Chapter 252 Star of Asia
"Aramco's Dream Chaser space shuttle completed its first unmanned full-state flight, staying in space for 24 hours before returning to the ground."
"Sierra Nevada Corporation: Another unmanned full-state flight will be carried out in November, and the first manned flight will be carried out in December, using the reusable Falcon 9 rocket."
"Musk will add two offshore recovery platforms to provide high-frequency support for the manned launch of the Dream Chaser space shuttle."
"ABC: Aramco has a space shuttle again, and NACA is leading Aramco back to the top."
"The island country India wants to jointly develop the super-heavy rocket "Asia Star" for the moon, which will send astronauts from both countries to the surface of the moon in 2020."
On October 12, the Dream Chaser space shuttle landed on the runway of the Kennedy Space Center. After 5 years, the space shuttle landed here again.
The Dream Chaser, which has a relatively mature design, basically did not encounter any accidents during this flight. The four simulated dummies were in very good condition throughout the whole process, and it was completely capable of carrying out manned launch missions.
Director Claire praised the Dream Chaser's R&D team and decided that the Dream Chaser could make its first manned flight after another unmanned flight.
As a space shuttle with a dry weight much heavier than a spacecraft, it is really amazing that the Dream Chaser can fit 9 people in a space with a maximum takeoff mass of no more than 15 tons. All parts are pursuing lightweight.
Of course, there are some slightly imperfect places, that is, the manufacturing cost of the first Dream Chaser B1 was overspent by 35%. Fortunately, this is a routine operation. As long as the thing flies, Congress will not care about such a small amount of money.
Moreover, as a small space shuttle, the Dream Chaser did not cost too much money. Large space shuttles are the money-eating beasts.
After the FATS plan, the "Endeavour" space shuttle at the Kennedy Space Center has been modified for two months with a Boeing 747 transported to the Boeing factory.
Although the nuclear engine adapted for it is not yet available, in fact, the nuclear engine team has only been established for a month, sorting out the research materials left over from that year at the air force base in the Nevada desert. It will definitely take next year to sort out the technical route for development.
However, there is no need to worry too much about the progress. The technical data and even finished products of the 8 different types of nuclear engines manufactured at that time were preserved. Even if the performance at that time was used, it could be used by Endeavour. After the restoration, the progress will definitely be very fast.
On the contrary, the carrier aircraft is very troublesome. Boeing engineers first stripped all the thermal insulation tiles. This is backward technology and must be replaced with newer, lighter, more durable and larger thermal insulation tiles.
Then there are the interiors, which also need to be completely dismantled. After the dismantling, only the empty shell of the fuselage is left. The internal pipelines must be dismantled and replaced with new ones. This is more troublesome than making a new fuselage.
Boeing clearly told Claire: Unless you want to send seven more people to death, the first test flight of Endeavour will never be earlier than July 2017.
Remove the thermal insulation tiles on the outside, the interior on the inside, the pipelines in the middle, and even the landing gear. The only fuselage that may remain unchanged must be overhauled and the key parts must be replaced. Because the nuclear engine is very heavy, the changes in the center of gravity and the direction of structural strength must be reconsidered.
Endeavour had to be replaced almost completely inside and out, and it was difficult to associate it with the Endeavour of 1992.
In order to do this, Boeing asked for $3.5 billion.
Half of the money was used to allocate to other manufacturers for research and development expenses. Many manufacturers that originally produced parts for the space shuttle went bankrupt, and the technical data naturally disappeared, so they needed to be re-made.
NACA knew that this was a waste of money, but it couldn't do anything, because those bankrupt companies were not state-owned enterprises, and they had no need to keep their core technologies in NACA.
So it is often said that NACA could not build Saturn V, which may be true. Although NACA has most of the main design, if the outsourced manufacturers are gone, those technologies must be developed from scratch.
But in general, the progress of FATS and NSTS programs is fast and smooth, unlike the Artemis program, which has frequent problems.
This time it is not the problem of the SLS rocket. SLS is currently progressing well and can make its first flight in time. The Orion spacecraft was completed during the Constellation program, and the lander will not be a big problem in a few years.
The trouble comes from the countries participating in the Artemis program.
The current Artemis program is not yet a huge organization with 29 member states in the future. In addition to the island countries, there are Aramco and some European countries (mainly countries with 嘤 and 髪).
As a result, the Aeronautical Development Commission announced some time ago that it was willing to sell engines and recovery control systems, so that the European Space Agency had an additional "Veneto 1" rocket, and also planned its own lunar landing plan. Although it is fast to establish a project in one year, they still pay less attention to the Artemis program.
Especially the largest industrial country in Europe and the country with the strongest aerospace technology, if they also choose to engage in the "Selene" plan, it will definitely interfere with the progress of the Artemis plan.
The service module manufacturer of the Orion spacecraft is Airbus and Defense Company, which provides the spacecraft with automatic docking and attitude adjustment capabilities. Aramco mainly takes the route of manual docking and robotic arm assisted docking.
Europe has mastered this technology through ATV (European Automatic Transfer Vehicle), and also has excellent capital adjustment technology.
The Artemis plan has a total of 6 manned flight missions, that is, at least 6 service modules, and the price Aramco paid is only three seats.
You know, there are 24 seats on the six Orion spacecraft, and the service module provider only got three of them.
Each service module built for the Orion spacecraft costs about 200 million euros, which is about 250 million dollars now. It is not a small amount of money for ESA.
Fortunately, ESA is not very independent now, and it is easy to be controlled if it is too fragmented, so NACA chooses to wait and see for the time being.
The island country is different. In a morning visit to India by the island country at the beginning of the month, senior personnel from JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries were present. Then a week later, the island country and India, who had reached some PY deal, announced that they had reached a joint lunar landing intention?
Island country, India, manned lunar landing.
These three words put together do not seem reliable.
But the island country seems to be playing very seriously, and has already announced that it will jointly develop a super rocket with India with a take-off weight of 1,500 tons: Asia Star, JAXA codename H-X (10).
The core stage of the Asia Star rocket will use the 5.2-meter diameter rocket body from the H2 and H3 series rockets. The core stage is equipped with four LE9-X open expansion cycle 130-ton hydrogen-oxygen engines, and two 3.2-meter diameter, 45-meter-high five-stage solid boosters upgraded by India based on the S200, with a single thrust of 875 tons.
The total thrust is 2,270 tons, the takeoff mass is 1,650 tons, the near-Earth orbit capacity is 54 tons, and the lunar transfer orbit capacity is 23 tons.
According to their lunar landing plan, India will launch a rocket to launch a manned spacecraft made by the island country for testing, and the island country will launch a rocket to orbit around the moon.
The last two rockets were launched within a week after the two countries manufactured them. India launched the lander they made, and the island country launched a manned spacecraft, rendezvousing and docking in the lunar orbit to land on the moon.
It looks like... Why does it look like copying the Artemis plan? ?