The new Chinese promising manned ship. Its history and role in the modern moon race

Last year, it was felt that 2020 would be very rich in Chinese space achievements. This year it was planned to test a new promising manned spacecraft, start deploying a heavy orbital station in orbit, launch a station to the moon to deliver lunar soil to Earth, and send a rover to Mars.

Each of these missions, by itself, is very spectacular. Well, the fact that they can be implemented in one year strengthens the impression even more. But maybe I forgot something.

At the same time, the first mission from the list is already in orbit. We will analyze it in this article.

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The general public learned about the existence of a program to develop a new manned spacecraft in China in 2016. On March 8 of that year, the chief designer of the Chinese manned program Zhou Jianping announced that the return of the prototype of this ship will be tested in the first flight of the new CZ-7 rocket.



About the ship, it became known that its developer is the 508 Institute of the China Research Academy of Space Technology (CAST). This institute prepared the project by 2013, and, for example, in November 2015, trials of the three-dome parachute system were tested

on June 25, 2016. The CZ-7, indeed, sent this device into space, along with other experimental satellites.

The prototype was executed, approximately, on a scale of 60% of the base ship. It was a truncated cone with a maximum diameter of 2.6 meters, a height of 2.3 meters, and a mass of 2600 kg.

Here is a good video showing the assembly and launch of this capsule


Here's what she looked like in flight with the booster block.



The next day, an operation was carried out to return the descent vehicle from orbit. Moreover, it was made according to a very interesting scheme. The YZ-1A upper stage first worked out the brake impulse and transferred the capsule to the trajectory of atmospheric entry, then the SA and RB separated and the upper stage again returned to near-Earth orbit with an additional impulse.

The capsule successfully braked in the dense layers of the atmosphere, after which a supersonic stabilizing parachute was launched, and at an altitude of 10 km an exhaust and main parachute.

Soon after landing, a search group found her. There was no shooting of the parachute, so the capsule was dragged a little across the field.





If before the flight it was noted that while the design of the multi-purpose manned ship was not approved by the State Council of the PRC, the situation clearly changed after the demonstrator’s successful flight.

Four years passed, and on May 5, 2020, the first CZ-5B sends the first Chinese ship of the new series into orbit. The term for development is not a record, but it is very worthy.

Ship

Comparison from the Chinese source "Orion", PTK NP "Oryol" and "Chinese".

I would like to note that while the Chinese (judging by the hieroglyphs) call it simply a manned ship of a new generation. But the abbreviation PKNP is difficult to use, too similar to ours.

It can be seen that the overall layout is similar. But the Chinese ship has a smaller descent vehicle, but a larger aggregate compartment. Perhaps it will be somewhat more crowded, however, and composing such a ship for the desired engine should be more convenient. In particular, it looks like it will be lighter than the Orion. The test ship weighs 21.6 tons, while the Orion should weigh about 24 tons.

Even when the first information appeared, few doubted that the new Chinese ship would be an analogue of the American Orion or the Russian PTK NP. That is, a ship sharpened for flights to a lunar orbit. But the Chinese didn’t really hide it.

For example, several years ago, one of the developers of the Chinese space program Zhang Bonan said the following:

“Currently, from foreign manned spacecraft, only NASA's Orion spacecraft has the ability to provide a lunar expedition. The next generation of our manned spacecraft will perform flights in both near-Earth orbit and the implementation of a manned lunar mission. "

Indeed, among these ships at that time only Orion passed flight tests in the Earth’s orbit. As part of the EFT-1 mission in 2014. Tests of our ship are currently scheduled for 2023.

The current ship is really test. There are no signs of a docking station visible on it; when starting, CAC was not used. But this is precisely the first flight model of a Chinese manned ship.

As I once wrote, the main difference between “lunar” ships and “orbital” ones is the amount of fuel that allows it to enter / go into the orbit of the moon. In second place should be the return capsule, calculated by the loads on entering the Earth’s atmosphere, at a speed close to the second space one.

According to the description of the mission, this flight will be dedicated to these elements of the mission. At the moment, the carrier brought the load into orbit of the order of 160x370 km. But then he must go into orbit with the apogee of 8000 km. This requires about 1300 m / s. It already looks close to the required energy for lunar flights. Based on the result of the flight, it will be possible to estimate the characteristic speed more accurately.

Inflatable lander

In addition to the ship, a flexible inflatable cargo went into space, which should return the experimental cargo model.

Ideas for the development of a special inflatable descent vehicle have been around for a long time. Moreover, in Russia, under an agreement with ESA, on the basis of developments on Mars-96, an inflatable version was developed, with the help of which they tried to return from space both the Frigate upper stage and the special demonstrator during the first launch of Fregat on February 9 2000 year. But a storm was raging on earth, and only a demonstrator could find search services. Where the landing place of Frigate is still not known.



Then there were Napoleonic plans for the use of similar technology in the future. Including even the individual descent of the astronaut from orbit. But then everything calmed down. Maybe the Chinese are more lucky.

This Chinese device was supposed to return today. But something seems to have gone wrong. Let's wait for the official posts.

Missile CZ-5B

A few words about the rocket.

Rocket Packet Scheme. Oxygen-kerosene accelerators are hung on the central oxygen-hydrogen stage. Starting weight of about 850 tons.

At the moment, this is the most powerful launch vehicle in the Chinese arsenal. The mass in low Earth orbit is called 25 tons. But for the lunar program, it can be (and most likely will be!) Used only for unmanned launches. In terms of payload, it is in the same class as our Angara, and its basic technologies (like Angara's) do not allow them to be scaled to the heavyweight necessary for the implementation of the lunar program.



Actually, it is very likely that this is almost the maximum that can be obtained on the basis of the YF-100, which grew out of the RD-120 technology. For super-power, new tank sizes and new engines are needed. In China, they understand this.

But, again, I repeat, this does not mean that it is not needed. This dimension is very good for launching automatic stations to the moon, the base blocks of the new Chinese modular station and working out a promising ship in orbit of the Earth. So this carrier in the next ten years, I am sure, will bring out many interesting devices.

A small summary

I suspect that everyone had a question: what gave this launch to China in the framework of the current lunar race, what is now going on? Perhaps the answer will surprise, but on points now China has pulled ahead.

Previously, the USA had a test of a “moon” ship in Earth’s orbit and a detailed resolution Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter orbital station (we don’t take short-term missions). Behind China, there were unmanned lunar rovers, including on the far side of the moon, and the first satellite in the history of the Queqiao relay at Lagrange point. Thus, China was ahead in unmanned missions, and the United States - in the development of manned.

Now in the development of manned missions parity has come. Moreover, there is a chance that China will launch a manned version of the new ship earlier than the United States. He also actively develops interplanetary stations. Already this year, he promises to launch a station to return lunar soil to Earth.

However, this lead is only on points. Indeed, to carry out a manned flight to the moon, we need both unmanned aerial vehicles for working out technologies, and orbital vehicles, landing and an extra-heavy rocket, which will bring all this out.

On the issue of the lunar manned lander, at the initial stage are all. Although in the USA it has recently begun to be worked out in detail. What the US has really advanced is the development of a super-heavy carrier. At the moment, its first launch is in 2021. This launch is unmanned, but with a greater degree of probability, it is the United States that will be the first to fly around the moon by man in the framework of the current lunar race.

According to my information, there is a definite battle in China between two different concepts of superthrust, so when they call 2030 the year of the first landing of the Chinese astronaut on the moon, this is unlikely to be very different from the mission. In the United States, they call 2024 so far, but the chances of landing this year are very small, the real date is shifting to the second half of the 20s. So it will be interesting to observe the current confrontation.

As for Russia, now it is in third place, and that is only because there are no other countries that have announced their manned lunar program. Partly, the plus can be called the fact that the concept of flights to the Moon over the years has developed and is slowly moving to implementation.

Already in 2021, the landing of our new station on the moon should take place, judging by the last discussion in the government, this device is already in assembly. The Vostochny concept has been formed, among other things, by the creation of a super-heavy launch complex. This media, at times, was discussed at the highest level. The date of our first moon landing is 2030. And in general, if there are no problems with financing, this is a real time

The downside is that funding for the development of the PTK NP was, to put it mildly, unstable. Because of what, he turned into a long-term construction. People have really begun to get tired of such terms. Plus, the latest tragic events related both to the economy and to the coronavirus. In particular, yesterday, a couple of hours before the flight of the Chinese counterpart PTK NP, tragic news came of the death of the general designer of RSC Energia Evgeny Mikrin. On which, indeed, much was tied. And as roles and terms are distributed now, no one can say.