Reusable space: promising US spacecraft projects. The future of space flights: who will replace the Space Shuttle and Soyuz

The most exciting concepts are usually very far from being implemented in reality. But if our ancestors had not studied things that seemed unlikely at that time, humanity would never have seen the Sea of ​​Tranquility and would not have been able to break up atoms into protons and neutrons. Today people dream of flying into deep space, and you can be sure that these dreams will definitely come true. Perhaps the flight will take place on one of the 10 concept ships from our review in space.

1. Swarm Flyby Gravimetry: a swarm of tiny satellites

While most satellites are getting larger, space engineer Justin Atchison proposes doing the opposite - and significantly reducing their size. His project Swarm Flyby Gravimetry was awarded a grant from NASA. Swarms of tiny probes should be used on small asteroids, where they will be delivered by a large mother probe. The project is mainly designed to determine the mass of asteroids and measure their gravitational field. Also, a group of cheap nanoprobes will be able to take samples to determine the chemical composition of cosmic bodies.

2. Talise: kayaks on Titan

While Europa and Mars (Europa has an ocean under ice, and Mars was once very similar to Earth) are considered prime candidates for extraterrestrial life, Saturn's largest moon, Titan, may also harbor one of the most unusual suspected life forms. But at minus 180 degrees Celsius, Titan's seas should consist not of water, but of liquid hydrocarbons.

Therefore, any form of life that arises in this environment will have a unique structure. Regular Mars rovers cannot swim. So, to find these unusual life forms, you need a device that can float. Developed by Spanish engineers and astrobiologists, the 100-kilogram Talise apparatus will have to sail across the second largest sea of ​​​​Titan - Ligeia. While there is debate about what propulsion system to equip the titanium rover with.

3. Mars helicopter

Over the years, countless Mars rover concepts have been proposed. All sorts of devices have been invented - rolling, jumping, tunnel-digging and even floating. But until now, there have been almost no projects for flying Mars rovers. The helicopter drone developed by NASA is only about 1.2 meters in size and weighs just over 1 kg. The main responsibility of the helicopter will be autonomous reconnaissance of the surface on which the rover will subsequently move. Such a device could save hundreds of millions of dollars by preventing research vehicles from getting stuck. NASA hopes to build a fully working prototype within three years.

4. Tiny submarine for Europe

Jupiter's moon Europa is of great interest to scientists because this frozen world has a salty ocean under its icy shell that is very similar to Earth's. But the thickness of the ice shell is more than 15 kilometers in some places, so getting to the water is problematic. NASA has developed the DADU (Deeper Access, Deeper Understanding) submersible probe. Firstly, this probe is very light, and its delivery to Europe will not cost an astronomical amount. Secondly, the size of the probe is very small, so it will be able to penetrate through the ice through cracks. NASA's plan calls for the lander to drill a hole through the ice and launch a tethered probe into it (continuously providing it with energy). DADU will be equipped with temperature sensors, sonar and a water sampling device.

5. Disco ball in space

6. Bigelow's Space Home

Bigelow Aerospace is a privately funded (mostly founder Robert Bigelow) startup focused on future space habitations. Airship-like structures are not very aesthetically pleasing, but in space, aerodynamic shapes are simply not needed. The Bigelow BA 330, which is currently being developed, is larger than the ISS Destiny capsule - it is 14 meters long, compared to Destiny's 8 meters, so potential astronauts will be able to fit more comfortably.

All important instruments and instruments are located in the center of the capsule, and not along the walls, as in the ISS. On Earth, Bigelow is packaged in a miniature case, and in space it will “inflate” to working size. Bigelow plans to connect two of these vehicles and lease them as a commercial space station.

7. Starship in 100 years

The earth is very big. But in order to become a truly developed civilization, people need to cast aside earthly shackles and populate space. Although it may seem like a very distant future, an interstellar adventure is being planned now. The 100-Year Starship Program (100YSS) has already received cash grants from NASA and DARPA, and is also supported by the notorious SETI project. The goal of the project is to make interstellar travel possible within 100 years. One of the concepts that can be further developed within the framework of the project was developed back in the 1970s and was called “Daedalus”. Comparable in size to the USS Nimitz, this gigantic space ark will roam the galaxy in search of a suitable location to found Earth-II.

8. SOAR

9. Nautilus-X

The cost of the station is just $3.7 billion, which is roughly the same as the combined costs of the tiny Curiosity rover and the Rosetta probe. It is also assumed that Nautilus-X could become the successor to the International Space Station worth $150 billion. A distinctive feature of the station is a torus around it, with the help of rotation of which artificial gravity will be created.

10. Cloud City on Venus

Hell was not always going on on the surface of Venus. It is possible that life flourished on it billions of years ago. This could happen again if NASA's cloud city concept comes to fruition. Since Venus is closer to Earth than Mars, it is possible that the space station will be sent there initially. NASA's aerial city will float 50 kilometers above the surface of Venus. At this altitude, conditions are very similar to those on Earth, and the colonists will also be protected from the deadly radiation of the Sun. The lighter-than-air airship will be able to float in the atmosphere of Venus for just 30 days, and the journey there and back will take more than a year.

Man is exploring not only space, but also the depths of the sea. And today they are no less interesting than spaceships.

Last November, during TVIW (an astronomy workshop in Tennessee on interstellar travel), Rob Swinney - a former Royal Air Force squadron commander, engineer and MSc in charge of the Icarus project - presented a report on the work done on the project over Lately. Swinney brought the story of Icarus back to the public's memory, from the inspiration of Project Daedalus, highlighted in the BIS report in 1978, to the joint decision of BIS and the Tau Zero enthusiast company to resume research in 2009 year, and until the latest news about the project, dated 2014.

The original project of 1978 had a simple in formulation, but difficult in implementation goal - to answer the question posed by Enrique Fermi: “If there is intelligent life beyond the Earth, and interstellar travel is possible, then why is there no evidence of the presence of other alien civilizations?” Daedalus' research was aimed at developing the design of an interstellar spacecraft using existing technology within reasonable extrapolations. And the results of the work thundered throughout the scientific world: the creation of such a ship is indeed possible. The report on the project was supported by a detailed plan of a ship using thermonuclear fusion of deuterium-helium-3 from pre-prepared pellets. Daedalus then served as the benchmark for all subsequent developments in interstellar travel for 30 years.

However, after such a long period of time, it was necessary to reconsider the ideas and technical solutions adopted at Daedalus in order to assess how well they have stood the test of time. In addition, new discoveries were made during this period, changing the design in accordance with them would improve the overall performance of the ship. The organizers also wanted to interest the younger generation in astronomy and the construction of interstellar space stations. The new project was named after Icarus, son of Daedalus, which, despite the negative connotation of the name, corresponded to the first words in the report of the year 78:

“We hope that this version will replace a future design, an analogue of Icarus, which will reflect the latest discoveries and technical innovations so that Icarus can reach heights not yet conquered by Daedalus. We hope that through the development of our ideas, the day will come when humanity literally touches the stars.”

So, “Icarus” was created precisely as a continuation of “Daedalus”. The indicators of the old project still look very promising, but still need to be improved and updated:

1) The Daedalus used relativistic electron beams to compress fuel granules, but subsequent studies showed that this method was not capable of providing the necessary impulse. Instead, ion beams are used in thermonuclear fusion laboratories. However, the miscalculation, which cost the National Fusion Facility 20 years of operation and $4 billion, showed the difficulty of handling fusion even under ideal conditions.

2) The main obstacle that Daedalus faced was Helium-3. It does not exist on Earth, and therefore it must be extracted from gas giants distant from our planet. This process is too expensive and complicated.

3) Another problem that “Icarus” will have to solve is the defective information about nuclear reactions. It was precisely the lack of information that made it possible 30 years ago to make very optimistic calculations of the impact of irradiating the entire ship with gamma rays and neutrons, without the release of which a thermonuclear fusion engine cannot do without.

4) Tritium was used in fuel pellets for ignition, but too much heat was released from the decay of its atoms. Without a proper cooling system, the ignition of the fuel will be accompanied by the ignition of everything else.

5) Decompression of fuel tanks due to emptying may cause an explosion in the combustion chamber. To solve this problem, weighting agents were added to the tank design to balance the pressure in different parts of the mechanism.

6) The last difficulty is maintaining the vessel. According to the project, the ship is equipped with a pair of robots similar to R2D2, which, using diagnostic algorithms, will identify and repair possible damage. Such technologies seem very complex even now, in the computer era, let alone in the 70s.

The new design team is no longer limited to creating a maneuverable ship. To study objects, Icarus uses probes carried on board the ship. This not only simplifies the task of designers, but also significantly reduces the time spent studying star systems. Instead of deuterium-helium-3, the new spacecraft runs on pure deuterium-deuterium. Despite the greater emission of neutrons, the new fuel will not only increase the efficiency of the engines, but will also eliminate the need to extract resources from the surface of other planets. Deuterium is actively mined from the oceans and used in nuclear power plants operating on heavy water.

However, humanity has not yet been able to obtain a controlled decay reaction with the release of energy. The protracted race of laboratories around the world for exothermic nuclear fusion is slowing down the design of the ship. So the question of the optimal fuel for an interstellar vessel remains open. In an attempt to find a solution, an internal competition was held among BIS units in 2013. The WWAR Ghost team from the University of Munich won. Their design is based on thermonuclear fusion using a laser, which quickly heats the fuel to the required temperature.

Despite the originality of the idea and some engineering moves, the competitors were unable to solve the main dilemma - the choice of fuel. In addition, the winning ship is huge. It is 4-5 times larger than Daedalus, and other fusion methods may require less space.

Accordingly, it was decided to promote 2 types of engines: one based on thermonuclear fusion and one based on the Bennett pinch (plasma engine). In addition, in parallel with deuterium-deuterium, the old version with tritium-helium-3 is also being considered. In fact, helium-3 produces better results in any kind of engine, so scientists are working on ways to make it.

An interesting dependence can be seen in the works of all participants in the competition: some design elements (probes for environmental research, fuel storage, secondary power supply systems, etc.) of any ship remain unchanged. The following can be stated unequivocally:

1. The ship will be hot. Any method of burning any of the presented types of fuel is accompanied by the release of a large amount of heat. Deuterium requires a massive cooling system due to the direct release of thermal energy during the reaction. The magnetic plasma engine will create eddy currents in the surrounding metals, also heating them. On Earth, there are already radiators of sufficient power to effectively cool bodies with a temperature of more than 1000 C; it remains to adapt them to the needs and conditions of the spaceship.
2. The ship will be of colossal size. One of the main tasks set for the Icarus project was to reduce its size, but over time it became clear that thermonuclear reactions require a lot of space. Even the smallest design options weigh tens of thousands of tons.
3. The ship will be long. “Daedalus” was very compact, each part fit together with the other, like a nesting doll. In Icarus, attempts to minimize the radioactive impact on the ship led to its lengthening (this was well demonstrated in the Firefly project by Robert Freeland).

Rob Swinney reported that a group from Drexel University has joined the Icarus project. "Newbies" are promoting the idea of ​​​​using PJMIF (a system based on jetting plasma using magnets, while the plasma is stratified, providing conditions for nuclear reactions). This principle is currently the most effective. In fact, this is a symbiosis of two methods of nuclear reactions; it has absorbed all the advantages of inertial and magnetic thermonuclear fusion, such as reducing the mass of the structure and a significant reduction in cost. Their project is called "Zeus".

Following this meeting, TVIW took place, at which Swinney set a tentative completion date for Project Icarus of August 2015. The final report will include mentions of modifications to old Daedalus designs and innovations entirely created by the new team. The seminar ended with a monologue by Rob Swinney, in which he said: “The mysteries of the Universe are waiting for us somewhere out there! Time to get out of here!”

Modern rocket engines do a good job of launching equipment into orbit, but are completely unsuitable for long-term space travel. Therefore, for decades now, scientists have been working on the creation of alternative space engines that could accelerate ships to record speeds. Let's look at seven key ideas from this area.

EmDrive

To move, you need to push off from something - this rule is considered one of the unshakable pillars of physics and astronautics. What exactly to push off from - earth, water, air or a jet stream of gas, as in the case of rocket engines - is not so important.

A well-known thought experiment: imagine that an astronaut has gone into outer space, but the cable connecting him to the spacecraft suddenly breaks and the person begins to slowly fly away. All he has is a toolbox. What are his actions? Correct answer: he needs to throw the tools away from the ship. According to the law of conservation of momentum, the person will be thrown away from the tool with exactly the same force with which the tool is thrown away from the person, so he will gradually move towards the ship. This is jet propulsion - the only possible way to move in empty outer space. True, EmDrive, as experiments show, has some chances to refute this unshakable statement.

The creator of this engine is British engineer Roger Schaer, who founded his own company Satellite Propulsion Research in 2001. The design of EmDrive is very extravagant and is shaped like a metal bucket, sealed at both ends. Inside this bucket there is a magnetron that emits electromagnetic waves, the same as in a regular microwave. And it turns out to be enough to create a very small, but quite noticeable thrust.

The author himself explains the operation of his engine through the difference in pressure of electromagnetic radiation at different ends of the “bucket” - at the narrow end it is less than at the wide one. This creates a thrust directed towards the narrow end. The possibility of such engine operation has been disputed more than once, but in all experiments, Schaer’s installation shows the presence of thrust in the intended direction.

Among the experimenters who have tested Schaer's "bucket" are organizations such as NASA, the Technical University of Dresden and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The invention was tested under a variety of conditions, including in a vacuum, where it showed the presence of a thrust of 20 micronewtons.

This is very little relative to chemical jet engines. But, given that Shaer’s engine can operate indefinitely, since it does not require a fuel supply (the magnetron can be powered by solar panels), it is potentially capable of accelerating spaceships to enormous speeds, measured as a percentage of the speed of light.

To fully prove the performance of the engine, it is necessary to carry out many more measurements and get rid of side effects that can be generated, for example, by external magnetic fields. However, alternative possible explanations for the anomalous thrust of the Shaer engine are already being put forward, which, in general, violates the usual laws of physics.

For example, versions have been put forward that the engine can create thrust due to interaction with the physical vacuum, which at the quantum level has non-zero energy and is filled with constantly appearing and disappearing virtual elementary particles. We will find out in the near future who will ultimately be right - the authors of this theory, Shaer himself or other skeptics.

Solar sail

As mentioned above, electromagnetic radiation exerts pressure. This means that, theoretically, it can be converted into movement - for example, using a sail. Just as the ships of past centuries caught the wind in their sails, the spaceship of the future would catch the sun or any other starlight in its sails.

The problem, however, is that the light pressure is extremely low and decreases with increasing distance from the source. Therefore, to be effective, such a sail must have a very low weight and a very large area. And this increases the risk of destruction of the entire structure when it encounters an asteroid or other object.

Attempts to build and launch solar sailboats into space have already taken place - in 1993, Russia tested a solar sail on the Progress spacecraft, and in 2010, Japan carried out successful tests on the way to Venus. But no ship has ever used a sail as the main source of acceleration. Another project looks somewhat more promising in this regard – an electric sail.

Electric sail

The sun emits not only photons, but also electrically charged particles of matter: electrons, protons and ions. All of them form the so-called solar wind, which carries away about one million tons of matter from the surface of the star every second.

The solar wind travels over billions of kilometers and is responsible for some natural phenomena on our planet: geomagnetic storms and the northern lights. The Earth is protected from the solar wind by its own magnetic field.

The solar wind, like the air wind, is quite suitable for travel, you just need to make it blow into the sails. The electric sail project, created in 2006 by Finnish scientist Pekka Janhunen, has little in common with solar sailing. This motor consists of several long thin cables, similar to the spokes of a wheel without a rim.

Thanks to an electron gun emitting against the direction of movement, these cables acquire a positively charged potential. Since the mass of an electron is approximately 1800 times less than the mass of a proton, the thrust created by electrons will not play a fundamental role. Solar wind electrons are also not important for such a sail. But positively charged particles - protons and alpha radiation - will be repelled from the cables, thereby creating jet thrust.

Although this thrust will be about 200 times less than that of a solar sail, the European Space Agency was interested. The fact is that an electric sail is much easier to design, manufacture, deploy and operate in space. In addition, with the help of gravity, the sail also allows travel to the source of the stellar wind, and not just from it. And since the surface area of ​​such a sail is much smaller than that of a solar sail, it is much less vulnerable to asteroids and space debris. Perhaps we will see the first experimental ships with electric sails in the next few years.

Ion engine

The flow of charged particles of matter, that is, ions, is emitted not only by stars. Ionized gas can also be created artificially. Normally, gas particles are electrically neutral, but when its atoms or molecules lose electrons, they become ions. In its total mass, such a gas still does not have an electric charge, but its individual particles become charged, which means they can move in a magnetic field.

In an ion engine, a noble gas (usually xenon) is ionized by a stream of high-energy electrons. They knock electrons out of atoms, and they acquire a positive charge. The resulting ions are then accelerated in an electrostatic field to speeds of the order of 200 km/s, which is 50 times greater than the speed of gas flow from chemical jet engines. However, modern ion engines have very low thrust - about 50-100 millinewtons. Such an engine would not even be able to move off the table. But it has a serious advantage.

High specific impulse allows to significantly reduce fuel consumption in the engine. To ionize the gas, energy obtained from solar panels is used, so the ion engine can operate for a very long time - up to three years without interruption. In this period of time, he will have time to accelerate the spacecraft to speeds that chemical engines have never dreamed of.

Ion engines have already roamed the expanses of the solar system more than once as part of various missions, but usually as auxiliary ones, and not as main ones. Today, plasma engines are increasingly being talked about as a possible alternative to ion engines.

Plasma engine

If the degree of ionization of atoms becomes high (about 99%), then this state of aggregation of the substance is called plasma. The plasma state can only be achieved at high temperatures, so in plasma engines the ionized gas is heated to several million degrees. Heating is carried out using an external energy source - solar panels or, more realistically, a small nuclear reactor.

The hot plasma is then ejected through the rocket's nozzle, creating tens of times more thrust than an ion engine. One example of a plasma engine is the VASIMR project, which has been developing since the 70s of the last century. Unlike ion engines, plasma engines have not yet been tested in space, but great hopes are pinned on them. It is the VASIMR plasma engine that is one of the main candidates for manned flights to Mars.

Fusion engine

People have been trying to tame the energy of thermonuclear fusion since the mid-twentieth century, but so far they have not been able to do so. Nevertheless, controlled thermonuclear fusion is still very attractive, because it is a source of enormous energy obtained from very cheap fuel - isotopes of helium and hydrogen.

At the moment, there are several designs for a jet engine powered by thermonuclear fusion energy. The most promising of them is considered to be a model based on a reactor with magnetic plasma confinement. The thermonuclear reactor in such an engine will be an unpressurized cylindrical chamber measuring 100–300 meters in length and 1–3 meters in diameter. The chamber must be supplied with fuel in the form of high-temperature plasma, which, under sufficient pressure, enters into a nuclear fusion reaction. The magnetic system coils located around the chamber must keep this plasma from contacting the equipment.

The thermonuclear reaction zone is located along the axis of such a cylinder. With the help of magnetic fields, extremely hot plasma flows through the reactor nozzle, creating enormous thrust, many times greater than that of chemical engines.

Antimatter engine

All the matter around us consists of fermions - elementary particles with half-integer spin. These are, for example, quarks, which make up protons and neutrons in atomic nuclei, as well as electrons. Moreover, each fermion has its own antiparticle. For an electron this is a positron, for a quark it is an antiquark.

Antiparticles have the same mass and the same spin as their ordinary “comrades”, differing in the sign of all other quantum parameters. Theoretically, antiparticles are capable of making antimatter, but until now antimatter has not been detected anywhere in the Universe. For fundamental science, it is a big question why it is not there.

But in laboratory conditions it is possible to obtain a certain amount of antimatter. For example, an experiment was recently conducted to compare the properties of protons and antiprotons that were stored in a magnetic trap.

When antimatter and ordinary matter meet, a process of mutual annihilation occurs, accompanied by a surge of colossal energy. So, if you take a kilogram of matter and antimatter, the amount of energy released during their meeting will be comparable to the explosion of the “Tsar Bomba” - the most powerful hydrogen bomb in the history of mankind.

Moreover, a significant part of the energy will be released in the form of photons of electromagnetic radiation. Accordingly, there is a desire to use this energy for space travel by creating a photonic engine, similar to a solar sail, only in this case the light will be generated by an internal source.

But in order to effectively use radiation in a jet engine, it is necessary to solve the problem of creating a “mirror” that would be able to reflect these photons. After all, the ship somehow needs to push off in order to create thrust.

No modern material simply can withstand the radiation generated in the event of such an explosion and will instantly evaporate. In their science fiction novels, the Strugatsky brothers solved this problem by creating an “absolute reflector.” In real life, nothing like this has yet been achieved. This task, as well as the issues of creating large amounts of antimatter and its long-term storage, is a matter for the physics of the future.

Story

During the Cold War, space was one of the arenas for the struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States. The geopolitical confrontation between superpowers was the main incentive in those years for the development of the space industry. A huge amount of resources have been devoted to space exploration programs. In particular, the US government spent about twenty-five billion dollars on the implementation of the Apollo project, the main goal of which was to land a man on the surface of the Moon. For the 70s of the last century, this amount was simply gigantic. The USSR lunar program, which was never destined to come true, cost the budget of the Soviet Union 2.5 billion rubles. The development of the domestic reusable spacecraft Buran cost sixteen billion rubles. At the same time, fate destined Buran to make only one space flight.

Its American counterpart was much luckier. The Space Shuttle made one hundred and thirty-five launches. But the American shuttle did not last forever. The ship, created under the state program “Space Transport System”, carried out its last space launch on July 8, 2011, which ended in the early morning of July 21 of the same year. During the implementation of the program, the Americans produced six shuttles, one of which was a prototype that never carried out space flights. Two ships were completely catastrophic.

Apollo 11 liftoff

From the point of view of economic feasibility, the Space Shuttle program can hardly be called successful. Disposable spacecraft turned out to be much more economical than their seemingly more technologically advanced reusable counterparts. And the safety of flights on the shuttles was questionable. During their operation, as a result of two disasters, fourteen astronauts became victims. But the reason for such ambiguous results of the space travel of the legendary ship lies not in its technical imperfection, but in the complexity of the very concept of reusable spacecraft.

As a result, the Russian Soyuz disposable spacecraft, developed back in the 60s of the last century, became the only type of spacecraft currently carrying out manned flights to the International Space Station (ISS). It should be immediately noted that this does not at all indicate their superiority over the Space Shuttle. The Soyuz spacecraft, as well as the Progress unmanned space trucks created on their basis, have a number of conceptual shortcomings. They are very limited in carrying capacity. And the use of such devices leads to the accumulation of orbital debris remaining after their operation. Space flights on Soyuz-type spacecraft will very soon become part of history. At the same time, today there are no real alternatives. The enormous potential inherent in the concept of reusable ships often remains technically unrealizable even in our time.

The first project of the Soviet reusable orbital aircraft OS-120 Buran, proposed by NPO Energia in 1975 and which was an analogue of the American Space Shuttle

New US spaceships

In July 2011, American President Barack Obama said: a flight to Mars is a new and, as far as one can assume, the main goal of American astronauts for the coming decades. One of the programs carried out by NASA as part of the exploration of the Moon and the flight to Mars was the large-scale space program “Constellation”.

It is based on the creation of a new manned spacecraft "Orion", launch vehicles "Ares-1" and "Ares-5", as well as the lunar module "Altair". Despite the fact that in 2010 the US government decided to curtail the Constellation program, NASA was able to continue developing Orion. The first unmanned test flight of the ship is planned for 2014. It is expected that during the flight the device will move six thousand kilometers from the Earth. This is about fifteen times further than the ISS. After the test flight, the ship will head towards Earth. The new device will be able to enter the atmosphere at a speed of 32 thousand km/h. According to this indicator, Orion is one and a half thousand kilometers superior to the legendary Apollo. Orion's first unmanned experimental flight is intended to demonstrate its potential capabilities. Testing the ship should be an important step towards its manned launch, which is scheduled for 2021.

According to NASA plans, the Orion launch vehicles will be Delta 4 and Atlas 5. It was decided to abandon the development of Ares. In addition, for the exploration of deep space, the Americans are designing a new super-heavy launch vehicle SLS.

Orion is a partially reusable spacecraft and is conceptually closer to the Soyuz spacecraft than to the space shuttle. Most promising spacecraft are partially reusable. This concept assumes that after landing on the Earth's surface, the ship's habitable capsule can be reused for launch into outer space. This makes it possible to combine the functional practicality of reusable spacecraft with the cost-effectiveness of operating Soyuz or Apollo-type spacecraft. This decision is a transitional stage. It is likely that in the distant future all spacecraft will become reusable. So the American Space Shuttle and the Soviet Buran were, in a sense, ahead of their time.

Orion is a multi-purpose capsule partially reusable US manned spacecraft, developed since the mid-2000s as part of the Constellation program.

It seems that the words “practicality” and “foresight” best describe Americans. The US government decided not to put all its space ambitions on the shoulders of one Orion. Currently, several private companies, commissioned by NASA, are developing their own spacecraft designed to replace the devices used today. Boeing is developing the CST-100, a partially reusable crewed spacecraft, as part of its Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program. The device is designed to make short trips to low-Earth orbit. Its main task will be the delivery of crew and cargo to the ISS.

The ship's crew can be up to seven people. At the same time, during the design of the CST-100, special attention was paid to the comfort of the astronauts. The living space of the device is much more extensive than ships of the previous generation. It will likely be launched using Atlas, Delta or Falcon launch vehicles. At the same time, Atlas-5 is the most suitable option. The ship will land using a parachute and airbags. According to Boeing's plans, the CST-100 will undergo a series of test launches in 2015. The first two flights will be unmanned. Their main task is to launch the vehicle into orbit and test safety systems. During the third flight, a manned docking with the ISS is planned. If the tests are successful, the CST-100 will very soon be able to replace the Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, which have a monopoly on manned flights to the International Space Station.

CST-100 – manned transport spacecraft

Another private ship that will deliver cargo and crew to the ISS will be a device developed by SpaceX, part of the Sierra Nevada Corporation. The partially reusable monoblock Dragon vehicle was developed under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. It is planned to build three modifications of it: manned, cargo and autonomous. The crew of the manned spacecraft, as in the case of the CST-100, can be seven people. In the cargo modification, the ship will carry four people and two and a half tons of cargo.

And in the future they want to use the Dragon for flights to the Red Planet. Why will they develop a special version of the ship - “Red Dragon”. According to the plans of the American space leadership, an unmanned flight of the device to Mars will take place in 2018, and the first test manned flight of a US spacecraft is expected to take place in a few years.

One of the features of the “Dragon” is its reusability. After the flight, part of the energy systems and fuel tanks will be lowered to Earth along with the ship's habitable capsule and can be reused for space flights. This design ability sets the new ship apart from most promising designs. In the near future, “Dragon” and CST-100 will complement each other and act as a “safety net”. If one type of ship for some reason cannot perform its assigned tasks, another will take over part of its work.

Dragon SpaceX is a private transport spacecraft (SC) of SpaceX, developed by order of NASA as part of the Commercial Orbital Transportation (COTS) program, designed to deliver payload and, in the future, people to the ISS

The Dragon was launched into orbit for the first time in 2010. The unmanned test flight was completed successfully, and a few years later, namely on May 25, 2012, the device docked with the ISS. At that time, the ship did not have an automatic docking system, and to implement it it was necessary to use the space station’s manipulator.

This flight was considered to be the first ever docking of a private spacecraft to the International Space Station. Let’s make a reservation right away: the Dragon and a number of other spacecraft developed by private companies can hardly be called private in the full sense of the word. For example, NASA allocated $1.5 billion for the development of the Dragon. Other private projects also receive financial support from NASA. Therefore, we are talking not so much about the commercialization of space, but about a new strategy for the development of the space industry, based on cooperation between the state and private capital. Once secret space technologies, previously available only to the state, are now the property of a number of private companies involved in the field of astronautics. This circumstance in itself is a powerful incentive for the growth of technological capabilities of private companies. In addition, this approach made it possible to employ a large number of space industry specialists in the private sphere who had previously been dismissed by the state due to the closure of the Space Shuttle program.

When it comes to the program for the development of spacecraft by private companies, perhaps the most interesting is the project of the SpaceDev company, called “Dream Chaser”. Twelve company partners, three American universities and seven NASA centers also took part in its development.

The concept of the reusable manned spacecraft Dream Chaser, developed by the American company SpaceDev, a division of Sierra Nevada Corporation

This ship is very different from all other promising space developments. The reusable Dream Chaser looks like a miniature Space Shuttle and is capable of landing like an ordinary airplane. Still, the main tasks of the ship are similar to those of the Dragon and CST-100. The device will serve to deliver cargo and crew (up to the same seven people) to low Earth orbit, where it will be launched using the Atlas-5 launch vehicle. This year the ship should carry out its first unmanned flight, and by 2015 it is planned to prepare for launch its manned version. One more important detail. The Dream Chaser project is being created on the basis of an American development of the 1990s - the HL-20 orbital aircraft. The latter’s project became an analogue of the Soviet orbital system “Spiral”. All three devices have a similar appearance and expected functionality. This raises a completely logical question. Should the Soviet Union have scrapped the half-finished Spiral aerospace system?

What do we have?

In 2000, RSC Energia began designing the Clipper multi-purpose space complex. This reusable spacecraft, somewhat reminiscent of a smaller shuttle, was supposed to be used to solve a wide variety of problems: cargo delivery, evacuation of the space station crew, space tourism, flights to other planets. There were certain hopes for the project. As always, good intentions were covered with a copper basin of lack of funding. In 2006, the project was closed. At the same time, the technologies developed within the framework of the Clipper project are supposed to be used for the design of the Advanced Manned Transport System (PPTS), also known as the Rus project.

The winged version of the Clipper in orbital flight. Webmaster's drawing based on the Clipper 3D model

©Vadim Lukashevich

It is the PPTS (of course, this is still only the “working” name of the project), as Russian experts believe, that will be destined to become a new-generation domestic space system, capable of replacing the rapidly aging Soyuz and Progress. As in the case of the Clipper, the spacecraft is being developed by RSC Energia. The basic modification of the complex will be the “Next Generation Manned Transport Ship” (PTK NK). Its main task, again, will be the delivery of cargo and crew to the ISS. In the long term - the development of modifications capable of flying to the Moon and carrying out long-term research missions. The ship itself promises to be partially reusable. The living capsule can be reused after landing. Engine compartment - no. A curious feature of the ship is the ability to land without using a parachute. A jet system will be used for braking and soft landing on the Earth's surface.

Unlike the Soyuz spacecraft, which take off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the new spacecraft will be launched from the new Vostochny cosmodrome, which is being built in the Amur region. The crew will be six people. The manned vehicle is also capable of carrying a load of five hundred kilograms. In the unmanned version, the ship will be able to deliver more impressive “goodies” into low-Earth orbit, weighing two tons.

One of the main problems of the PPTS project is the lack of launch vehicles with the necessary characteristics. Today, the main technical aspects of the spacecraft have been worked out, but the lack of a launch vehicle puts its developers in a very difficult position. It is assumed that the new launch vehicle will be technologically close to the Angara, developed back in the 1990s.

Model of PTS at the MAKS-2009 exhibition

©sdelanounas.ru

Oddly enough, another serious problem is the very purpose of designing the PTS (read: Russian reality). Russia will hardly be able to afford the implementation of programs for the exploration of the Moon and Mars, similar in scale to those implemented by the United States. Even if the development of the space complex is successful, most likely its only real task will be the delivery of cargo and crew to the ISS. But the start of flight tests of the PPTS was postponed until 2018. By this time, promising American spacecraft will most likely already be able to take on the functions that are currently performed by the Russian Soyuz and Progress spacecraft.

Vague prospects

The modern world is deprived of the romance of space flights - this is a fact. Of course, we are not talking about satellite launches and space tourism. There is no need to worry about these areas of astronautics. Flights to the International Space Station are of great importance to the space industry, but the ISS's stay in orbit is limited. The station is planned to be liquidated in 2020. A modern manned spacecraft is, first of all, an integral part of a specific program. There is no point in developing a new ship without having an idea of ​​the tasks of its operation. New US spacecraft are being designed not only to deliver cargo and crews to the ISS, but also for flights to Mars and the Moon. However, these tasks are so far from everyday earthly concerns that in the coming years we can hardly expect any significant breakthroughs in the field of astronautics.

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 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 orbital flight conditions on a 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 the American project in January 1971.

To implement the project, NPO Molniya was created. In the shortest possible time 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.

The Buran had a pressurized cabin in the bow compartment, which could accommodate about ten people and most of the equipment to ensure 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 difficult times that began in the country, and due to the end of the 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 the ship's own engine, the fuel for which is located in the 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 the spacecraft, due to a large number of shortcomings 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.