Come on! On may 10, at 0 1: 56, the tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft was successfully launched from Wenchang space launch site. At about 2: 06, the spacecraft separated from the rocket and entered the scheduled orbit. At 2: 23, the solar panels on the spacecraft unfolded smoothly. At 8: 54, the cargo spacecraft successfully docked the space station and the backward port of the core module, which took more than 6 hours.
As netizens imagined, this cargo ship is simply a monster, with a length of 10.6 meters and a diameter of 3.35 meters. It has loaded more than 200 pieces of goods with a total weight of 5 tons. This is the life and scientific research materials of the three astronauts of the upcoming Shenzhou XIV!
The launch mission was carried out by the Long March 7 remote five carrier rocket, which is an old acquaintance! Since the first flight on 20 16, Long March 7 has launched 1, 2, and 3 cargo spacecraft successively. This is the fourth launch of the cargo ship, and the success rate is 100%.
Many netizens compared the Long March rocket with Musk's Falcon 9. Generally speaking, the two series of rockets have their own merits, but China's Long March series has a significant "deficiency"-rocket recovery has not yet been realized. So the question is, to what extent has China's rocket recycling technology developed? When can I wrestle with Falcon 9?
Significantly reducing costs and improving efficiency is a major advantage of rocket recovery technology. At present, the cost of China Long March 7 rockets is about 70 million dollars, and each launch means tens of millions of people disappear. Rocket recycling technology can reduce the launch cost to the existing110, which is 90%, which is so attractive! You know, the fuel for launching rockets is worthless, accounting for only 1% of the cost, and the most expensive is the "upright big guy".
In fact, before Musk implemented his star chain plan, his spacex company focused on rocket recycling technology until it was finally overcome. Why? There are about 42,000 satellites in the satellite chain. According to the calculation that a rocket carries 50 satellites, at least 840 rockets are needed after the satellite is launched. This will be a huge expense, who can afford it!
In mid-March, Falcon 9 launched 53 satellites into space at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida. The key is that this is a "second-hand" old rocket, which can only be said to be "too economical"!
For our country, mastering rocket recycling technology is also a top priority. In September, 2020, China submitted applications for two broadband constellations, GW-A59 and GW-2, with a total of 12992 satellites, indicating that the "China Star Chain" is accelerating! In this case, if the rocket cannot be recycled, it will not be launched until the Year of the Monkey, and the cost is huge!
On June 5438+ 10, 2022, a video about rockets was circulated on the Internet. The protagonist in the video is "Long March 8", and the rocket falls from the sky. When approaching the ground, four supports were deployed at the bottom of the rocket and landed smoothly on the landing platform.
This rocket recycling scheme is almost identical to Musk's Falcon 9, so netizens speculate that China will also adopt this scheme. However, by the end of February, an article entitled "Can it be recycled like this? New generation manned rocket program innovation! This article written by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation suddenly became popular. This paper puts forward a new recycling scheme-network recycling.
The first half of the net system recovery is similar to Falcon 9, but it also landed at the landing site. However, at the landing site, China set up a net system device consisting of brackets and steel ropes. The device is equipped with a mesh opening for accommodating rockets. The key is that this network port can move back and forth! When the rocket is about to land, the net port will automatically dock with the rocket, so that the rocket can easily enter the net port, and the net port will firmly "bind" the rocket head to complete the rocket recovery!
In fact, apart from the above two schemes, China has tried other schemes. For example, a large parachute is installed on the rocket stage. When the sub-level falls off after completing the task, it will be slowly brought to the ground by the opened parachute. This scheme has relatively less technical difficulty and lower cost. It was tested on the booster of China Long March 3 B rocket, and the expected effect was achieved.
Another example is the installation of a grid rudder. China once installed a grid rudder on the Long March II C rocket, and successfully recovered the rocket wreckage to the predetermined position with it, with satisfactory results.
In contrast, China is more likely to adopt vertical rocket recycling and network recycling, and from the information disclosed by the media, these two schemes may be promoted at the same time, and both have made great progress.
A blue aerospace company is a private aerospace company. In July of 20021year, the company completed the free flight of 10 meter vertical takeoff and vertical landing. Because of its small height, it is called "grasshopper jump" in the industry, but it is almost a step for all rocket vertical recycling companies.
On May 6, 2022, the company made another breakthrough. After the rocket rose to the height of 1000m, it successfully moved vertically and horizontally and landed smoothly at the landing site, with an error of only 0.5m from the bull's-eye.
As a new generation rocket of the "national team", Long March 8 was successfully tested at Wenchang Space Launch Site in 2020. According to Song designer in charge of the Long March 8 rocket, Long March 8 decided to adopt the "reusable technology" scheme at the beginning of its design. At present, a lot of experiments have been done in autonomous control and landing buffer mechanism, and now the key recovery technologies are being studied emphatically.
Netizens may wonder why Long March 8 can't catch up with private enterprises in rocket recycling. Long March 8 is actually a two-stage intelligent rocket, which can be designed according to requirements. At the same time, it also needs to meet different needs such as large thrust and stability, so it is much more difficult to develop a private rocket.
No matter from the launch cost or the China version of "Star Chain" to be set up in China, it is necessary to master the rocket recovery technology. Of course, as for which recycling scheme is better, it needs to be matched for different occasions. For example, the recycling of network systems has low cost and small technical threshold, and private enterprises and aerospace companies can use it on a large scale. But if the rocket lands, launches and recovers on the moon, vertical recovery is undoubtedly the best solution.
# Tianzhou-4 cargo spacecraft successfully launched # # Tianzhou-4 successfully docked with Tianhe core cabin #