The world's strongest rocket made its debut, costing $3 billion and having a thrust of 5,400 tons
At 8 p.m. Beijing time on April 17, mankind's largest and most powerful launch vehicle"Starship"Coming soon.
It is reported that"Starship"It is a new generation of super-heavy rocket, developed by the American SpaceX Corporation.
Starship"The total height is about 120 meters (40 floors high), of which:"Super heavy thrusters"The lower part is 70 meters high and is equipped with 33 groups"Birds of Prey"Engine;The upper part is 50 meters high. The top is 50 meters high and consists of a reusable spacecraft module.
The main thrust of the spacecraft was 5400 tons, which exceeded the 3408 tons of the Saturn V and the 4630 tons of the Soviet N-1.
Saturn V"It's a product of the 60s of the 20th century, it's the United States"Apollo"An important part of the plan, but the American lunar program is still controversial to this day, and is even considered to be"Filmed in a studio"γ"Soviet N-1 launch vehicle.
The Soviet N-1 launch vehicle was also designed for the moon landing, but four consecutive test launches failed, so the Soviet Union canceled the moon landing program in 1076.
Now, bigger and stronger"Starship"If the launch is successful, it will become an important turning point for the U.S. Mars program and will also provide strong support for the U.S. return to the moon.
Of course, no one can say for sure whether the spacecraft will be successfully launched. Even Musk himself said:"The cost of the first Starship launch is as high as $3 billion, and the probability of success is like flipping a coin (50%). "
If you're wondering"Starship"How amazing it is to send humans to Mars in the future, then you need to understand what sent humans to the moon"Saturn V"γ
Saturn VJuly 16, 1969"Saturn 5"Rockets carried"Apollo 11"The spacecraft lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in the United States, and finally sent American astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins to the moon, fulfilling the dream of mankind for thousands of years. The dream of landing on the moon has been fulfilled for thousands of years.
Armstrong said when he stepped on the moon with his left foot: This is a small step for a man, but a giant leap for man.
The success of the U.S. moon landing program not only marked the victory of the United States in the space race, but also completely destroyed the Soviet Union's dream of landing on the moon and accelerated the disintegration of the Soviet Union.
The Apollo program played an important role in facilitating the translation of key scientific and transversal technologies into economic power.
Before the success of the Apollo program, the R&D-output ratio in the United States was 1:7, but after the success it became 1:14, and even 20 years after the end of the program, it remained at 1:9.
The U.S. economy grew by 2 percent, the price index fell by 2 percent, and 800,000 jobs were created. U.S. national income has doubled in 10 years.
Through the Apollo program, the United States created and perfected a huge space industry and technology system, which led to the rapid development of information technology, optics, computers, artificial intelligence, automation, biomedicine, and military space industries.
All of this is due to one of the key technologies of the Apollo program - high power"Saturn 5"Rocket.
Saturn 5"It is a ** rocket, consisting of the first stage S-1C, the second stage S-2, the ** S-4B, the instrument compartment and the payload. The first stage was powered by five F-1 engines, using liquid oxygen and paraffin propellant, and two aluminum propellant boxes with a diameter of 10 meters were reinforced with trusses and spacer structures. The second stage is 25 meters long and 10 meters in diameter, uses liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants, and has a total of five J-2 engines. The first is long 188 meters, diameter 66 meters, using a J-2 engine and liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellants.
The Saturn V launch vehicle flew at an altitude of 1106 meters, with a maximum diameter of 101 meter, weighs 3,039 tonnes and has a thrust of 3,408 tonnes. It has a carrying capacity of 140 tons in low-earth orbit and a maximum carrying capacity of 48 in Earth-Moon transfer orbit6 tons.
The fuel for the Saturn V rocket engine is liquid hydrogen and refined paraffin, and the oxidizer is liquid oxygen. The rocket has been launched nine times, each time successfully, making it the most powerful rocket in the history of human spaceflight.
China's most powerful rocket in service is the Long March 5, weighing 867 tons, with a diameter of 5 meters, a height of 57 meters, a low-earth orbit carrying capacity of 25 tons, and an Earth-Moon transfer orbit carrying capacity of 8 tons, which is far inferior to Saturn 5 in all aspects, but it is nearly 50 years late.
The development of the Saturn 5 rocket was carried out so quickly that its authenticity was doubted at one point.
In 1961,"Saturn 5"Not yet a project, but the contractor planned to complete it in the second half of the year, and in reality, it took only 4 years to complete. It's amazingly fast.
The main technology of the Saturn 5 is still the engine, and the engine manufacturer is Locke-Dane.
In 1955, the Locke-Dane Company began to develop it, and in 1957 the relevant technical details were finalized, and various test pieces were produced, including one of the thrust chambers.
In March 1959, the F-1 engine was officially ignited and successfully met the requirement of 445 tons of thrust, but it only lasted 200 milliseconds.
In April 1961, a small-scale test was successful, with a peak thrust of 7295 tons, at this time there are still 6 months before the first flight of Saturn 1.
Just as the engineers were champagne in celebration, the engine's injectors suddenly went wrong.
Faced with 3,700 paraffin nozzles, 2,600 oxidizer nozzles, and 32 radial lines, the project manager said the problem could not be solved.
In the end, NASA added another $20 million, and a few months later, the so-called unsolvable problem was finally resolved.
Some scholars at Princeton University have received portions"Research funding"After a bit of analysis and calculation, they came up with the answer:"The diameter of the nozzle should be increased a little"γ
And just like that, the first engine was completed. Subsequently, the completion of the second-stage engine J-2 and other components was also announced.
With the rocket engine, the rest is much easier, and the moon landing program was completed on schedule.
Actually"Spaceship"It's the same, as long as"Birds of Prey"There is no problem with the engine"Spaceship"The experiment will be successful.
Birds of Prey"The engine refers to the Soviet project.
Musk has always had a grand plan to land on Mars, which requires a super-heavy rocket, and the rocket's engine must be extremely strong, original"Merlin"The engine is clearly not enough.
Therefore, the Raptor on the research and development agenda needs a single thrust of more than 200 tons, because tens of thousands of tons of materials will be transported to Mars in the future, and 80 tons of engines will not be possible.
According to reports"Birds of Prey"The engine uses cryogenic liquid methane and liquid oxygen as propellants, and this engine has high performance and can provide a huge boost to a space rocket. It is also easy to produce directly on Mars.
Birds of Prey"The thrust of the engine at sea level was 230 tons, the Soviet one was adopted"Full-flow phased combustion"Technology.
Although the Soviet Union lost to the United States in the space race, this does not necessarily mean that the Soviet Union was technologically inferior to the United States.
In fact, Soviet engineers were extremely innovative and creative, but they lacked the vision, expertise, and competence of NASA's coordinating body.
The Grushko management at that time was responsible for supplying the N-1 with RD-270 engines fueled by toxic fuel, which required more thrust and more explosive power, so it was adopted"Full-flow phased combustion"This new technology.
At that time, the RD-270 had a problem that was difficult to reconcile, that is, high-frequency vibrations were generated when oxygen-rich and combustible gases entered the main combustion chamber at the same time for secondary combustion.
From October 1967 to July 1969, the RD-270 was tested 27 times, but none of them had the desired effect. After each test, the test vehicle also had to be removed from the highly toxic residual fuel, resulting in a very slow development process.
In July 1969, the U.S. moon landing program was successful, and the Soviet Union fell behind in the competition and ordered to stop the development of the RD-270 engine"Full-stream staged combustion"Technology eventually stillborn.
The Soviet N-1 rocket ultimately could not be conformed"Full-flow phased combustion"technology, reluctantly chose 30 engines in parallel, but as a result, three consecutive test launches failed, and finally withdrew from the moon landing program.
Full-flow phased combustion"It also disappeared, and it was not until Musk's Raptor engine that this technology reappeared.
Full-flow phased combustion
Full-flow phased combustion is known as rocket technology"Holy Grail", because it can get more energy from the fuel, which is more efficient and stronger.
Spacefaring nations have been working on this technology for decades, but so far no country has claimed to have mastered it.
Because once this technology is mastered, the height, volume and weight of the rocket will be directly increased by an order of magnitude, as in the past"Small and poor"will be completely become"Rich and beautiful"γLet's take a look at this advanced technology!
Full-flow staged combustion is an improved version of staged combustion, which has two independent turbine components and a pre-combustion chamber system for the combustion of oxidizer and fuel respectively to generate thrust to pressurize the respective turbopumps, the basic process is as follows.
1. Fuel pump driven by rich combustion pre-combustion chamber.
Most of the remaining fuel and a small portion of the oxidizer are burned in the rich combustion pre-combustion chamber, which produces a combustible gas that drives the fuel turbine pump and allows the fuel to enter the main combustion chamber.
2. The oxy-fuel chamber drives the oxidant pump.
Most of the remaining oxidizer and a small part of the fuel are burned in the oxygen-rich pre-combustion chamber to produce oxygen-enriched gas, which drives the oxidizer turbine pump and allows the oxidizer to enter the main combustion chamber.
3. Complete rendezvous.
The fuel and oxidizer pumped out by the two turbine pumps are re-fired in the main combustion chamber, creating a tremendous pressure and then sprayed through the nozzles.
Full-flow staged combustion is challenging to design and test, but it effectively solves the problem of open-cycle engine waste without worrying about poorly sealed turbines and pumps contaminating fuel.
Full-flow staged combustion increases the working load of the turbine and increases the power of the pump. Not only does it reduce the temperature of the pump and improve the performance of the pump, but it also enables more efficient gas-to-air combustion and greater thrust.
This technology is also being used for the upcoming debut of the super-heavy"Starship"Rockets, it may bring amazing results, wait and see!
Currently,"Starship"The components are ready on the launcher and will make their debut in a few hours. If the first launch is successful, it will greatly enhance the US space strength, and at the same time, it will also bring a lot of pressure to China's space industry.
China's moon rocket"Long March 9"It is still under intense development and is scheduled to launch in 2028. Whether it can buck the trend in the field of spacecraft, we will wait and see!