implementation of which will be a lot of money, should in theory be implemented on a competitive basis with the provision of opportunities for all parties to prove their position. However, for some time now, Roscosmos has become the rule to hold contests without competitions. Interestingly, the former head, Oleg Ostapenko, declared the hangars of the Angara. Then no member of the NTS objected to him. But after a year and a half, the same council recognized the future for Angar. Although the NTS recommended version of the heavy launch vehicle Angara-A5В with a carrying capacity of 35 tons does not meet Russia's long-term needs (“narrow departmental traction”). In order to participate equally in space exploration, including distant space, in the next five years we need to have an extra-heavy carrier with a load capacity of 75 tons.
In 1987 – 1988, the USSR was able to become the sole owner of the orbits. The unique RN "Energy" with a carrying capacity of 100 – 105 tons is a real feat of Soviet scientists and specialists. At the same time, there was a lightweight modification of the “Energy-M” with a lifting capacity of 25 – 40 tons. This is exactly what Roscosmos (Angara-A5В) promises for the 2025 year. The existence of "Energy" has become a headache for overseas "colleagues". Their missiles of that period and even modern ones are inferior to the Soviet three times!
Energia managed to fly twice: with a mock combat platform weighing 80 tons (diameter - 4,1 meters, length - 37 meters) and with the reusable spacecraft "Buran", which made an amazing landing in automatic mode.
However, in 1994, the program was quietly closed, a huge reserve was destroyed. The Pentagon breathed a sigh of relief and, having received a breathing space for more than 20 years, began creating super-heavy SLS with a carrying capacity of 70 – 130 tons. Know-how was used to reduce the cost: powerful solid-fuel accelerators of start (TTU) were used at the first stage.
Readiness PH SLS - 2018 year. With its appearance, aggression against Russian satellites is inevitable. We need to return to the global path of development, create our own super-heavy twenty-first century, that is, with TTU at the first stage. But how, if a new PCF has already been approved at the government level?
Cleaner does not mean better
Forgive me pundits in Roskosmos, but authoritative experts and colleagues call the transition from Proton to Angara, as well as the creation of Roscosmos corporation, an imitation of hectic activity. Pilot-cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Georgy Grechko was perplexed: “Why did you transfer such a complex system - Roskosmos into the hands of effective managers? Do you not know that effective managers are effective only for themselves? The Angara is a non-existent rocket. She came up with more under Yeltsin, she is already morally obsolete. "
We remember how 13 April 2015, the president, tried, to put it mildly, to mislead (the plot was shown on TV). Then the head of Roscosmos, Igor Komarov, presented the 35-ton “Angara-A5В” as a super heavy-class PH. However, the head of state didn’t buy it: “It was already foreseen, and it should be a super-heavy rocket. This need to think.
We think? Roscosmos explains its refusal to be extremely heavy with the fact that there is no payload for it. It is ignored that such a PH is needed not so much for deep space as, we repeat, for the defense and defense of one's place in orbit.
The game with the enrollment of "Angara-A5В" then in heavy, then in super-heavy carriers makes you think that the mission of the head of state is unlikely to be fulfilled.
Presenting the new FKP, Igor Komarov noted that the production of super-heavy RN with a load capacity of 70 and more tons is postponed for an indefinite period. The head of the NTS, Yuri Koptev, supported: “The fate of the super-heavy missiles — our H1-L3 and the Saturn of the United States showed the hopelessness of their development.”
Is this true?
The Н1-Л3 project was closed after four consecutive severe accidents at the first stage, where the 30 LND NK-15 developed by KB N. Kuznetsov and having a relatively small thrust - 154 ton-force stood. Valentin Glushko, the general designer of the reusable complex “Energy” - “Buran”, warned that such a number of simultaneously operating rocket engines would not provide the required reliability.
In contrast, the Saturn was equipped with VG Braun's giant F-1 rocket engines with a ton-force 680, five pieces in the first stage. Operation of the "Saturn" rocket stopped only after the brilliant execution of the lunar program. Americans were convinced of the effectiveness of super-heavy carrier, but to reduce the cost and a sharp increase in carrying capacity, they developed super-powerful solid propellant rocket motors with 1000 – 1600 ton-force and equipped them with the first stage of the newest SLS and Ares.
So who is right: the Americans, who continue to create super heavy rocket launchers, or Roskosmos, who blessed the destruction of the Energia and Energiya-M rocket last century, and who today convinced the country's leadership to include Angar in the FKP-25.
She flew to us from the last century. Her closest relative is the famous Proton, who in July 2015 was 50 years old.
The only useful difference is the “clean” components. The rest of the "Angara" loses. For example, it is heavier on 55 tons, and traction on 22 is a ton-force less. The “Angara” birth defect is a weak first stage and a low weight category (760 t), which will lose relevance to the 2018 – 2020 years. In Angara, 91 has a percentage of Angara, 84 percent of Proton-M, 60 percent of Solid Shuttle accelerators. The remaining 9, 16, 40 percent, respectively, ensure the rise of higher stages. We see that "Angara" barely raises itself and in 4,5 times loses TTU in efficiency.
Insufficient thrust-to-weight ratio is a chronic deficiency of all LRE. When creating superheavy missiles, this became a critical inhibiting factor and required a fundamentally new approach.
В aviation the replacement of jet-type motors with jet engines ensured an abrupt increase in speeds. So in our case: the use of TTU in the first stage provided a jump in the carrying capacity of the American superheavy LV SLS and Ares. The hassle is that these TTUs need to be created, but Roscosmos, as experts put it, does not see solid fuel issues at point blank range, unprovenly referring to its high cost. Although the United States, India, Japan, Europe consider TTU as an effective means of reducing the cost of putting goods into orbit.
In the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, solid propellant rockets with solid propellant rocket motors almost completely supplanted LREs in all weapons and military equipment — from grenade launchers to ICBMs, and everywhere is maintained parity with the best foreign models.
The only one who has not been touched by this process is Roscosmos. Here we are four to five times behind the power of foreign launchers.
Public against
The flaws of the "Angara" project are noted in a wide range and presented with a serious technical argument. Let us briefly describe the essence of these responses, claims to the plans of Roskosmos.
In the methodical part:
- initially wrong choice of target, which led to a critical lag behind the world level in the field of space launch vehicles;
- suppression of the overriding role of super-heavy RN as a guarantor of our presence in orbits and the creation of parity primarily in the defense field and only then in deep-space research;
-negating the fact that knocking sanctions from space will fall on Russia at the very beginning of 2020-s with the commissioning of the American space system SLS / Orion, from this point on, the whole worthlessness of the Angara program with its multi-launch expedition to the Moon in 2030- x years;
fake confidence that the US will not dare to use the SLS missile for military purposes.
Negative aspects of the technical side:
-the help of both the Angara-5 and the Angara-5В in front of the American SLS missile in the fight for the information space;
-weakness of the first stage “Angara-5”, as a result of the unreality of increasing the mass of the payload to 38 tons, promised by Roskosmos;
-the uselessness and uselessness of the implementation of the Angara-5В, even if an 38-ton PH is created, it will not affect the balance of forces;
-the small scale of the final tasks, their vague wording, prudently removed to a safe distance for the authors from the time of execution (as a result, there is no responsibility for the result).
Any item listed is sufficient to question the feasibility of the project. In general, based on the results of the public discussion, the “Angara” project cannot be recommended as the basis of the PCF-2025. It is probably acceptable for Roscosmos and the Pentagon, but contrary to the interests of Russia.
Vakhtang Vachnadze, who headed NPO Energia in 1977 – 1991, recalls: “We also developed a lightweight version of Energia, it was called Energia-M.” This is a wonderful carrier - there was nothing new to do there ... it turned out a rocket from 25 to 40 tons of useful output load. The niche of the currently used UR-500 (“Proton”) to 20 tons and everything above can be closed with our reduced “Energy”. So if the project “Energy-M” was saved, now it would be very profitable. And now even hydrogen in the required amounts cannot be obtained, everything has been eliminated ”(“ Energy of the Soviet past ”). This is the opinion of a person who has worked in the industry all his life, for years 15 was headed by Energia. Apparently, it is not for nothing that they say that there is no prophet in his homeland ...
The new Military Doctrine, approved by the President in December 2014 of the year, states that with the modern development of nuclear missile shield technology to protect the state is not enough. There were threats from space that could deprive Russia of the information space. This means that the country needs a rocket-space shield, the creation of which is possible only if there is a super-heavy rocket launcher built on the know-how of the 21st century. Sooner or later we will come to understand this. That's just the time to solve such a serious problem may not be enough.
17 March The government of the Russian Federation approved the Federal Space Program (PCF) for 2016 – 2025 years, which, as is known, has been returned for revision several times. The amount of budget financing of the PCF is determined in 1,4 trillion rubles. What has changed in it after numerous amendments and sequesters? Will its implementation be able to improve the image of Roscosmos, seriously undermined by a series of unsuccessful launches in 2010 – 2015?
Due to the economic crisis, a number of programs fell under reduction. The first manned mission to the moon is delayed for five years. You can forget about the development of the returning first stage. We part with the hope of a quick solution to the problem of dealing with asteroids. In addition to these truncations, there are others. But is the crisis only to blame?
Along the "Angara"
The first manned flight from the Vostochny cosmodrome to the moon is shifted to 2030 – 2035 years. The fate of the super-heavy carrier on which such flights would be carried out is not completely clear. In the new project of the FKP, the backlog for the expedition to the Earth satellite will be created only after ... 2035. This is reminiscent of the building of communism, which was also moving away all the time. But it was impossible to fool the population endlessly. So with the plans of Roscosmos. After 20, there will be no one to ask for failure.
“Georgiy Grechko: Angara is a non-existent rocket. It was invented under Yeltsin, it is morally obsolete. ””
Most worried about the fate of the super-heavy carrier, without which Russia is difficult to implement the program of military space exploration and defense of the country (“Towards the morning dawn - on the“ Angara ”). It may be objected: not from a good life refuse such projects. With this you can not argue. But one can not ignore the fact that in world rocket science the emphasis is on increasing the carrying capacity of carriers. And we do not go in step. I repeat: super heavy is needed not only for long-distance expeditions, but also to ensure national security. Perhaps that is why it under various pretexts and pushes. One of the experts of the "MIC" does not exclude that the decision of the Scientific and Technical Council of Roskosmos to abandon the super-heavy carrier at one time was influenced by the Americans, who are now themselves seriously working on its creation. Remove competitor - holy work.
Recall: 12 in March 2015 of the year NTS Roskosmos was held, which made a “fateful” decision to forget for a while about the development of a super heavy RN and proposed the development version of the Angara-5 PH at Angaru-A5B with an oxygen-hydrogen third stage. Such recommendations, the implementation of which will be a lot of money, should in theory be implemented on a competitive basis with the provision of opportunities for all parties to prove their position. However, for some time now, Roscosmos has become the rule to hold contests without competitions. Interestingly, the former head, Oleg Ostapenko, declared the hangars of the Angara. Then no member of the NTS objected to him. But after a year and a half, the same council recognized the future for Angar. Although the NTS recommended version of the heavy launch vehicle Angara-A5В with a carrying capacity of 35 tons does not meet Russia's long-term needs (“narrow departmental traction”). In order to participate equally in space exploration, including distant space, in the next five years we need to have an extra-heavy carrier with a load capacity of 75 tons.
In 1987 – 1988, the USSR was able to become the sole owner of the orbits. The unique RN "Energy" with a carrying capacity of 100 – 105 tons is a real feat of Soviet scientists and specialists. At the same time, there was a lightweight modification of the “Energy-M” with a lifting capacity of 25 – 40 tons. This is exactly what Roscosmos (Angara-A5В) promises for the 2025 year. The existence of "Energy" has become a headache for overseas "colleagues". Their missiles of that period and even modern ones are inferior to the Soviet three times!
Energia managed to fly twice: with a mock combat platform weighing 80 tons (diameter - 4,1 meters, length - 37 meters) and with the reusable spacecraft "Buran", which made an amazing landing in automatic mode.
However, in 1994, the program was quietly closed, a huge reserve was destroyed. The Pentagon breathed a sigh of relief and, having received a breathing space for more than 20 years, began creating super-heavy SLS with a carrying capacity of 70 – 130 tons. Know-how was used to reduce the cost: powerful solid-fuel accelerators of start (TTU) were used at the first stage.
Readiness PH SLS - 2018 year. With its appearance, aggression against Russian satellites is inevitable. We need to return to the global path of development, create our own super-heavy twenty-first century, that is, with TTU at the first stage. But how, if a new PCF has already been approved at the government level?
Cleaner does not mean better
Forgive me pundits in Roskosmos, but authoritative experts and colleagues call the transition from Proton to Angara, as well as the creation of Roscosmos corporation, an imitation of hectic activity. Pilot-cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Georgy Grechko was perplexed: “Why did you transfer such a complex system - Roskosmos into the hands of effective managers? Do you not know that effective managers are effective only for themselves? The Angara is a non-existent rocket. She came up with more under Yeltsin, she is already morally obsolete. "
We remember how 13 April 2015, the president, tried, to put it mildly, to mislead (the plot was shown on TV). Then the head of Roscosmos, Igor Komarov, presented the 35-ton “Angara-A5В” as a super heavy-class PH. However, the head of state didn’t buy it: “It was already foreseen, and it should be a super-heavy rocket. This need to think.
We think? Roscosmos explains its refusal to be extremely heavy with the fact that there is no payload for it. It is ignored that such a PH is needed not so much for deep space as, we repeat, for the defense and defense of one's place in orbit.
The game with the enrollment of "Angara-A5В" then in heavy, then in super-heavy carriers makes you think that the mission of the head of state is unlikely to be fulfilled.
Presenting the new FKP, Igor Komarov noted that the production of super-heavy RN with a load capacity of 70 and more tons is postponed for an indefinite period. The head of the NTS, Yuri Koptev, supported: “The fate of the super-heavy missiles — our H1-L3 and the Saturn of the United States showed the hopelessness of their development.”
Is this true?
The Н1-Л3 project was closed after four consecutive severe accidents at the first stage, where the 30 LND NK-15 developed by KB N. Kuznetsov and having a relatively small thrust - 154 ton-force stood. Valentin Glushko, the general designer of the reusable complex “Energy” - “Buran”, warned that such a number of simultaneously operating rocket engines would not provide the required reliability.
In contrast, the Saturn was equipped with VG Braun's giant F-1 rocket engines with a ton-force 680, five pieces in the first stage. Operation of the "Saturn" rocket stopped only after the brilliant execution of the lunar program. Americans were convinced of the effectiveness of super-heavy carrier, but to reduce the cost and a sharp increase in carrying capacity, they developed super-powerful solid propellant rocket motors with 1000 – 1600 ton-force and equipped them with the first stage of the newest SLS and Ares.
So who is right: the Americans, who continue to create super heavy rocket launchers, or Roskosmos, who blessed the destruction of the Energia and Energiya-M rocket last century, and who today convinced the country's leadership to include Angar in the FKP-25.She flew to us from the last century. Her closest relative is the famous Proton, who in July 2015 was 50 years old.
The only useful difference is the “clean” components. The rest of the "Angara" loses. For example, it is heavier on 55 tons, and traction on 22 is a ton-force less. The “Angara” birth defect is a weak first stage and a low weight category (760 t), which will lose relevance to the 2018 – 2020 years. In Angara, 91 has a percentage of Angara, 84 percent of Proton-M, 60 percent of Solid Shuttle accelerators. The remaining 9, 16, 40 percent, respectively, ensure the rise of higher stages. We see that "Angara" barely raises itself and in 4,5 times loses TTU in efficiency.
Insufficient thrust-to-weight ratio is a chronic deficiency of all LRE. When creating superheavy missiles, this became a critical inhibiting factor and required a fundamentally new approach.
В aviation the replacement of jet-type motors with jet engines ensured an abrupt increase in speeds. So in our case: the use of TTU in the first stage provided a jump in the carrying capacity of the American superheavy LV SLS and Ares. The hassle is that these TTUs need to be created, but Roscosmos, as experts put it, does not see solid fuel issues at point blank range, unprovenly referring to its high cost. Although the United States, India, Japan, Europe consider TTU as an effective means of reducing the cost of putting goods into orbit.
In the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, solid propellant rockets with solid propellant rocket motors almost completely supplanted LREs in all weapons and military equipment — from grenade launchers to ICBMs, and everywhere is maintained parity with the best foreign models.
The only one who has not been touched by this process is Roscosmos. Here we are four to five times behind the power of foreign launchers.
Public against
The flaws of the "Angara" project are noted in a wide range and presented with a serious technical argument. Let us briefly describe the essence of these responses, claims to the plans of Roskosmos.
In the methodical part:
- initially wrong choice of target, which led to a critical lag behind the world level in the field of space launch vehicles;
- suppression of the overriding role of super-heavy RN as a guarantor of our presence in orbits and the creation of parity primarily in the defense field and only then in deep-space research;
-negating the fact that knocking sanctions from space will fall on Russia at the very beginning of 2020-s with the commissioning of the American space system SLS / Orion, from this point on, the whole worthlessness of the Angara program with its multi-launch expedition to the Moon in 2030- x years;
fake confidence that the US will not dare to use the SLS missile for military purposes.
Negative aspects of the technical side:
-the help of both the Angara-5 and the Angara-5В in front of the American SLS missile in the fight for the information space;
-weakness of the first stage “Angara-5”, as a result of the unreality of increasing the mass of the payload to 38 tons, promised by Roskosmos;
-the uselessness and uselessness of the implementation of the Angara-5В, even if an 38-ton PH is created, it will not affect the balance of forces;
-the small scale of the final tasks, their vague wording, prudently removed to a safe distance for the authors from the time of execution (as a result, there is no responsibility for the result).
Any item listed is sufficient to question the feasibility of the project. In general, based on the results of the public discussion, the “Angara” project cannot be recommended as the basis of the PCF-2025. It is probably acceptable for Roscosmos and the Pentagon, but contrary to the interests of Russia.
Vakhtang Vachnadze, who headed NPO Energia in 1977 – 1991, recalls: “We also developed a lightweight version of Energia, it was called Energia-M.” This is a wonderful carrier - there was nothing new to do there ... it turned out a rocket from 25 to 40 tons of useful output load. The niche of the currently used UR-500 (“Proton”) to 20 tons and everything above can be closed with our reduced “Energy”. So if the project “Energy-M” was saved, now it would be very profitable. And now even hydrogen in the required amounts cannot be obtained, everything has been eliminated ”(“ Energy of the Soviet past ”). This is the opinion of a person who has worked in the industry all his life, for years 15 was headed by Energia. Apparently, it is not for nothing that they say that there is no prophet in his homeland ...
The new Military Doctrine, approved by the President in December 2014 of the year, states that with the modern development of nuclear missile shield technology to protect the state is not enough. There were threats from space that could deprive Russia of the information space. This means that the country needs a rocket-space shield, the creation of which is possible only if there is a super-heavy rocket launcher built on the know-how of the 21st century. Sooner or later we will come to understand this. That's just the time to solve such a serious problem may not be enough.
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