A spacecraft used for flights in low-Earth orbit, including under human control.
All spaceships can be divided into two classes: manned and launched in control mode from the surface of the Earth.
In the early 20s. XX century K. E. Tsiolkovsky in Once again predicts the future exploration of outer space by earthlings. In his work “Spaceship” there is a mention of the so-called heavenly ships, the main purpose of which is the implementation of human flights into space.
The first spacecraft of the Vostok series were created under the strict leadership of the general designer of OKB-1 (now the Energia rocket and space corporation) S.P. Korolev. The first manned spacecraft "Vostok" was able to deliver a person into outer space on April 12, 1961. This cosmonaut was Yu. A. Gagarin.
The main objectives set in the experiment were:
1) study of the impact of conditions orbital flight per person, including his performance;
2) testing the principles of spacecraft design;
3) testing of structures and systems in real conditions.
The total mass of the ship was 4.7 tons, diameter - 2.4 m, length - 4.4 m. Among the onboard systems with which the ship was equipped, the following can be distinguished: control systems (automatic and manual modes); automatic orientation system to the Sun and manual orientation to the Earth; life supporting system; thermal control system; landing system.
Subsequently, the developments obtained during the implementation of the Vostok spacecraft program made it possible to create much more advanced ones. Today, the “armada” of spacecraft is very clearly represented by the American reusable transport spacecraft “Shuttle”, or Space Shuttle.
It is impossible not to mention the Soviet development, which is currently not in use, but could seriously compete with the American ship.
"Buran" was the name of the Soviet Union's program to create a reusable space system. Work on the Buran program began in connection with the need to create a reusable space system as a means of deterring a potential enemy in connection with the start of American project in January 1971
To implement the project, NPO Molniya was created. IN as soon as possible in 1984, with the support of more than a thousand enterprises from all over the Soviet Union, the first full-scale copy was created with the following technical characteristics: its length was more than 36 m with a wingspan of 24 m; launch weight - more than 100 tons with a payload weight of up to
30 t.
"Buran" had a sealed cabin in the bow compartment, which could accommodate about ten people and most equipment to support flight in orbit, descent and landing. The ship was equipped with two groups of engines at the end of the tail section and in the front of the hull for maneuvering; for the first time, a combined propulsion system was used, which included fuel tanks for oxidizer and fuel, boost thermostatting, fluid intake in zero gravity, control system equipment, etc.
The first and only flight of the Buran spacecraft was made on November 15, 1988 in an unmanned, fully automatic mode (for reference: the Shuttle still lands only using manual control). Unfortunately, the ship's flight coincided with the difficult times that began in the country, and in connection with the end of " cold war"and the lack of sufficient funds, the Buran program was closed.
The American Space Shuttle series began in 1972, although it was preceded by a project for a reusable two-stage vehicle, each stage of which was similar to a jet.
The first stage served as an accelerator, which, after entering orbit, completed its part of the task and returned to Earth with the crew, and the second stage was an orbital ship and, after completing the program, also returned to the launch site. It was a time of an arms race, and the creation of a ship of this type was considered the main link in this race.
To launch the ship, the Americans use an accelerator and own engine a ship whose fuel is stored in an external fuel tank. Spent boosters are not reused after landing, with a limited number of launches. Structurally, the Shuttle series ship consists of several main elements: the Orbiter aerospace aircraft, reusable rocket boosters and a fuel tank (disposable).
The first flight of a spacecraft due to large quantity defects and design changes took place only in 1981. In the period from April 1981 to July 1982, a series of orbital flight tests of the Columbia spacecraft were carried out in all flight modes. Unfortunately, the series of flights of the Shuttle series of ships was not without tragedies.
In 1986, during the 25th launch of the Challenger spacecraft, a fuel tank exploded due to imperfections in the design of the vehicle, as a result of which all seven crew members were killed. Only in 1988, after a number of changes were made to the flight program, the Discovery spacecraft was launched. The Challenger was replaced by a new ship, the Endeavor, which has been operating since 1992.
It's interesting to see how different people solve the same problem. Everyone has their own experience, their own initial conditions, but when the goal and requirements are similar, the solutions to this problem are functionally similar to each other, although they may differ in a specific implementation. At the end of the 50s, both the USSR and the USA began to develop manned spacecraft for the first steps into space. The requirements were similar - the crew was one person, the time spent in space was up to several days. But the devices turned out to be different, and it seems to me that it would be interesting to compare them.
Introduction
Neither the USSR nor the USA knew what awaited man in space. Yes, in airplane flights you can reproduce weightlessness, but it only lasts ~30 seconds. What will happen to a person during prolonged weightlessness? Doctors frightened us with the inability to breathe, drink, see (allegedly the eye should lose its shape due to improper operation eye muscles), to think (they were afraid of madness or loss of consciousness). Knowledge about high-energy cosmic particles led to thoughts about radiation injuries(and even after the flights, terrible versions of radiation sickness of flying cosmonauts regularly appeared in the newspapers). Therefore, the first ships were designed for little time being in space. The duration of the first flights was measured in minutes, subsequent ones - in hours, or orbits around the Earth (one orbit - approximately 90 minutes).Extraction means
The main factor influencing the design of the ship was the carrying capacity of the launch vehicle. Both the two-stage R-7 and the Atlas could launch approximately 1,300 kg into low Earth orbit. But for the “seven” they managed to work out the third stage, block “E”, in the lunar launches of 1959, increasing the payload capacity of the three-stage rocket to 4.5 tons. But the United States still could not work out the basic two-stage Atlas, and the first theoretically possible variant Atlas-Agena did not fly until the beginning of 1960. The result was an anecdote - the Soviet Vostoks weighed 4.5 tons, and the mass of Mercury was comparable to the mass of Sputnik 3 - 1300 kg.External structural elements
Let's first look at the outside of the ships:
"East"
"Mercury"
Case shape
“Vostok” at the launch site was under the jettisonable fairing. Therefore, the designers were not concerned about the aerodynamic shape of the ship, and it was also possible to safely place antennas, cylinders, thermal control blinds and other fragile elements on the surface of the device. And the design features of block “E” determined the characteristic conical “tail” of the ship.
Mercury could not afford to drag a heavy fairing into orbit. Therefore, the ship had an aerodynamic conical shape, and that’s all sensitive elements periscope type were retractable.
Thermal protection
When creating the Vostok, the designers proceeded from solutions that would provide maximum reliability. Therefore, the shape of the descent vehicle was chosen in the form of a ball. The uneven distribution of weight ensured the “vanish-stand-up” effect, when the descent module independently, without any control, was installed in the correct position. And thermal protection was applied to the entire surface of the descent vehicle. When braking against dense layers of the atmosphere, the impact on the surface of the ball was uneven, so the thermal protection layer had different thicknesses.
Left: flow around a sphere at hypersonic speed (in a wind tunnel), right: unevenly burned Vostok-1 descent module.
The conical shape of the Mercury meant that thermal protection would only be required at the bottom. On the one hand, this saved weight, on the other hand, the incorrect orientation of the ship upon entering the dense layers of the atmosphere meant a high probability of its destruction. On the top of the ship there was a special aerodynamic spoiler, which was supposed to turn the Mercury stern forward.
Left: cone at hypersonic speed in a wind tunnel, right: Mercury's thermal protection after landing.
Interestingly, the thermal protection material was similar - on the Vostok it was asbestos fabric impregnated with resin, on the Mercury it was fiberglass and rubber. In both cases, the fabric-like material with the filler burned layer by layer, and the filler evaporated, creating additional layer thermal protection.
Brake system
The Vostok's braking engine was unduplicated. From a safety point of view it was not very good good decision. Yes, the Vostoks were launched in such a way that they would naturally decelerate into the atmosphere within a week, but, firstly, already during Gagarin’s flight the orbit was higher than the calculated one, which actually “turned off” this backup system, and secondly, natural deceleration meant landing anywhere from 65 degrees northern latitude to 65 degrees south latitude. The reason for this is constructive - two liquid-propellant rocket engines did not fit into the ship, and solid fuel engines were not developed at that time. The reliability of the TDU was increased by the maximum simplicity of the design. There were cases when the TDU gave a slightly smaller impulse than necessary, but there was never a complete failure.
TDU "Vostok"
On the Mercury, behind the heat shield there was a block of separation and braking engines. Both types of engines were installed in triplicate for greater reliability. The separation engines were turned on immediately after the launch vehicle engines were turned off in order for the ship to move away from the launch vehicle to a safe distance. The braking engines were turned on to deorbit. In order to return from orbit, one firing braking engine was enough. The engine block was mounted on steel straps and dropped after braking.
TDU "Mercury"
Landing system
On Vostok, the pilot sat separately from the ship. At an altitude of 7 km, the astronaut ejected and landed independently using a parachute. For greater reliability, the parachute system was duplicated.
The Mercury used the idea of landing on water. The water softened the blow, and the large US fleet had no difficulty finding the capsule in the ocean. To soften the impact on the water, a special air bag-shock absorber opened.
History has shown that landing systems have proven to be the most dangerous in projects. Gagarin almost landed on the Volga, Titov landed next to the train, Popovich almost broke down on the rocks. Grissom nearly drowned with the ship, and they were looking for Carpenter more than an hour and have already begun to be considered dead. Subsequent ships had neither pilot ejection nor shock absorber cushions.
Emergency rescue systems
The standard cosmonaut ejection system on Vostok could work as a rescue system on initial section trajectories. There was a hole in the fairing for landing an astronaut and for emergency ejection. The parachute might not have time to open in the event of an accident in the first seconds of the flight, so a net was stretched to the right of the launch pad, which was supposed to soften the fall.
Grid below in foreground
On high altitude the ship had to separate from the rocket using standard separation means.
The Mercury had an emergency rescue system, which was supposed to take the capsule away from the collapsing rocket from the start to the end of the dense layers of the atmosphere.
In the event of an accident at high altitude, the standard separation system was used.
Ejection seats were used as an escape system on Gemini and on test flights of the Space Shuttle. The Mercury-style SAS was installed on the Apollos and is still installed on the Soyuz.
Attitude thrusters
Compressed nitrogen was used as a working fluid for orientation on the Vostok ship. The main advantage of the system was its simplicity - the gas was contained in balloons and released using a simple system.The Mercury spacecraft used the catalytic decomposition of concentrated hydrogen peroxide. From the point of view of specific impulse, this is more profitable than compressed gas, but the reserves of the working fluid on the Mercury were extremely small. By actively maneuvering, it was possible to use up the entire supply of peroxide in less than one turn. But its supply had to be saved for orientation operations during landing... The astronauts secretly competed with each other to see who would spend the least peroxide, and Carpenter, who was carried away by photography, got into serious trouble - he wasted the working fluid on orientation and the peroxide ran out during the landing process. Fortunately, the altitude was ~20 km and no disaster occurred.
Subsequently, peroxide was used as a working fluid at the first Soyuz, and then everyone switched to high-boiling components UDMH/AT.
Thermoregulation system
The Vostoks used blinds that either opened, increasing the radiating area of the ship, or closed.On the Mercury there was a system that used the evaporation of water in a vacuum. It was more compact and lighter, but there were more problems with it, for example, in Cooper’s flight it knew only two states - “hot” and “cold”.
Internal structural elements
Internal layout of the Vostok ship:
Internal layout of the Mercury ship: 
Toolbar
Toolbars most clearly show the difference in design approaches. Vostok was made by rocket designers, so its toolbar has a minimum of controls:
Photo
Left panel.
Main panel.
“Mercury” was made by former aircraft designers, and the astronauts made efforts to ensure that the cockpit was familiar to them. Therefore, there are many more controls:
Photo.
Scheme.
At the same time, the similarity of tasks gave rise to identical devices. Both Vostok and Mercury had a globe with a clock mechanism, showing the current position of the vehicle and the estimated landing site. Both Vostok and Mercury had indicators of flight stages - on Mercury it was “Flight Operations Management” on the left panel, on Vostok there were indicators “Descent-1”, “Descent-2”, “Descent- 3" and "Prepare to eject" on the central panel. Both ships had a manual orientation system:
"Vzor" on "Vostok" If there is a horizon on all sides on the peripheral part, and the Earth in the center is moving from bottom to top, then the orientation to braking is correct.
Periscope on Mercury. The marks indicate the correct braking orientation.
Life supporting system
On both ships the flight was carried out in spacesuits. In “Vostok” an atmosphere close to that of the earth was maintained - a pressure of 1 atm, oxygen and nitrogen in the air. On the Mercury, to save weight, the atmosphere was purely oxygen at reduced pressure. This added to the inconvenience - the astronaut needed to breathe oxygen in the ship for about two hours before launch; during the ascent, it was necessary to bleed the atmosphere from the capsule, then close the ventilation valve, and upon landing, open it again to increase the pressure along with the atmospheric pressure.The sanitary and hygienic system was more advanced on Vostok - flying for several days it was possible to satisfy large and small needs. On the Mercury there were only urinals; a special diet saved us from major hygienic problems.
Electrical system
Both ships used battery power. The Vostoks were more resilient; on the Mercurys, Cooper’s daily flight ended in failure conditions good half devices.Conclusion
Both types of ships were the pinnacle of technology in their countries. Being the first, both types had both good decisions, and unsuccessful. The ideas embedded in Mercury live in rescue systems and conical capsules, and the grandchildren of Vostok are still flying - Photons and Bions use the same spherical descent vehicles:
In general, the Vostoks and Mercurys turned out to be good ships that allowed us to take the first steps into space and avoided fatal accidents.
Manned spacecraft is a spacecraft designed for human flight and having all the necessary means for operation during insertion into orbit (with the help of a launch vehicle), performing missions in space and returning the crew to Earth. Mandatory features of a manned spacecraft (SC) are the presence of a crew on board and the ability to fly in a closed cycle: Earth - space - Earth.
Flight missions and areas of use
The first spaceships - the Soviet Vostok and the American Mercury - were intended for the first human flights into space and were relatively simple in design and the systems used.
The development of the Voskhod and Gemini spacecraft made it possible to conduct a series of technical experiments, and the creation and operation of the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft, including their joint flight, marked the beginning of the use of manned spacecraft in transport flights to long-term orbital stations and in long-distance space flights , in rescue operations in space, etc. Thus, the practical orientation space flights, and the problems solved became the determining factor in the development of manned spacecraft.
Space technology is a relatively young and rapidly developing industry, and the fundamental tasks of space exploration are in their infancy. This makes it difficult to clearly classify manned spacecraft, however, one of the signs of classification can be considered the main directions of use of spacecraft that have already been established or predicted for the future: flights of single ships; experimental orbital flights; transport flights of manned spacecraft; long-distance flights of CC; flights of space rescue ships; flights of manned spacecraft for repair or assembly in orbit.
Single ship flights(autonomous flights) in orbits artificial satellite The Earth began to explore outer space. The Vostok and Mercury spacecraft were specially designed for such flights. Currently, for autonomous flights, spacecraft are used that were created for other purposes and modified to perform a specific flight task. Thus, during the flight of the modified Soyuz-13 spacecraft (1973), a number of studies were carried out, including astrophysical ones, and during the flight of the Soyuz-22 spacecraft (1976), photographing the territory of the USSR in the interests of National economy.
Experimental orbital flights have the purpose of conducting technical experiments. For example, the Voskhod and Gemini spacecraft tested means of human entry into outer space (1965), and the Gemini-8 spacecraft, together with the rocket stage, tested rendezvous and docking methods (1966). Great importance had a flight of the Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5 spacecraft (1969), in which they were docked and two cosmonauts transferred from ship to ship through outer space.
Transport flights manned spacecraft to long-term stations are intended for delivery of crew and crew on board the stations. its return to Earth, as well as transporting a small cargo. Such were the flights of the Soyuz spacecraft to the Salyut stations and the transport version of the Apollo spacecraft to the Skylab station.
Long flights The spacecraft were carried out under the American Apollo program, during which the first manned spacecraft landed on the Moon (July 20, 1969). The Soviet Union developed the Zond spacecraft, which for the first time after orbiting the Moon entered the Earth's atmosphere from the second escape velocity first along a ballistic trajectory with landing in Indian Ocean(“Zond-5”, September 1968) and then along a controlled descent trajectory with a landing on the territory of the USSR (“Zond-6”, November 1968). This experimental ship could also be equipped as a manned one.
Space rescue ships designed to rescue crews of manned spacecraft and stations in distress and represent a new possible direction of use. The objectives of the Soyuz-Apollo program included the development and in-flight testing of experimental compatible rendezvous and docking means necessary not only for joint flights, but also for rescue operations.
Flights of manned spacecraft for repair or assembly in orbit - a mandatory component of future programs. Building large structures in orbit (such as power plants or antennas) may require direct human involvement in assembly or repair operations.
Features of manned spacecraft
The appearance of a person on board significantly changes the appearance of the spacecraft, its characteristics, and the approach to design and development. This is connected not only with the need to provide a person with everything necessary for life in unusual conditions space flight, but also with the possibility of organizing manual control of the flight of the spacecraft (SC) and the operation of its systems. Different principles lie in the approach to setting and implementing flight goals, since it is necessary to take into account various aspects crew activities and safety. The characteristics of manned spacecraft are determined, in particular, by the following main factors: return to Earth; living conditions and activities of the crew; flight safety.
Return to Earth is a mandatory operation for every manned spacecraft. When performing an orbital flight, for these purposes, the spacecraft is braked to switch to the descent trajectory. For long-distance flights, corrections to the return trajectory are necessary. This requires a QC power plant to change the trajectory of movement and a number of other systems (for example, orientation and motion control systems, systems for its executive bodies, power supply systems).
To return to Earth, a manned spacecraft must have means of protection against aerodynamic heating and landing means. Typically, the crew's descent and landing are carried out in a specialized compartment - lander(SA). When developing it, stability of its movement, sufficient landing accuracy and tolerance of overloads by the crew must be ensured (see section 3.5).
Crew living conditions in space flight can only be provided inside a sealed shell, for which each manned spacecraft has a sealed compartment with an atmosphere suitable for breathing and constantly renewed. The best pressure and gas composition are those that are natural to humans and correspond to those on Earth at sea level. Such conditions are maintained at the Soyuz and Soyuz T spacecraft and the Salyut station; at the Apollo spacecraft it is accepted purely oxygen atmosphere with low blood pressure.
The volume and dimensions of the living compartment should allow a person to make normal movements (for example, straighten up in a full height) and correspond to the tasks and duration of flights. The first spacecraft Vostok, Mercury, Voskhod and Gemini had cramped cabins due to strict requirements to reduce their mass; the cabins of the Soyuz and Apollo spacecraft were significantly enlarged. The living compartment must be supported normal conditions by temperature, which leads to the need to develop thermal control systems.
Human life is connected with nutrition, natural needs, personal hygiene and sleep. This predetermines the availability on board of sufficient supplies of food and water, sanitary and hygienic supplies, various items toilet and hygiene, as well as related accessories and sleeping equipment. Moreover, all this must be designed for use in confined spaces and weightlessness.
During the flight the crew is subjected to various influences, varying according to flight stages. One of the main tasks when designing a manned spacecraft is to protect the crew from these influences and reduce their level, i.e., ensuring the tolerance of space flight conditions.
Crew activities associated with spacecraft flight control and manual operations have a significant impact on spacecraft design and systems. Flight control requires the presence of workstations that are rationally organized and allow one to observe the external situation, obtain information about the operation of spacecraft systems, conduct radio communications with the Earth and other manned spacecraft, use on-board documentation, select operating modes of spacecraft systems, turn them on and off, perform orientation and maneuvering in orbit, rendezvous and docking, and if available on board computers- manage their work. Traditionally, the workplace consists of a chair, a remote control and control knobs, portholes and optical instruments for observation.
During flight, the crew works with many elements of on-board equipment located in the volume of the flight deck (some units of the life support system, crew equipment, manual mechanisms, scientific equipment, etc.).
In transport flights (for example, the flight of the Soyuz spacecraft to the Salyut station) with the transition of the crew, docking units are required with a rigid connection between the spacecraft and the station and with sealing of the resulting transition tunnel, a hatch in the docking unit and a system for monitoring the tightness of the joint. The same features are inherent in the Apollo spacecraft, which provides for the transition from the orbital vehicle to the expedition module and back. IN pilot program"Soyuz" - "Apollo" the American side developed a special docking module for the transition of crews in incompatible atmospheres inside spacecraft.
If a person is planned to go into outer space, the ship must have spacesuits with an appropriate service system on board, and the ship itself must have an airlock chamber (Voskhod spacecraft). One of the compartments of the ship or station (Soyuz spacecraft, Salyut station) can be used as an airlock; Exit can also be made directly from the flight deck (Gemini spacecraft); in this case there must be a system for releasing and restoring the atmosphere and a hatch that can be opened in space.
Flight safety is of fundamental importance when creating a manned spacecraft and ensuring its high reliability. For any spacecraft, at the beginning of development, the probability is set and then confirmed successful implementation tasks, or the reliability of the flight program, and for manned spacecraft, in addition to this, the likelihood of ensuring the safety of the crew, or the degree of flight safety. Both criteria are determined by certain control values and are usually set - the first - at the level of 95 - 98%, the second - 99% and higher. These values, without expressing the degree of actual risk, are a calculated assessment of the effectiveness of a set of measures carried out during the development of spacecraft, their experimental testing and operation for the sake of the successful implementation of the flight program and the maximum elimination of the influence of incidents and conditions dangerous to human life.
Safety requirements affect the appearance of the ship, the characteristics of its systems, the rocket and space system as a whole, and the flight pattern. In addition to ensuring the reliability of systems, their functional redundancy is carried out, automatic operating modes are supplemented with manual ones, and special means to rescue the crew in case of accidents, duplicate instruments, mechanisms, etc. are installed. Thus, the features of the Soyuz spacecraft in comparison with unmanned spacecraft are the redundancy of the parachute system, manual orientation modes, a set of rescue means in case of depressurization of the living compartments, etc.
When creating a manned spacecraft great attention pay attention to the analysis of emergency situations (failures, deviations from specified modes or accidents) and ways out of them. During the development process, such an analysis makes it possible to justify the choice of decisions on redundancy and the necessary additional energy reserves (fuel, electricity), and during flight preparation, the development of action plans in emergency situations (see Chapter 11).
Spaceship and rocket-space complex
A manned spacecraft significantly affects the entire rocket and space complex (RSC), causing certain changes in its structural elements compared to unmanned spacecraft. These changes are associated with the installation of systems characteristic of a manned flight, the need for crew maintenance, and increased requirements for operational control and flight planning and ensuring the activities and safety of the crew at all stages of the flight.
Launch vehicle The manned spacecraft is equipped with special elements for recognizing failures and deviations from normal operating conditions. To rescue the crew in cases where it is necessary to terminate the flight in a timely manner when dangerous situations arise or ejection becomes impossible, an emergency rescue system is installed (for more details, see Chapter 10). These features significantly influence the design of the launch vehicle and the solution of such issues as design loading standards, strength, aerodynamic characteristics, launch trajectory parameters, fall zones of detachable elements, etc. The requirements for the launch vehicle are high requirements in terms of reliability, both in order to increase the likelihood of launching a spacecraft into orbit, and for reasons of crew safety. In addition to technological measures during manufacturing and assembly, redundancy of systems and assemblies, for example control and power supply systems, is introduced. At LV stages that have several engines, diagnostic systems can be installed that can detect engine failure and ensure its shutdown. In this case, further flight continues at reduced total thrust.
The type of fuel used on the launch vehicle is of considerable importance. It is known that two-component high-boiling fuels of the “ Nitric acid- dimethylhydrazine" have high toxicity, which in case of accidents at the launch, as well as at the launch site in the event of a landing in the area where the rocket block falls, creates increased danger for the crew and maintenance personnel. Therefore, for manned RCS, “noble” fuel components are used: “kerosene - oxygen” or “hydrogen - oxygen”, which at the same time provide a high specific impulse of the engines.
Technical position manned spacecraft equipped big amount control and testing equipment and installation and docking equipment, completed taking into account the characteristics of the control system, and is characterized by increased requirements for cleanliness. A room for crew training is provided in the installation and testing building or a separate building. Special vehicles are used to deliver crews to the starting position.
Starting position just like the technical one, it is equipped taking into account the design features and preparation of the manned spacecraft for launch. In particular, such features are lifting the crew to the spacecraft level using elevators, boarding them in the spacecraft from a special platform, performing service personnel final operations, including tightness control, and preparation of the emergency rescue system.
For the urgent evacuation of crew and personnel from upper levels The launch facility is provided with special means (for more details, see the book “Cosmodrome”).
For command and measuring complex during a manned flight, maximum use is typical ground points, floating command and measurement equipment and communications via relay satellites. The work of the Flight Control Center is distinguished by radio communication with the crew, control and planning of their activities and rest, and mandatory round-the-clock shift work of personnel.
Search and rescue complex is put on alert even before the launch of a manned spacecraft, based on the need to search for the spacecraft and evacuate the crew when possible accidents RN. A feature of the complex’s operation, compared to servicing unmanned spacecraft, is a sharp increase in the funds involved (airplanes, helicopters, watercraft, etc.), the organization of radio communications with the crew, their medical support and evacuation.
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A reusable spacecraft means a device whose design allows the entire ship or its main parts to be reused. The first experience in this area was the Space Shuttle. Then the task of creating a similar device was assigned to Soviet scientists, as a result of which Buran appeared.
Other devices are also being designed in both countries. On this moment The most notable example of this type of project is the partially reusable Falcon 9 from SpaceX with a returnable first stage.
Today we’ll talk about why such projects were developed, how they showed themselves in terms of efficiency, and what prospects this area of astronautics has.
The history of the space shuttle began in 1967, before the first manned flight under the Apollo program. On October 30, 1968, NASA turned to the American space company with a proposal to develop a reusable space system in order to reduce costs for each launch and for each kilogram of payload put into orbit.
Several projects were proposed to the government, but each of them cost at least five billion US dollars, so Richard Nixon rejected them. NASA's plans were extremely ambitious: the project involved the operation of an orbital station, to and from which shuttles would constantly transport payloads. The shuttles also had to launch and return satellites from orbit, maintain and repair satellites in orbit, and conduct manned missions.
The final requirements for the ship looked like this:
- Cargo compartment 4.5x18.2 meters
- Possibility of horizontal maneuver over 2000 km (aircraft maneuver in a horizontal plane)
- Payload capacity 30 tons to low Earth orbit, 18 tons to polar orbit
The solution was to create a shuttle, the investment in which would pay off by putting satellites into orbit on a commercial basis. For the success of the project, it was important to minimize the cost of putting each kilogram of cargo into orbit. In 1969, the creator of the project talked about reducing the cost to 40-100 US dollars per kilogram, while for Saturn-V this figure was 2000 dollars.
To launch into space, the shuttles used two solid rocket boosters and three of their own propulsion engines. Solid rocket boosters were separated at an altitude of 45 kilometers, then splashed down into the ocean, repaired and reused. The main engines use liquid hydrogen and oxygen in an external fuel tank, which was discarded at an altitude of 113 kilometers, after which it partially burned in the atmosphere.
The first prototype of the Space Shuttle was the Enterprise, named after the ship from the Star Trek series. The ship was checked for aerodynamics and tested for its ability to land while gliding. Columbia was the first to go into space on April 12, 1981. In fact, this was also a test launch, although there was a crew of two astronauts on board: commander John Young and pilot Robert Crippen. Then everything worked out well. Unfortunately, this particular shuttle crashed in 2003 with seven crew members on its 28th launch. The Challenger had the same fate - it survived 9 launches, and crashed on the tenth. 7 crew members were killed.
Although NASA planned for 24 launches annually in 1985, during the 30 years the shuttles were in use, they took off and returned 135 times. Two of them were unsuccessful. The record holder for the number of launches was the Discovery shuttle - it survived 39 launches. Atlantis withstood 33 launches, Columbia - 28, Endeavor - 25 and Challenger - 10.
Challenger, 1983
The shuttles Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavor were used to deliver cargo to the International space station and to the Mir station.
The cost of delivering cargo into orbit in the case of the Space Shuttle turned out to be the highest in the history of astronautics. Each launch cost from 500 million to 1.3 billion dollars, each kilogram - from 13 to 17 thousand dollars. For comparison, a disposable Soyuz launch vehicle is capable of launching cargo into space at a price of up to 25 thousand dollars per kilogram. The Space Shuttle program was planned to be self-sustaining, but in the end it became one of the most unprofitable.
Shuttle Atlantis, ready for Expedition STS-129 to deliver equipment, materials and spare parts to the International Space Station. November 2009
The last flight of the Space Shuttle program took place in 2011. On July 21 of that year, Atlantis returned to Earth. The final landing of Atlantis marked the end of an era. Read more about what was planned and what happened in the Space Shuttle program in this article.
The USSR decided that the characteristics of the Space Shuttle made it possible to steal Soviet satellites or an entire space station from orbit: the shuttle could launch 29.5 tons of cargo into orbit and release 14.5 tons. Taking into account plans for 60 launches per year, this is 1,770 tons annually, although at that time the United States did not send even 150 tons into space per year. The release was supposed to be 820 tons per year, although nothing was usually released from orbit. Drawings and photos of the shuttle suggested that American ship can use nuclear weapons to attack the USSR from any point in near-Earth space, being outside the radio visibility zone.
To protect against a possible attack, a modernized 23-mm NR-23 automatic cannon was installed at the Salyut and Almaz stations. And in order to keep up with the American brothers in militarized space, the Union began developing an orbital rocket ship of the Buran reusable space system.
Development of the reusable space system began in April 1973. The idea itself had many supporters and opponents. The head of the Ministry of Defense Institute for Military Space played it safe and made two reports at once - in favor and against the program, and both of these reports ended up on the desk of D. F. Ustinov, the USSR Minister of Defense. He contacted Valentin Glushko, responsible for the program, but he sent his employee at Energomash, Valery Burdakov, to the meeting in his place. After a conversation about the military capabilities of the Space Shuttle and its Soviet counterpart, Ustinov prepared a decision that gave the development of a reusable spacecraft the highest priority. The NPO Molniya, created for this purpose, began creating the ship.
The tasks of "Buran" according to the plan of the USSR Ministry of Defense were: countering the measures of a potential enemy to expand the use of outer space for military purposes, solving problems in the interests of defense, the national economy and science, conducting military applied research and experiments using weapons on known and new physical principles , as well as launching into orbit, servicing and returning spacecraft, astronauts and cargo to earth.
Unlike NASA, which risked the crew during the first manned flight of the shuttle, Buran made its first flight automatically using an on-board computer based on the IBM System/370. On November 15, 1988, the launch took place; the Energia launch vehicle launched the spacecraft into low-Earth orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The ship made two orbits around the Earth and landed at the Yubileiny airfield.
During landing, an incident occurred that showed how smart the automatic system turned out to be. At an altitude of 11 kilometers, the ship made a sharp maneuver and described a loop with a 180-degree turn - that is, it landed, entering from the other end of the landing strip. The automation made this decision after receiving data on the storm wind in order to take the most advantageous trajectory.
Automatic mode was one of the main differences from the shuttle. In addition, the shuttles landed with the engine inoperative and were unable to land several times. To save the crew, Buran provided a catapult for the first two pilots. In fact, designers from the USSR copied the configuration of the shuttles, which they did not deny, but they made a number of extremely useful innovations from the point of view of vehicle control and crew safety.
Unfortunately, the first flight of the Buran was the last. In 1990, work was suspended, and in 1993, it was completely closed.
As sometimes happens with objects of national pride, version 2.01 “Baikal”, which they wanted to send into space, was rotting long years at the pier of the Khimki Reservoir.
You could touch history in 2011. Moreover, then people could even tear off pieces of the casing and heat-insulating coating from this story. That year, the ship was transported from Khimki to Zhukovsky to be restored and presented at MAKS in a couple of years.
"Buran" from the inside
Delivery of "Buran" from Khimki to Zhukovsky
"Buran" at MAKS, 2011, a month after the start of restoration
Despite the economic inexpediency shown by the Space Shuttle program, the United States decided not to abandon projects to create reusable spacecraft. In 1999, NASA began developing the X-37 drone with Boeing. There are versions according to which the device is intended to test the technologies of future space interceptors capable of disabling other devices. Experts in the United States are inclined to this opinion.
The device made three flights with a maximum duration of 674 days. It is currently on its fourth flight, with a launch date of May 20, 2015.
The Boeing X-37 orbital flying laboratory carries a payload of up to 900 kilograms. Compared to the Space Shuttle and Buran, capable of carrying up to 30 tons during takeoff, Boeing is a baby. But he also has different goals. The minishuttles were pioneered by the Austrian physicist Eugen Senger when he began developing a long-range rocket bomber in 1934. The project was closed, remembering it in 1944, towards the end of World War II, but it was too late to save Germany from defeat with the help of such a bomber. In October 1957, the Americans continued the idea by launching the X-20 Dyna-Soar program.
The X-20 orbital aircraft was capable, after entering a suborbital trajectory, of diving into the atmosphere to an altitude of 40-60 kilometers in order to take a photo or drop a bomb, and then return to space using lift from the wings.
The project was closed in 1963 in favor of civil program Gemini and the military orbital station project MOL.
Titan launch vehicles to launch the X-20 into orbit
X-20 layout
In the USSR, in 1969, they began to build “BOR” - an unmanned orbital rocket plane. The first launch was carried out without thermal protection, which is why the device burned out. The second rocket plane crashed due to parachutes not opening after successful braking into the atmosphere. In the next five launches, only once did the BOR fail to enter orbit. Despite the loss of the devices, each new launch brought important data for further development. With the help of BOR-4, thermal protection for the future Buran was tested in the 1980s.
As part of the Spiral program, for which the BOR was built, it was planned to develop a booster aircraft that would rise to a height of 30 kilometers at speeds of up to 6 speeds of sound in order to launch the orbital vehicle into orbit. This part of the program did not take place. The Ministry of Defense demanded an analogue of the American shuttle, so they sent forces to the Buran.
BOR-4
BOR-4
If the Soviet "Buran" was partially copied from the American "Space Shuttle", then in the case of the "Dream Chaser" everything happened exactly the opposite: the abandoned "BOR" project, namely the rocket plane of the "BOR-4" version, became the basis for the creation reusable spacecraft from SpaceDev. Rather, Space Chaser is based on a copied HL-20 orbital plane.
Work on the Dream Runner began in 2004, and in 2007, SpaceDev agreed with the United Launch Alliance to use Atlas 5 rockets to launch. First successful tests took place in a wind tunnel in 2012. The first flight prototype was dropped from a helicopter from a height of 3.8 kilometers on October 26, 2013.
According to the designers' plans, the cargo version of the ship will be able to deliver up to 5.5 tons to the International Space Station and return up to 1.75 tons.
The Germans began to develop their own version of a reusable system in 1985 - the project was called “Zenger”. In 1995, after the development of the engine, the project was closed, since it would have provided a benefit of only 10-30% compared to the European Ariane 5 launch vehicle.
Aircraft HL-20
"Dream Chaser"
To replace the disposable Soyuz, Russia began to develop the multi-purpose Clipper spacecraft in 2000. The system has become intermediate between the winged shuttles and the Soyuz ballistic capsule. In 2005, in order to cooperate with the European space agency a new version was presented - the winged "Clipper".
The device can put 6 people and up to 700 kilograms of cargo into orbit, that is, it is twice as good as the Soyuz in these parameters. At the moment there is no information that the project is ongoing. Instead, the news is talking about a new reusable ship - the Federation.
Multipurpose spacecraft "Clipper"
Manned transport ship“Federation” should replace manned “Soyuz” and “Progress” trucks. It is planned to be used, among other things, for a flight to the Moon. The first launch is planned for 2019. In autonomous flight, the device will be able to remain for up to 40 days, and when docked from an orbital station, it will be able to operate for up to 1 year. At the moment, the development of preliminary and technical designs has been completed, and working documentation for the creation of the first stage ship is being developed.
The system consists of two main modules: the reentry vehicle and the propulsion compartment. The work will use ideas that were previously used for Clipper. The ship will be able to carry up to 6 people into orbit and up to 4 people to the Moon.
Parameters of the "Federation" device
One of the most prominent in the media at the moment reusable projects are the developments of SpaceX - the Dragon V2 transport ship and the Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
Falcon 9 is a partially re-entry vehicle. The launch vehicle consists of two stages, the first of which has a system for return and vertical landing on the landing pad. The last launch was not successful - an accident occurred on September 1, 2016.
The reusable Dragon V2 manned spacecraft is now being prepared for safety testing for astronauts. In 2017, they plan to carry out an unmanned launch of the device on Falcon rocket 9.
Reusable manned spacecraft Dragon V2
In preparation for the flight of the expedition to Mars, the United States developed a reusable Orion spacecraft. The ship's assembly was completed in 2014. The first unmanned flight of the device took place on December 5, 2014 and was successful. Now NASA is preparing for further launches, including crewed ones.
Aviation typically involves multiple uses. aircraft. In the future, spacecraft will have to have the same property, but to achieve this, a number of problems will have to be solved, including economic ones. Each launch of a reusable ship should be cheaper than building a disposable one. It is necessary to use materials and technologies that will allow the devices to be restarted after minimal repairs, and ideally without repairs at all. Perhaps spaceships in the future will have both the characteristics of a rocket and an airplane.