Dull landscape of the martian desert
Can't paint the cold sunrise
In the thin air, clear shadows
We lay down on the now distant all-terrain vehicle.
The Great Space Odyssey of the 20th century turned into a cruel farce - a series of clumsy attempts to escape from its "cradle", and a black abyss of lifeless space opened up before a person. The Road to the Stars was a short dead end.
The gloomy situation in Astronautics has several simple explanations:
First, chemical-fueled rockets have reached their limit. Their capabilities were sufficient to reach the nearest celestial bodies, but more is required for full-scale exploration of the solar system. The increasingly popular ion engines are also unable to solve the problem of overcoming colossal space distances. The thrust of ion super-engines does not exceed a few fractions of one Newton, and interplanetary flights continue to stretch for many years.
Note - we are talking only about the study of the Cosmos! In conditions when the payload is only 1% of the launch mass of the rocket and space system, it makes no sense to talk about any industrial development of celestial bodies at all.
Manned space exploration was especially disappointing - contrary to the bold hypotheses of science fiction writers of the mid-twentieth century, the Cosmos turned out to be an icy hostile environment, where no one is happy with organic forms of life. Conditions on the surface of Mars - the only one of the "decent" celestial bodies in this regard, can cause a shock: the atmosphere, which is 95% carbon dioxide, and the pressure on the surface, equivalent to the pressure of the earth's atmosphere at an altitude of 40 kilometers. This is the end.
Conditions on the surfaces of other examined planets and satellites of giant planets are even worse - temperatures from - 200 to + 500 ° С, aggressive composition of the atmosphere, monstrous pressures, too low or, conversely, too strong gravity, powerful tectonics and volcanic activity …
The Galileo interplanetary station, having completed one orbit around Jupiter, received a dose of radiation equivalent to 25 lethal doses for humans. For the same reason, near-earth orbits at altitudes over 500 km are practically closed for manned flights. Above, the radiation belts begin, where long-term stay is dangerous to human health.
Where the most durable of mechanisms can hardly exist, the fragile human body has nothing to do.
But the Cosmos beckons with a dream of distant worlds, and a person is not used to giving up in the face of difficulties - a temporary delay on the way to the stars promises to be short-lived. Ahead is a titanic work on the study and development of the nearest celestial bodies - the Moon, Mars, where manned space exploration is indispensable.
Explorers of Mars
You will probably ask - why all this cosmic "fuss"? It is quite obvious that these expeditions will not bring any practical benefit; bold fantasies about mining on asteroids or the extraction of Helium-3 on the Moon still remain at the level of bold assumptions. Moreover, from the point of view of the earth's economy and industry, there is no need for this, and it will probably not appear soon.
Then - for what? The answer is simple - perhaps this is the destiny of man. To create a technique of amazing beauty and complexity, and with its help to explore, master, change the surrounding space.
Nobody is going to stop there. Now the main goal is to correctly select the priorities for further work. We need new bold ideas and bright, ambitious projects. What will be our next steps towards the stars?
On June 1, 2009, on the initiative of NASA, the so-called. "Augustine Commission" (named after its head - the former director of Lokheed Martin Norman Augustine) - a special committee on American manned space exploration, whose task was to develop further solutions on the path of human penetration into space.
The Yankees carefully studied the state of the rocket and space industry, analyzed information about interplanetary expeditions using automatic probes, took into account the conditions on the surfaces of the nearest celestial bodies and scrupulously "examined in the light" every cent allocated from the budget.
In the fall of 2009, the Augustine Commission presented a detailed report on the work done and made a number of simple, but at the same time completely ingenious conclusions:
1. The manned flight to Mars expected in the near future is a bluff.
Despite the popularity of projects related to the landing of a man on the Red Planet, all these plans are nothing more than science fiction. The flight of a man to Mars in modern conditions is like trying to run a "hundred-meter" race with broken legs.
Mars attracts researchers with adequate climatic conditions - at least there are no incinerating temperatures, and the low atmospheric pressure can be compensated for by an "ordinary" space suit. The planet is of normal size, gravity, and a reasonable distance from the Sun. Here, traces of the presence of water were found - formally, there are all conditions for a successful landing and work on the surface of the Red Planet.
However, in terms of landing spacecraft, Mars is perhaps the worst option of all the celestial objects studied!
It's all about the insidious gas shell surrounding the planet. The atmosphere of Mars is too rarefied - so much so that traditional parachute descent is impossible here. At the same time, it is dense enough to burn the lander, inadvertently "leaping" towards the surface at cosmic speed.
Landing on the surface of Mars on braking thrusters is an extremely difficult and costly undertaking. For a long period of time, the device "hangs" on jet engines in the gravitational field of Mars - it is impossible to fully rely on the "air" with the help of a parachute. All this leads to a monstrous overspending of fuel.
It is for this reason that unusual schemes are used - for example, the automatic interplanetary probe "Pathfinder" landed with the help of two sets of brake motors, a frontal braking (heat-insulating) screen, a parachute and an inflatable "airbag" - crashing into the red sand at a speed of 100 km / h, the station bounced off the surface several times, like a ball, until it came to a complete stop. Of course, such a scheme is completely inapplicable when landing a manned expedition.
Curiosity sat down no less wonderfully in 2012.
The Mars rover with a mass of 899 kg (weight on Mars 340 kg) became the heaviest of the terrestrial vehicles delivered to the surface of Mars. It would seem that only 899 kg - what problems can arise here? For comparison, the descent vehicle of the Vostok ship had a mass of 2.5 tons (the mass of the entire ship on which Yuri Gagarin flew was 4.7 tons).
Scheme of the landing of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL), better known as the Curiosity rover
And, nevertheless, the problems turned out to be great - in order to avoid damage to the structure and equipment of the Curiosity rover, they had to use the original scheme, known as the "sky crane". In short, the whole process looked like this: after intense deceleration in the planet's atmosphere, the platform with the rover attached to it hovered 7.5 meters above the surface of Mars. With the help of three cables, the Curiosity was gently lowered to the surface of the planet - after receiving confirmation that its wheels touched the ground, the rover cut the cables and electrical cables with pyro charges, and the traction platform hanging over it flew off to the side, making a hard landing 650 meters from the rover.
And that's just 899 kilograms of payload! It is scary to imagine what difficulties will arise when landing on Mars a 100-ton ship with a couple of astronauts on board.
All of the above problems are converted into extra hundreds of tons of the "Martian ship". According to the most conservative estimates, the mass of the departure stage in low-earth orbit will be at least 300 tons (less optimistic estimates give a result of up to 1500 tons)! Once again, super-heavy launch vehicles will be required, whose dimensions will many times exceed the lunar Satrun-V and N-1 with a payload of 130 … 140 tons.
Even when using the method of sectional assembly of the "Martian spacecraft" from smaller blocks and using a scheme of two spacecraft - the main (manned) and automatic transport module with their subsequent docking in the Martian orbit, the number of unsolved technical problems exceeds all reasonable limits.
In this situation, sending a person to Mars is like trying to solve Fermat's Last Theorem without possessing the simplest knowledge of algebra.
Then why torment yourself with unrealizable illusions? Isn't it easier to start learning to “walk without crutches” and gain the necessary experience by solving a little simpler, but no less enchanting tasks?
British scientists have found that the asteroid Apophis is not dangerous for the Earth
The Augustine Commission came up with a plan called the Flexible Path, a storyline worthy of a Hollywood movie set. The meaning of this theory is simple - to learn how to make long interplanetary flights by training on … astreroids.
Asteroid Itokawa compared to the International Space Station
Wandering stone fragments do not have any perceptible atmosphere, and their low gravity makes the process of "docking" similar to the docking of the Shuttle with the ISS - moreover, humanity already has experience of "close contacts" with small celestial bodies.
This is not at all about the "Chelyabinsk meteorite" - in November 2005, the Japanese probe Hayabusa (Sapsan) made two landings with a dust intake on the surface of the 300-meter asteroid (25143) Itokawa. Not everything went smoothly: the solar flare damaged the solar panels, the space cold disabled two of the probe's three gyroscopes, the Minerva mini-robot was lost during landing, finally, the device collided with an asteroid, damaged the engine and lost its orientation. After a couple of years, the Japanese still managed to regain control of the probe and restart the ion engine - in June 2010, a capsule with asteroid particles was finally delivered to Earth.
Flights to asteroids can give several useful results at once:
Some details of the formation and history of the solar system will become clear, which in itself is of considerable interest.
Secondly, it is the key to solving the applied problem of preventing the "meteorite threat" - all the details in the script for the Hollywood blockbuster "Armageddon". But in reality, things can take an even more interesting turn:
The first day. A giant asteroid is approaching the Earth. A group of brave drillers
went to him to install a nuclear charge.
Second day. A giant asteroid with a nuclear charge is approaching the Earth.
Third, geological exploration. Asteroids are of considerable interest as sources of minerals (huge ore reserves, low gravity and a low value of the second cosmic velocity - the transportation of raw materials to Earth is simplified). This is for the future.
Finally, such missions will provide invaluable experience in manned interplanetary flights.
NASA proposes Lagrange points in the Earth-Sun system (areas in which a body with negligible mass can remain stationary in a rotating frame of reference associated with two massive bodies) as the highest priority targets. From the point of view of celestial mechanics, flying to these regions is even easier than flying to the Moon, despite the significantly greater distance from Earth.
The next targets are called near-Earth asteroids of the Aton, Apollo, etc. groups. - between the orbits of the Earth and Mars. Next is our nearest celestial body - the Moon. Then there are proposals to send a non-stop expedition to Mars - flyby and study of the planet from orbit, followed by landing on the Martian satellite Phobos. And only then - Mars!
New daring expeditions will require the creation of new technical means - already now the Yankees are energetically working on the project of the multipurpose manned spacecraft "Orion".
The first test launch is planned for 2014, the spacecraft is planned to be launched at a distance of 6000 km from the Earth - 15 times farther than the ISS orbit is located. By 2017, they plan to prepare a super-heavy launch vehicle SLS for Orion, capable of launching up to 70 tons of cargo into the reference orbit (in the future - up to 130 tons). It is expected that the Orion + SLS rocket and space system will reach full readiness by 2021 - from that moment on, manned expeditions beyond the Earth orbit will become possible.
"Orion" on the orite of the Moon as presented by the artist
Everything new is well forgotten old. The conclusions of the Augustine Commission were well known to domestic specialists - it is no coincidence that, having become acquainted with the insidious atmosphere of Mars, the Soviet space program quickly reoriented itself to the study of Phobos (unsuccessful launches of Phobos-1 and 2, 1988) - after all, landing on a satellite is much easier than to the surface of the Red Planet. At the same time, Phobos, in terms of geology, is almost of greater interest than Mars itself. The odious Phobos-Grunt and the promising Phobos-Grunt-2 are all links in the same chain.
At present, Russian scientists are also inclined to believe that it is useful to study small celestial bodies. There is no talk of manned expeditions yet, Roscosmos is working on the possibility of sending automatic probes to the Moon (Luna-Glob, Luna-Resource, the next planned launch is 2015), as well as the implementation of the fantastic Laplace-P expedition. In the latter case, it is planned to land the probe on the surface of Ganymede, one of the icy satellites of Jupiter.
The message about the planned sending of a Russian probe to the outer planets of the solar system caused a burst of caustic jokes in the style of "Phobos-Grunt", "Jupiter is an ideal target, another 5 billion will perish forever in the depths of Space" "Option" Laplace-Popovkin "…
However, despite all the apparent complexity and ambiguity of the upcoming mission, the landing of an automatic station on the surface of Ganymede will be hardly more difficult than on the surface of Mars.
Of course, manned flights to Lagrange points and automatic probes in the vicinity of Jupiter are still better than pipe dreams about how "apple trees will bloom on Mars." The main thing is not to relax on what you have achieved. Even having landed on the surface of an asteroid, we should not indulge in sweet dreams about how our omnipotent science is now capable of displacing any celestial body from orbit and making us the masters of the near space.
“Captains of Heaven” cannot plug a small hole at the bottom of the ocean for many months - it is easy to imagine what awaits us in case of meeting with the next Tunguska meteorite.
Hayabusa automatic interplanetary probe
Multipurpose spacecraft "Orion"
Weight 25 tons. Internal habitable volume - 9 cubic meters. meters (for comparison - the habitable volume of the Soyuz spacecraft is 3.85 cubic meters). Crew - up to 6 people. Reusable use of the main structural elements is assumed.
Super heavy launch vehicle SLS, project
