Roscosmos said that the creation of a super-heavy rocket with a carrying capacity of 70-80 tons would require about 700 billion rubles. According to the ministry, currently it is necessary to draw up a schedule for financing the project. Work on the development of a new super-heavy rocket is planned to be completed by 2028, TASS reports with reference to the chairman of the Scientific and Technical Council of Roscosmos Yuri Koptev. According to him, the council recommended continuing work to create the necessary scientific and technical groundwork for the development of the rocket and the use of new technologies. Thus, an engine for a super-heavy rocket can be created, which will use natural liquefied gas as fuel, said Yuri Koptev.
At the same time, Koptev noted that funding for the Russian space program project for 2016-2025 is planned to be reduced by 10%. At the same time, earlier the head of Roscosmos, Igor Komarov, said that the agency's leadership would try to do everything in the current situation in order to maximize all the key projects for the space industry.
The situation that has developed in the Russian economy made it necessary to squeeze costs. The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade set inflation at the level of 4%, which today does not correspond to reality at all. The current situation leads to the fact that the rise in price of each project is already 27% on average. According to Koptev, in the current situation, Roscosmos considers its main priority to be the development of the Russian orbital constellation of satellites, which is designed to solve the problems of defense, science and socio-economic development of the country. He explained to reporters that having undertaken obligations to support manned space exploration, which often accounts for up to 50% of all funding, everything else is funded on a leftover basis. “And we are still wondering why we do not have an ERS constellation, the meteorological satellite constellation does not meet the requirements of the time, and why the Chinese satellite constellation is already larger than the Russian one,” the official said.
Koptev also told reporters that the fleet of carrier rockets available in Russia is not enough for the needs of the Ministry of Defense. This concerns the launching of heavy military satellites into Earth's orbit. “There are a number of projects in the interests of the Russian Ministry of Defense, where we are not able to ensure the launch of a payload into the target orbit, and because of this we have to remove some target equipment,” said Yuri Koptev, explaining the need to develop a rocket in Russia with a carrying capacity of 35-37 tons when placing cargo into low-earth orbit.
He also talked about the project to create a new heavy-class Angara rocket and the cost of this project. According to him, the new "Angara-A5V" will receive an oxygen-hydrogen third stage and will be able to launch up to 12-12.5 tons of cargo into a geo-transfer orbit, while the Angara-A5 rocket equipped with a hydrogen booster unit could put into such an orbit only 7 tons of cargo. The addition of the third oxygen-hydrogen stage will also allow the Angara-A5V rocket to launch up to 27 tons of cargo into the reference orbit against 24 tons at the Angara-A5.
Thanks to this, Russia will be able to compete with modern American and European heavy missiles. For example, the European heavy rocket Arian 6 is able to deliver up to 10-11 tons of payload to the geo-transfer orbit, the American heavy rocket Delta Heavy is supposed to deliver 12-14 tons to this orbit, and the Chinese heavy rocket - up to 10 tons. At the same time, according to Roskosmos estimates, the cost of work on the creation of a new modification of the Angara-A5V rocket is estimated at 37 billion rubles.
The beauty of the Angara-A5V rocket is that it will consist of transportable blocks that can be easily transported by rail, including through tunnels, which will save us from the need to build factories for refueling rocket stages at the cosmodrome. Roscosmos is pinning some hopes on flights to the Moon with the same rocket. This option was worked out by the URSC and showed that with a pair launch of Angara-A5V, it would be possible to ensure the creation of a space complex in orbit by docking. This complex will be able to fly to the Moon, land and stay on its surface for two cosmonauts, said Yuri Koptev.
At the same time, Koptev reminded everyone that the issue of creating super-heavy rockets and flights to the Moon should not be overestimated. He noted that at one time the Soviet Union spent a huge amount of manpower and funds on its lunar program. It took 35% of all space resources. Koptev also remembered the Buran program, which gave us 600 new technologies, but ended with only two launches and wasted money. According to Yuri Koptev, who also took part in the work on the Soviet lunar mission, the question of Russia's exploration of our natural satellite can be linked to the question - are Russian women ready to change their boots every 3 years for the sake of the Moon?
Does Russia need a super-heavy rocket?
Viktor Murakhovsky, a member of the Expert Council under the Chairman of the Military-Industrial Commission under the Russian government, and Ivan Moiseev, head of the Institute for Space Policy, expressed their views on the need to create a super-heavy rocket in Russia in an interview with Svobodnaya Pressa.
If we plan to carry out manned interplanetary flights to Mars, etc., in the future development of our space program, then Russia needs a super-heavy rocket, says Viktor Murakhovsky. At the same time, he believes that the time has not yet come to set such ambitious goals for our country and industry. He also believes that such large-scale projects, which, of course, include travel into deep space, launching a super-heavy payload into reference orbits, should and can only be international. In this regard, it would most likely be correct to stake on joint work, for example, with our BRICS partners. Perhaps, over time, the political situation will improve and will allow Russia to cooperate in this direction with the European Space Agency.
The tasks of the current and medium-term prospects for Russia are still much more modest. Yes, the issue of the orbital station of the future after 2020, when the ISS reaches its end of life, is still relevant. This large-scale project would also be more profitable to use in cooperation. At the same time, today it is much more useful to focus on the reconstruction of a full-fledged Russian space satellite constellation, which would cover all areas from multispectral reconnaissance to missile attack warning systems (EWS), communication systems, maintaining the strength of the GLONASS group, etc. Also, Russia could focus on the development of automatic vehicles designed to study interplanetary objects like asteroids and other planets.
Why Roscosmos might need a super-heavy rocket is still clear, but why does the Ministry of Defense need a new rocket? Great question. The Russian military is quite satisfied with the parameters of the launch vehicles provided by the Angara. For the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, a much more important task would be to ensure the serial production of light and heavy missiles "Angara" in order to have them on hand in sufficient quantities during the aggravation of the international situation. This will help to quickly launch additional satellites into orbit, allowing to solve current problems, Murakhovsky notes. Today, Russia does not have a stock of missiles that could be used for the operational build-up of our satellite constellation in the direction that the country needs. These tasks must be solved first of all, and not talk about putting some kind of super-heavy load into orbit, says Viktor Murakhovsky.
Other space countries also have plans to increase the mass of the payload launched into orbit, but, by and large, the United States does not see a particular need for the implementation of these projects. At present, the Americans are satisfied with the existing potential, the designs that they are already using now, and relying on Russian engines. In any case, the Chinese will try to produce such launch vehicles on their own, but they are moving along the Russian path, using our developments in the field of manned space, as well as delivering various cargoes to orbit. Murakhovsky believes that the Chinese will soon come to an understanding that it is cheaper and faster to cooperate in this direction with Russia.
Ivan Moiseev emphasized that it is possible to develop a super-heavy rocket in Russia, but it is a very expensive pleasure, the implementation of which will require not only a lot of money, but also time. “They have already drawn the rocket, and Russian leading enterprises have presented their versions (even the Makeyev Design Bureau, which had never done this before). However, it is one thing to draw, and quite another to implement a project, find sufficient funding for it and lead it for at least 10 years. This is an extremely difficult task, which, frankly speaking, is currently unaffordable for Russia,”Moiseev said.
You know, representatives of the Ministry of Defense, of course, can say that they need a super-heavy carrier, but when it comes to it, as a rule, it all comes down to the following scenario: if the military is given a missile of this class, they will gladly take it - it will always be possible figure out what heavy satellites can be used for. But the Ministry of Defense itself does not want to engage in such a project due to its very high cost.
At the same time, in Russia there is a possibility of further strengthening the second and third stages of the upper stages - the heavy "Angara-A5" to the version "Angara-A7" (the number in the name indicates the number of universal blocks used) to launch an increased payload into orbit. So far, quite a lot can be squeezed out of the Angara launch vehicle. That is, you can move in an evolutionary way without working on creating a new project. At the same time, it is clear that in this way the rocket cannot be strengthened at times, notes Ivan Moiseev. At present, there is a lot of talk about the fact that the Chinese or the Americans can bypass Russia in putting the payload into space. To this Moiseev replies as follows: “If you compete with each other, who will create a super-heavy carrier faster, then, most likely, we will find ourselves behind. However, if we look at the efficiency of the withdrawal, then we are able to maintain our own positions even without such a carrier”.
