Currently, a fundamental important issue is being resolved, who will become the master of space for the next 2 decades. Almost half a century, when mankind poked into the immediate vicinity of the Earth, not fully understanding why it was doing this, unless only to get ahead of its competitors, has come to an end. During this time, a huge amount of money was thrown into the airless space. Only one Apollo project with 6 successful missions to the moon cost the US budget $ 25 billion (and this is in 1970s prices). Moreover, each launch of the space shuttle shuttle is estimated at almost $ 500 million.
He did not lag behind the United States and the USSR, only one lunar program that had not yet been implemented cost the country 2.5 billion rubles (this is in those days when the average salary was 90 rubles a month). An even more impressive amount - 16 billion rubles was, in fact, thrown into the Energia-Buran system. The Soviet analogue of the shuttle flew into space only once. The return on many space projects has been minimal. But this recoil in the form of velcro on clothes, filters and tomographs was very useful later on Earth.
ISS is already yesterday
In recent years, the very strategy of space exploration has changed, space powers (and China, India, Japan and the European Union have joined Russia and the United States over the years) today count money perfectly and meticulously think over their prospects. Navigation, telecommunication and other satellites pay off very well. But the most interesting thing is, of course, manned astronautics. And here there are already a number of questions: where to fly, and whether these projects are affordable.
International space station
At the same time, it is necessary to figure out what to fly on. After the ruinous programs with shuttles, it became clear that the Soviet model, when a small spacecraft with astronauts is launched into orbit by a rocket, and after that the crew lands in a descent capsule, is very profitable (savings in comparison with shuttle launches by 7-8 times). Moreover, such launches turned out to be more reliable. Only 4 cosmonauts were killed on the Soyuz spacecraft, while the Shuttles claimed the lives of 14 people. From this it can be concluded that the next generation of spacecraft will not be fully reusable. Most likely, the rocket - ship - descent vehicle will be implemented. In this case, the descent capsule can be sent into orbit more than once.
The second main question is why actually fly. A mixture of romance and calculation prevails here. Humanity has always wanted to look beyond the edge of the Universe, while space flights are very good at developing state technologies. Today the bulk of the ISS weighs 420 tons (this is the weight of a train of 8 passenger cars), but at the same time it can be called yesterday. The experiments carried out at the station were carried out by the cosmonauts at the Mir station. The main thing that the ISS can give is experience in assembling and subsequent long-term operation in orbit of a structure similar to a Martian spacecraft. But this experience is primarily useful for the United States.
USA entrusts construction of new spacecraft to 4 private companies
The main priority of their space program in the United States has chosen Mars. This goal is very ambitious and provides a serious incentive for the development of modern technologies. The Americans even closed their Constellation program - the establishment of a colony on the Moon, and also closed an expensive shuttle flight program and, thus optimizing their costs, began to prepare for an expedition to the red planet.
Spaceship "Soyuz"
The United States is well aware that the $ 60 million that NASA pays for the delivery of each of its cosmonauts to the ISS with the help of the Russian Soyuz is more profitable than driving outdated shuttles. And the money saved in this way at NASA is going to be spent on the creation of new vehicles. Currently, 4 companies are simultaneously working on the creation of manned systems (while the new spacecraft will also need a launch vehicle). Private companies were not chosen by chance. They work more flexibly, are not so blinkered when making various technical decisions, and are also used to counting their money.
As a result, the first ship called Dragon of the private company SpaceX with the Falcon rocket of the same company should launch and dock with the international space station on April 30. In fact, it will be the world's first private spacecraft. According to the founder of SpaceX Elon Musk, in the next couple of years, his spacecraft will be able to deliver astronauts to the ISS 2 times cheaper than Roscosmos is now doing. In parallel with SpaceX, grants for the creation of manned spacecraft were issued by NASA to 3 more companies:
- Boeing creates the CST-100 spacecraft;
- Sierra Nevada Corporation is completing the Dream Chaser shuttle, the first test flight of which may take place in the summer of 2012. The outlines of this spacecraft are very reminiscent of the Clipper manned spacecraft, which was created in Russia at RSC Energia;
- Blue Origin is working on the completion of the New Shepard spacecraft (named after the first American cosmonaut Alan Shepard). The mock-up of the ship was tested back in 2006.
For 4 of these projects from 2012 to 2014, NASA is ready to spend $ 1.6 billion (the cost of 3 shuttle flights). Someone may ask why the Americans need 4 ships at once? The answer is simple, Americans never put all their eggs in one basket. Let's take a closer look at the almost finished Dragon ship.
Spaceship Dragon
"Dragon" consists of 2 modules: a command-aggregate compartment, which has a conical shape and an adapter trunk for docking with the second stage of the launch vehicle, which acts as an unpressurized container for placing disposable equipment and cargo in it, as well as system radiators cooling and solar panels. The power supply of the spacecraft, as well as on the Soyuz, is provided with the help of accumulators and solar batteries. Unlike many developments, including the Boeing CST-100 and the Russian Advanced Manned Transport System project, the Dragon is practically a one-piece vehicle. It also has another unique feature - the fuel tanks, propulsion system and other equipment in the aggregate compartment return to the ground along with the ship.
The spacecraft "Dragon" is created in several versions: cargo (it will be in this version that it will be used for the first time), cargo-passenger (crew of 4 people + 2.5 tons of cargo), manned (crew of up to 7 people), and also modifications for autonomous flights (DragonLab). In the DragonLab version of the ship, it will have a sealed volume of 7 cubic meters and a leaky volume of 14 meters. The payload delivered to orbit will be 6 tons. The duration of the flight is from one week to 2 years.
How will Russia respond?
For almost 3 years now, RSC Energia has been working on the creation of a new spacecraft under the abbreviation PPTS - a promising manned transport system. The first and so far the only public appearance of the Russian spacecraft took place as part of the MAKS-2011 air show, where the audience got acquainted with its layout. The technical design of the PPTS is due in July 2012. Tests of the device in an unmanned version are planned to begin in 2015, and the first manned flight is not planned at all until 2018.
The orbital terrestrial version of the PPTS - the docking version - should have a mass of 12 tons and accommodate a crew of 6 people and at least 500 kg. useful cargo. This option should be autonomous in space for 5 days. The autonomous orbital version of the device will already weigh 16.5 tons and can accommodate a group of 4 cosmonauts and 100 kg. useful cargo. The cargo version of the spacecraft must launch up to 2 tons of payloads into orbit and lower at least 500 kg to Earth.
Advanced manned transport system
Roscosmos states that all manned spacecraft will be reusable, and their useful life may be about 15 years, but taking into account the features and shape of the PTS, the capsule itself is unlikely to be able to withstand more than 10 flights into space and back. According to experts, the most complex and expensive version of the spacecraft will be designed for the lunar program, while intermediate options will be able to solve a wide range of tasks. With the help of the manned version of the spacecraft, it is planned to carry out flights in orbit around the Earth, but not only in the horizontal plane (from west to east), but also in the vertical plane (from north to south). That is, flying through the north and south poles of the planet. To date, only satellites have worked in these orbits with a large angle of inclination, and even then not all of them (mostly military).
At the present time in Russia there is no complete certainty about the Angara launch vehicle, which is supposed to launch a new ship into orbit. The project, since 1995, is at the testing stage. However, it is understandable why Roskosmos is in no hurry to create a new manned spacecraft. For the life of the ISS (until 2020), the Soyuz designed back in the 60s of the last century should be enough. But then everything is vague. According to the presented strategy for the development of domestic cosmonautics, Russia is going to repeat the feat of the Americans by landing on the Moon in more than 50 years. Our Martian ambitions exist only in the form of a joint project of an automatic station with the European Space Agency.
In conclusion, I would like to say that this year the Chinese are planning to settle in their first own space station, and by 2025 they want to deploy their own base on the Moon. It is no coincidence that the current head of NASA, Charles Bolden, believes that it is with China that in 15 years the United States will compete in space, not with Russia.
