Last week in the United States, the verification and defense of the working design of the super-heavy launch vehicle SLS (Space Launch System) was completed. At this stage, which took about 2.5 months, developers and specialists confirmed the correctness and effectiveness of all design solutions. Production of the main rocket blocks for the first launch, scheduled for November 2018, has already begun. Thus, the development of SLS has already overcome the milestone that the project of the previous American super-heavy rocket “Ares V” did not reach five years ago.
The decision to develop SLS was made in 2011. The process is divided into three stages, corresponding to the degree of modernization of the carrier. At the first stage, the SLS Block 1 rocket will be created. It will receive a basic first stage with a diameter of 8.4 m, equipped with four RS-25 oxygen-hydrogen engines. For the first launches it is planned to use engines removed from the space shuttles. In the future, Aerojet Rocketdyne will have to restore their production. The second stage of SLS Block 1 will use a modified version of the upper stage of the Delta IV rocket, called the ICPS - Interim Cryogenic Stage. Thrust at launch will be provided by two solid fuel boosters, which differ from the shuttle boosters only in the additional fuel block. SLS “Block 1” will be able to lift up to 70 tons into low Earth orbit. According to current NASA plans, which, however, have not yet been approved, the rocket of this modification will make only 1-2 flights.
Operation will begin in the first half of the 2020s SLS rockets"Block 1B". A new second stage EUS (exploration upper stage) will be developed for this purpose. Thanks to it, the carrier’s carrying capacity will increase to 105 tons. SLS “Block 1B” will become the main carrier American program deep space flights in the next decade.
At the final stage of development of the SLS project, the solid fuel accelerators will be modernized. The rocket, known as SLS Block 2, will then be able to launch up to 130 tons into low Earth orbit. In this form, it is planned to be used to launch Martian expeditions in the 2030s and 2040s. It is important to note that earlier plans for the third stage called for equipping the rocket with a completely new upper stage EDS (Earth Departure Stage). However, now the developers have decided that the EUS, developed at the second stage, will be able to provide the necessary carrying capacity. In addition, the SLS “Block 2” will receive an over-caliber head fairing with a diameter of at least 10 m.
The SLS project took 11 weeks to review and defend. Experts made sure that the project meets all the requirements for equipment intended for launching manned spacecraft. Technical documentation for production was approved and testing of test samples began various systems. NASA recently announced that it has completed testing of the upper stage test product and has begun production of the flight product. Construction of the ICPS should be completed in July 2016. The development of the first stage is in preparation for the creation of a test prototype, which will have to confirm reliability new technology welding The start of work is scheduled for the beginning of December 2015, completion - in the second half of the month.
Oddly enough, the main topic of discussion last week was the “rusty” color of the first stage of the rocket. The fact is that in past years, NASA artists preferred to depict her as white. At the same time, in the agency’s internal documentation, the rocket is already for a long time was depicted as brown. Oddly enough, refusing to paint allows you to increase the rocket's carrying capacity by several hundred kilograms. This is one of the reasons why the designers, at the very beginning of the space shuttle program, decided not to cover the shuttle fuel tanks with white paint. NASA had no particular reason to hide the true color of the carrier from the public. It is believed that this was done to avoid unnecessary associations with the canceled Ares V. There really is a lot in common between the missiles. Both were built on a large oxygen-hydrogen first stage (10 m in the previous design, 8.4 in the SLS) and boosters from the shuttles. The increased carrying capacity of the Ares (160-180 tons) was achieved through the use of six RS-25 engines, which later years development of the project, moreover, they decided to replace it with more powerful RS-68 engines.
The main complaint about the SLS is its cost. The program through 2025, including rocket launches, development and operation of the Orion spacecraft, will cost NASA approximately $35 billion. The cost of one SLS launch will be at least 500-700 million for regular flights 1-2 times a year and significantly higher - due to the cost of maintaining infrastructure - for flights once every two years.
Illustration copyright NASA
For several decades in a row, NASA did not have a heavy-class carrier capable of reaching the Moon. Now the American space agency is creating a rocket that can reach objects more distant from us solar system. The correspondent visited the enterprise assembling the first copies of the new rocket.
If you set out to remember at least one fact from this article, choose this one: new American rocket will be able to deliver 12 adult elephants into orbit - this clear example is used by NASA to illustrate the incredible power of its new rocket.
In the launch position, the height of the Space Launch System (SLS, System space launches) will exceed the height of the Statue of Liberty (93 m). The mass of the rocket will exceed the mass of seven and a half fully loaded Boeing 747 airliners, and the power of its engines will be the power of 13,400 electric locomotives. With the help of SLS, a person will be able to travel beyond the Earth's orbit for the first time since 1972, when the Saturn 5 carrier delivered the astronauts of the Apollo 17 crew, the last American manned expedition to the Earth's satellite, to the Moon.
“This will be a unique rocket,” says the systems engineer SLS programs Don Stanley. “It will help man return to the Moon and go even further - to asteroids and Mars.”
Stanley works at the George Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, behind the formidable fence of Redstone Arsenal, the base of the US Army Air and Missile Command. For more than 60 years, this is where the heart of the American development program has been. rocket technology military and civil purposes. Fenced area of 154 sq. km is dotted with testing grounds, test stands and decommissioned space technology.
Universal rocket
Among the space "junk" on the base's territory is a fragile-looking structure used for ground testing of the rocket that delivered the first American astronaut into orbit; thick metal shell of a ship with nuclear engine, the project of which was never brought to life; as well as the barrel-shaped engines of the Saturn 5. Near the parking lot lie spent solid rocket boosters from the Space Shuttle with a reassuring sign on the side: “Empty.”
As we pass these historic landmarks, Stanley says the new rocket will be much more versatile than its predecessors.
Illustration copyright NASA Image caption In 1972, the Saturn 5 carrier delivered the astronauts of the Apollo 17 crew to the Moon.“If you need to send a crew to an asteroid to change its orbit, our rocket can accomplish this task,” she says. “And if you need to fly to Mars, it will fly to Mars. SLS is capable of covering the entire range of potential space expeditions, which this moment being considered by the US government."
The rocket is being built specifically for manned spaceship Orion, which was successfully tested (uncrewed) last December. Although SLS is new development, it incorporates many technological solutions from previous NASA programs.
The first four copies of the SLS will be equipped with engines left over from the Space Shuttle program. The rocket's solid rocket boosters will be stretched versions of those used on the shuttle, and the upper stage design is based on blueprints for the Saturn V, developed in the 1960s. Stanley doesn't see anything special in this technology borrowing.
“To get away from the Earth, we will one way or another need a rocket, which is why we use the developments of the Apollo and Space Shuttle programs,” she notes. “But, in addition to this, we are introducing new technological solutions. The central rocket unit was developed from scratch; "We are also applying new manufacturing technologies. The result will be an efficient and affordable rocket."
Bicycles and electric cars
The SLS itself is assembled six hours south of Huntsville at NASA's sprawling assembly facility in the New Orleans suburb of Michaud. The factory, almost a kilometer long, was previously used to assemble Saturn V rockets; until recently - the external fuel tank of the Space Shuttle.
Because of gigantic size Enterprise employees move around the territory on bicycles - or, if they're lucky, on white electric cars with the NASA logo on board.
“We have hundreds of bikes here,” says technical director Pat Whipps as our electric car passes a group of cyclists. “At one time, our own bicycle repair shop was the largest in the southern United States.”
Illustration copyright NASA Image caption A rocket launch is always an impressive sight. What will the launch of SLS be like?We drive past sections and fairings of the new rocket, arranged around the plant like a modernist Stonehenge. The carrier elements are made of aluminum sheets. In some places the thickness of the outer shell does not exceed several millimeters. Structural strength is achieved thanks to internal metal lattice trusses. These shiny sections will soon be welded together to form the central rocket assembly, which will house the fuel tanks, engines and control systems.
“Everything in this program is huge; the size of the structures is also impressive, but the tolerances we need to maintain are extremely tight,” Whip says as we approach one of the welding machines looming above us. “Some of the rocket parts you have to look at from below, tilting your head back , just to see where they end, and the assembly accuracy must be thousandths of a centimeter."
Advanced welding method
Friction stir welding is used to join the individual parts of the rocket, literally gluing two layers of metal together.
"Conventional welding is accompanied by the release large quantity heat, open flames and smoke, explains engineer Brent Gadds. - The method we use is different in that the metal does not melt completely. The two layers simply rub together. The temperature of the metal does not exceed the melting point."
Illustration copyright NASA Image caption Friction stir weldingThis process is very interesting to watch: two plates are fastened together, after which a rotating roller, controlled by a computer, begins to move along the joint. It only takes a few minutes to weld even the longest sections, and the strength and reliability of the resulting seams is incomparably higher than using traditional welding methods.
The most impressive part of the New Orleans facility is the shop where the final assembly of the central rocket assembly is performed. The seventeen-story building is entirely occupied by an automatic welding machine - the most gigantic friction stir welding machine ever built.
“This is not just a machine increased in size,” notes Whips. “This is a completely new device. No one has ever done anything like this before. On the other hand, the rocket that we are building will be the largest ever launched from surface of the Earth."
Forward into the unknown
SLS's first launch is scheduled for 2018. Engineers at Michoud and the Marshall Center have a little more than two years to build the first core module, test the propulsion engines and boosters, and then deliver the rocket on a barge along the coast. Gulf of Mexico to final assembly at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. For safety reasons, the first flight - farther from Earth than the furthest manned missions in history - will be unmanned.
Illustration copyright NASA Image caption Perhaps SLS will be used for manned flights to Mars“We're going to send the rocket about 48,000 km further than the Apollo lunar missions flew,” says Stanley. “We need to strike a balance between the safety of future crews and technical capabilities missiles - we want to make sure we're taking an acceptable risk."
Her point of view is shared by Whips, whose office walls have photographs of the crews of the fallen Challenger and Columbia shuttles. According to Whips, everyone at the Michaud facility understands that the rocket being built here is intended for manned flight.
“We are often visited by astronauts and their families. This helps us remember that our work is extremely honorable and responsible because they depend on it. human lives", he says.
Funding for the SLS program is stable, so there is virtually no doubt that, unlike a number of previous similar projects, this one will be completed. If work on the Orion launch vehicle and spacecraft goes on schedule, the first manned flight could take place by the end of the decade.
Illustration copyright Getty Image caption Americans want to be leaders in everything, including space explorationThe question is where the astronauts will go. The US political leadership has not yet decided how exactly to use the incredible potential of the new missile. Whether it's going back to the Moon, going to an asteroid (the most popular option today), or more grandiose project- expedition to Mars? Whatever the decision of the White House and Congress, the main thing is that for the first time in more than 40 years, America again has the means to send manned expeditions into deep space.
"Our citizens want the United States to remain a world leader," Stanley says. "The United States is very competitive. We believe we must lead as a nation in many areas, including space exploration."
NASA is working on the largest launch vehicle in history, the Space Launch System. It is intended for manned expeditions beyond low-Earth orbit and the launch of other cargo, developed by NASA instead of the Ares-5 launch vehicle, which was canceled along with the Constellation program. The first test flight of the SLS-1/EM-1 launch vehicle is scheduled for the end of 2018.
NASA has long been working on inspiring interplanetary flight projects, but none of them can match the scale of the Space Launch System developments. New rocket will be the largest in history. It will be 117 meters in height, which is greater than big rocket in the history of the Saturn 5, the same one that delivered the module with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon.
It is planned that by the time of its first launch, SLS will become the most powerful operating launch vehicle in history in terms of the mass of cargo launched into near-Earth orbits.
It is assumed that the first stage of the rocket will be equipped with solid rocket boosters and RS-25D/E hydrogen-oxygen engines from the shuttles, and the second stage will be equipped with J-2X engines developed for the Constellation project. Work is also underway on the old F-1 oxygen-kerosene engines from the Saturn 5. It is planned that in terms of the mass of cargo launched into near-Earth orbits, SLS will become the most powerful operating launch vehicle in history at the time of its first launch, as well as the fourth in the world and the second super-heavy class launch vehicle in the United States - after Saturn 5, which was used in the Apollo program to launch spacecraft to the Moon and the Soviet N-1 and Energia. The rocket will launch into space a manned MPCV spacecraft, which is being designed based on the Orion spacecraft from closed program"Constellation".
A super-heavy launch vehicle is, first of all, a pass for humanity to distant planets. This was the case with Saturn 5 and the flight to the Moon, and this will be the case with the Space Launch System. NASA developers make no secret that the rocket will become a key link in preparations for sending humans to Mars, and this could happen as early as 2021.
As optimistic as this may sound, it would be great progress for NASA to simply get off Earth. In 2011, the last program to launch American astronauts into space was discontinued. Delivery to the ISS is carried out on board Russian Soyuz. Adding fuel to the fire are private space programs like SpaceX, which will soon be ready to independently send astronauts into orbit.
To date, progress on the Space Launch System is progressing according to schedule. NASA is testing components of the initial launch vehicle design. The entire development is planned to be completed by 2017. The Space Launch System is a joint collaboration between NASA, Boeing, and Lockheed-Martin. Boeing is developing the rocket's $2.8 billion avionics systems, while Lockheed-Martin is responsible for building the Orion crew capsule that will be mounted on the rocket. Ultimately, NASA expects to spend about $6.8 billion on the Space Launch System from 2014 to 2018.
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