After quite loudly publicized accidents involving Russian Proton rockets, one can say that it has become even indecent to write about the real state of affairs in the space industry. However, the Russian space program is not only about accidents and catastrophes of satellites and space stations, it is also really amazing projects that are quite promising and successfully pass the path of their design. It will focus on the reusable rocket and space system (MRKS-1), the model tests of which began at TsAGI.
Not so long ago, the TsAGI press center published an image of this model. Its appearance reminds many of the reusable spacecraft, such as the American Space Shuttle or our "Buran". But external resemblance, as is often the case in life, is deceiving. MKRS-1 is a completely different system. It implements a fundamentally different ideology, which is qualitatively different from all past implemented space projects. At its core, it is a reusable launch vehicle.
The MRKS-1 project is a partially reusable vertical take-off launch vehicle based on a reusable cruise first stage, booster blocks and disposable second stages. The first stage is performed according to the aircraft scheme and is reversible. It returns to the launch area in airplane mode and makes a horizontal landing at 1st class airfields. The winged reusable block of the 1st stage of the rocket system will be equipped with reusable cruise liquid propellant rocket engines (LPRE).
Currently, the State Research and Production Center named after Khrunichev, design and research work is in full swing on the development and justification of the technical appearance, as well as the technical characteristics of the reusable rocket and space system. This system is being created as part of the federal space program in cooperation with many related enterprises.
However, let's talk a little about history. The first generation of reusable spacecraft includes 5 spacecraft of the Space Shuttle type, as well as several domestic developments of the BOR and Buran series. In these projects, both the Americans and Soviet specialists tried to build a reusable spacecraft itself (the last stage, which is directly launched into space). The objectives of these programs were as follows: the return from space of a significant amount of payloads, reducing the cost of launching a payload into space, preserving expensive and complex spacecraft for repeated use, the ability to carry out frequent launches of a reusable stage.
However, the 1st generation of reusable space systems was not able to solve their problems with a sufficient level of efficiency. The unit cost of access to space turned out to be approximately 3 times higher than that of ordinary single-use rockets. At the same time, the return of payloads from space did not increase significantly. At the same time, the resource of using reusable stages turned out to be significantly lower than the calculated one, which did not allow the use of these ships in a tight schedule of space launches. As a result, today, both satellites and astronauts are delivered to near-earth orbit using disposable rocket systems. And there is nothing at all to return expensive equipment and vehicles from near-earth orbit. Only the Americans made themselves a small automatic ship X-37B, which was designed for military needs and has a payload of less than 1 ton. It is obvious to everyone that modern reusable systems should be qualitatively different from the representatives of the 1st generation.
In Russia, work is underway on several reusable space systems at once. However, it is clear that the most promising will be the so-called aerospace system. Ideally, a spacecraft would take off from an airfield like an ordinary plane, enter low-earth orbit and return back, consuming only fuel. However, this is the most difficult option, which requires a large number of technical solutions and preliminary research. This option cannot be implemented quickly by any modern state. Although Russia has a fairly large scientific and technical reserve for projects of this kind. For example, the "aerospace plane" Tu-2000, which had a fairly detailed study. The implementation of this project at one time was hampered by a lack of funding after the collapse of the USSR in the 1990s, as well as the absence of a number of critical and complex components.
There is also an intermediate version, in which the space system consists of a reusable spacecraft and a reusable booster stage. Work on such systems was carried out back in the USSR, for example, the Spiral system. There are also much newer developments. But even this scheme of a reusable space system presupposes a rather long cycle of design and research work in numerous areas.
Therefore, the main focus in Russia is on the MRKS-1 program. This program stands for Stage 1 Reusable Rocket and Space System. Despite this "first stage", the created system will be very functional. It's just that within the framework of a fairly large general program for creating the latest space systems, this program has the closest deadlines for its final implementation.
The system proposed by the MRKS-1 project will be a two-stage one. Its main purpose is to launch into near-earth orbit absolutely any spacecraft (transport, manned, automatic) weighing up to 25–35 tons, both already existing and in the process of creation. The payload carried into orbit is greater than that of the Protons. However, the fundamental difference from the existing carrier rockets will be different. The MRKS-1 system will not be disposable. Its 1st stage will not burn up in the atmosphere or fall to the ground in the form of a collection of debris. Having accelerated the 2nd stage (which is a one-time use) and the payload, the 1st stage will land, like the space shuttles of the 20th century. Today, this is the most promising way of developing space transport systems.
In practice, this project is a step-by-step modernization of the Angara single-use launch vehicle that is currently being created. Actually, the MRKS-1 project itself was born as a further development of the GKNPTs im. Khrunichev, where, together with the NGO Molniya, a reusable 1st stage booster of the Angara launch vehicle was created, which received the designation Baikal (for the first time, the Baikal model was shown at MAKS-2001). Baikal used the same automatic control system that allowed the Soviet space shuttle Buran to fly without a crew on board. This system provides support for the flight at all its stages - from the moment of launch to the landing of the device at the airfield, this system will be adapted for the MRKS-1.
Unlike the Baikal project, the MRKS-1 will not have folding planes (wings), but rigidly installed ones. This technical solution will reduce the likelihood of emergency situations when the vehicle enters the landing trajectory. But the recently tested design of the reusable accelerator will still undergo changes. As Sergei Drozdov, head of the aerothermodynamics department of high-speed aircraft at TsAGI, noted, the specialists were "surprised by the high heat fluxes in the wing center section, which will undoubtedly entail a change in the design of the aircraft." In September-October this year, the MRKS-1 models will undergo a series of tests in transonic and hypersonic wind tunnels.
At the second stage of the implementation of this program, it is planned to make the second stage reusable, and the mass of the payload to be launched into space will have to grow to 60 tons. But even the development of a reusable accelerator of only the 1st stage is already a real breakthrough in the development of modern space transport systems. And the most important thing is that Russia is moving towards this breakthrough, while maintaining its status as one of the world's leading space powers.
Today MRKS-1 is considered as a universal multipurpose vehicle intended for launching spacecraft and payloads of various purposes, manned and cargo ships under the programs of human exploration of near-earth space, exploration of the Moon and Mars, as well as other planets of our solar system, into near-earth orbit. …
The composition of the MRKS-1 includes a reusable rocket unit (VRB), which is a reusable stage I booster, a one-time stage II booster, as well as a space warhead (RGC). VRB and stage II accelerator dock with each other in a batch scheme. It is proposed to build modifications of the MRCS with different carrying capacity (the mass of the cargo delivered to a low reference orbit from 20 to 60 tons), taking into account the unified stage I and II accelerators using a single ground complex. In the long term, this will make it possible to ensure in practice a reduction in the labor intensity of work in a technical position, maximum serial production and the possibility of developing an economically effective family of space carriers based on basic modules.
Development and construction of the MRKS-1 family of different carrying capacity based on unified disposable and reusable stages, which will meet the requirements for advanced space transport systems, and are capable of solving the tasks of launching both unique expensive space objects and serial ones with very high efficiency and reliability. spacecraft can become a very serious alternative in a number of new generation launch vehicles that will be in operation for a long time in the 21st century.
At present, TsAGI specialists have already managed to assess the rational multiplicity of the use of the first stage of the MRKS-1, as well as the options for demonstrators of the returned missile units and the need for their implementation. The returned 1st stage MRKS-1 will provide a high level of safety and reliability and completely abandon the allocation of areas where detachable parts fall, which will significantly increase the efficiency of the implementation of promising commercial programs. The aforementioned advantages for Russia seem to be extremely important, as for the only state in the world that has a continental location of existing and promising cosmodromes.
TsAGI believes that the creation of the MRKS-1 project is a qualitatively new step in the design of promising reusable space vehicles for launching into orbit. Such systems fully meet the level of development of rocket and space technology in the XXI century and have significantly higher indicators of economic efficiency.
