Russian Space Program: News & Discussion #4

They should send a high altitude UAV where temperatures are lower but the density is still high enough.  

I think that this would be more productive than a device flying near the surface

Arsenal Design Bureau pleased us with the news about a space nuclear tug. Arsenal publish a brochure with various images of the space nuclear tug and concepts of its use.

The project is an unmanned orbital station that should deliver cargo, manned vehicles and research probes to any part of the solar system

Renderings of a space nuclear tug in disassembled and folded form:


In the images, you can see the main parts of the tug: the cone is the "heart" of the entire spacecraft - a nuclear reactor with a heat-to-electricity converter. The reactor capacity should be 500 megawatts.
The "box" behind the reactor is a block of maintenance systems and a propulsion system. 
You can also see the cylindrical sliding trusses, which are the main supporting structure.
And the large white panels are radiating elements that should radiate heat into space so that the reactor does not overheat.

When folded, the space nuclear tug should be put into orbit, where it will be decomposed into its flight form. A year earlier, Arsenal posted an animation of the tug turning around.



In the images published by Arsenal, a space nuclear tug is used to deliver a spacecraft to the Moon or to deliver a nuclear power plant to Mars. It is even proposed to use the tug as a powerful repeater for long-term communication with the Martian colony.



The project also includes military capabilities. It is assumed that the tug can be used as an EMP weapon to destroy enemy satellites. The option of installing a combat laser is also being worked out. Also, the tug can be used to highlight air targets from orbit for air defense.

At the moment, the tug is presented not only in the form of 3D graphics, at least one full-size prototype is being built, as far as I remember, for ground tests.

Nucleon is the general name of the topic of research papers. Zeus is the name of the prototype. Initially, it was assumed that the result would be the creation of a line of spacecraft for various purposes. for example, to implement a manned Martian flight complex, you will need a power of 15...75 MW. So this is not one or two projects. Depending on the success of the tests, it can be hundreds of projects.

thegopnik wrote:My dumbass finally has seen the images of Russian_Patriot and now I am even more confused than before the original sources have said to earths moon, venus and than one of Jupiters moons and now its earth's moon and Mars, do they have two separate TEM projects(keldysh center said one thing Arsenal said something else unless they are two separate companies) I had a hold the **** up moment when I saw the words say Martian surface ? Geez I do hope the Maks airshow will show us more info than this, but I am thankful for those space pornographic images

Edit: found the old source https://ria.ru/20210418/kosmos-1728810284.html Zevs is name of spacecraft, project is called nuklon, engine is called Rosatama.... But also states KB arsenal and than at the end of the paragraph they are working on a new nuclear engine. So I take it they are the ones proposing the moon/mars mission as a separate project. I think I got it.

As far as I remember, the Keldysh Center and the Arsenal presented their projects of nuclear tugs. Further work went with the project from Arsenal. So far, it is planned only to fly to the Moon, Venus and Jupiter, and the images that I showed are just a demonstration of how the Arsenal sees the use of a tug

thegopnik wrote:I guess I will be betting on another nuclear spacecraft since they coincidentally released this 2 days while we are a week or 2 away from one of the biggest aviation/space air shows.

Oh, and just a couple of days ago there was an "unintentional" leak about a patent for the layout of a super-heavy launch vehicle with 14 RD-171MV engines

Big_Gazza wrote:

Scorpius wrote:Oh, and just a couple of days ago there was an "unintentional" leak about a patent for the layout of a super-heavy launch vehicle with 14 RD-171MV engines

14?

Not possible

The RD-171MV is intended to power the 1st stage of the Soyuz-5 and it only requires 1x engine.  Even the Yenisei/Don SHLV will only require 6x (plus the central core).  I can't imagine a vehicle comprising a stack of 14x Soyuz-5 cores....  OMG what a BEAST that would be

the total thrust at sea level is 11,200 tons. With a thrust-to-weight ratio of 1.35, this corresponds to a starting mass of 8,300 tons. With a mass ratio of the payload (4%) to the launch mass, this will give up to 330 tons of payload per LEO.

Scorpius wrote:

thegopnik wrote:I guess I will be betting on another nuclear spacecraft since they coincidentally released this 2 days while we are a week or 2 away from one of the biggest aviation/space air shows.

Oh, and just a couple of days ago there was an "unintentional" leak about a patent for the layout of a super-heavy launch vehicle with 14 RD-171MV engines

Do you have a source for this?

Also patents don't always come to metal but I do hope this pans out, will it be partially reusable like with Amur?

Scorpius wrote:

thegopnik wrote:I guess I will be betting on another nuclear spacecraft since they coincidentally released this 2 days while we are a week or 2 away from one of the biggest aviation/space air shows.

Oh, and just a couple of days ago there was an "unintentional" leak about a patent for the layout of a super-heavy launch vehicle with 14 RD-171MV engines

It is basically certain that any SHLV will be URM type. But it seems that it will have a larger core

1) single RD-171MV per first stage outer cluster consisting of 8 modules

2) four RD-171MV in the core stage like Energiya

3) two RD-171MV in the core second stage

So this is a super Energiya without the LH-LOX.

Giving the second core stage two RD-171MV engines and more fuel is enabled by the use of 8 first
stage boosters. I have not done any calculations or seen much discussion on this aspect. Putting
all the thrust into the first stage may appear more efficient since the extra fuel load and engine load
is focused on achieving a greater velocity on second stage separation. But I do not think it such a
critical difference.

Big_Gazza wrote:

Scorpius wrote:the total thrust at sea level is 11,200 tons. With a thrust-to-weight ratio of 1.35, this corresponds to a starting mass of 8,300 tons. With a mass ratio of the payload (4%) to the launch mass, this will give up to 330 tons of payload per LEO.

OK, but who in their right mind would ever develop such a booster?

8,300 tons?  FFS, Saturn V or N-1 were both less than 3,000 tons.

The idea of investing a mountain of cash and literally dozens (if not hundreds) of man-years into a 300+ tonne payload and orbiting it in one launch would give any program manager a heart attack.  SO much better to build 100 tonne modules and assemble what you want/need.

That is certainly a valid point, but for military purposes time is critical and three launches take too long given the assembly lag in orbit. It also takes
more launch pad resources since three pads are required at the same time. The number of pads available in Russia and the USA is very limited.

This ancient piece of technology seems to be finally going in orbit (for better or worse, hopefully nobody pays for it with their lives)

Here are details:










They even made a patch:

Big_Gazza wrote:

PapaDragon wrote:
This ancient piece of technology seems to be finally going in orbit (for better or worse, hopefully nobody pays for it with their lives)

You really feel the need to piss on the parade don't you?  

Yeah we get it - funds were lacking, progress was slow, and then Krunichev really screwed the pooch with the metallic residues messing up the fuel system, but do you have to be such a spiteful  ?...

I will be celebrating once this cobbled rusty deathtrap is safely detached from whatever ends up having misfortune of getting it attached to itself

This isn't some Angosat-style nonsense for the lolz and memes, human lives are at stake now

Big_Gazza wrote:Or is this just covering for your secret infatuation with Rogozin?  The offer for a Rogo tee-shirt still stands, just advise your size and a collection point.  

Hard to get close to old Trampoline Man these days because it would require ungluing all y'all from his crotch, way too messy and disgusting for my weak stomach

And I didn't even mention the fat retard to begin with, he sure does course trough your system in high volumes, does he?

Hardly can wait for July 21. Hoping for a successful launch and rendezvous. Proton to roll to its pad today. The launch was postponed from the previous date due to unspecified reasons. Anyone got any word on that?

Big_Gazza wrote:

PapaDragon wrote:I will be celebrating once this cobbled rusty deathtrap is safely detached from whatever ends up having misfortune of getting it attached to itself

This isn't some Angosat-style nonsense for the lolz and memes, human lives are at stake now

So you choose to double-down and be an even bigger .

Damn... you've really devolved into a complete prat.

Whatever helps you sleep at night

At least I ain't fluffer fanboy

https://twitter.com/roscosmos/status/1415673398949081091

English version of the #Nauka module brochure  for our English-speaking followers:

To recap, the module is to launch to @Space_Station on July 21 at 14:58 UTC.

https://www.roscosmos.ru/media/files/nauka.pdf