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Archive for the Spacecraft Design category

November 11, 2019

Atlas V LVOS

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Wikipedia dicit:

Atlas V is the fifth major version in the Atlas rocket family. It is an expendable launch system originally designed by Lockheed Martin, now being operated by United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Lockheed and Boeing.

Each Atlas V rocket consists of two main stages. The first stage is powered by a Russian RD-180 engine manufactured by RD Amross and burning kerosene and liquid oxygen. The Centaur upper stage is powered by one or two US RL10 engine(s) manufactured by Aerojet Rocketdyne and burning liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. AJ-60A strap-on solid rocket boosters (SRBs) are used in some configurations and will be replaced by GEM-63 SRBs in the near future. The standard payload fairings are 4 or 5 meters in diameter with various lengths.

Video Credit: ULA

 

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November 7, 2019

Cygnus Deep Space

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Northrop Grumman dicit:

The Cygnus system is a flight proven design incorporating elements drawn from Northrop Grumman and its partners’ existing, flight-proven spacecraft technologies. Cygnus consists of a service module and a pressurized cargo module. Cygnus is used to carry crew supplies, spare equipment and scientific experiments to the space station. The service module incorporates advanced avionics developed by Northrop Grumman and guidance and navigation components that allow for fully autonomous rendezvous with the space station. The avionics design fully meets all of the demanding NASA safety requirements imposed on human-rated vehicles. The pressurized cargo module is manufactured by Thales Alenia Space specifically for Cygnus.

Video Credit: Northrop Grumman

 

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November 6, 2019

Cislunar Space Habitation

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Northrop Grumman dicit:

Northrop Grumman’s vision for the next step toward human space missions to Mars employs our flight-proven Cygnus advanced maneuvering spacecraft as a human habitat in cislunar space, the region between the Moon and Earth. In the early 2020s we would launch the initial habitat on NASA’s SLS rocket. Featuring a modular design, the habitat would serve both as a destination for crewed missions and as an unmanned testbed to prove-out the technologies needed for long-duration human space missions. The habitat is also envisioned as a base for lunar missions by international partners or commercial ventures. With additional habitation and propulsion modules, the habitat could be outfitted for a Mars pathfinder mission.

Video Credit: Northrop Grumman

 

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November 5, 2019

Stainless Steel Rocket

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Copenhagen Suborbitals dicit:

The production of Spica – the largest crowdfunded, amateur space rocket has begun. After cutting all the parts for it on our homemade CNC plasma cutter and rolling the stainless steel hull we begin to weld all the pieces together for an inter tank section that will bridge the liquid oxygen and ethanol propellant tanks which will feed our DIY bi-liquid rocket engine. The world’s first crowdfunded crewed launch vehicle is on its way!

Copenhagen Suborbitals is the world’s only manned, crowdfunded space program. In the future, a volunteer astronaut will fly to space on our home-built rocket. We do this on our spare time, all the donations go to paying our workshop rent and buying materials. We are forever thankful to each of our supporters!

Video Credit: Copenhagen Suborbitals

 

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October 29, 2019

Vulcan Centaur MLP

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Wikipedia dicit:

Vulcan is a next generation heavy-lift launch vehicle under development by the United Launch Alliance (ULA) to meet the demands of the United States Air Force’s National Security Space Launch (NSSL) competition and launch program.

Vulcan is ULA’s first launch vehicle design, adapting and evolving various technologies previously developed for the Atlas V and Delta IV rockets of the USAF’s EELV program. The first stage propellant tanks share the diameter of the Delta IV Common Booster Core, but will contain liquid methane and liquid oxygen propellants instead of the Delta IV’s liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Vulcan’s upper stage is the Centaur V, an upgraded variant of the Common Centaur/Centaur III currently used on the Atlas V. A lengthened version of the Centaur V will be used on the Vulcan Centaur Heavy. Current plans call for the Centaur V to be eventually upgraded with Integrated Vehicle Fluids technology to become the Advanced Cryogenic Evolved Stage (ACES). Vulcan is intended to undergo the human-rating certification process to allow the launch of crew.

The Vulcan booster will have a 5.4 m (18 ft) outer diameter to support the methane fuel burned by the Blue Origin BE-4 engines. The BE-4 was selected to power Vulcan’s first stage in September 2018 after a competition with the Aerojet Rocketdyne AR1. Zero to six Graphite-Epoxy Motor-63XL (GEM-63XL) solid rocket boosters (SRB)s can be attached to the first stage in pairs, providing additional thrust during the first part of the flight and allowing the six-SRB Vulcan Centaur Heavy to launch a higher mass payload than the most capable Atlas V 551 or Delta IV Heavy. Vulcan will have a 5.4 m diameter fairing available in two lengths. The longer fairing is 21 m long, with a volume of 317 m3.

Video Credit: ULA

 

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October 24, 2019

SpaceX Starship

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Wikipedia dicit:

The SpaceX Starship is a fully reusable second stage and space vehicle being privately developed by SpaceX. It is being designed to be a long-duration cargo- and passenger-carrying spacecraft. While currently it is tested on its own, it will be used on orbital launches with an additional booster stage, the Super Heavy, where Starship would serve as the second stage on a two-stage-to-orbit launch vehicle. The combination of spacecraft and booster is called Starship as well. Beginning in mid-2019, prototype versions are being flown with Starship as an independent rocket in its own right—without any launch vehicle booster stage at all—as part of an extensive suborbital flight testing program to get launch and landing working and iterate on a variety of design details, particularly with respect to atmospheric reentry of the vehicle.

Integrated system testing of Starship began in March 2019 with the addition of a single Raptor rocket engine to the first flight-capable propellant structure, Starhopper. Starhopper was used through August 2019 for static testing and low-altitude, low-velocity flight testing of vertical launches and landings in July/August. Two additional test articles, Starship orbital prototypes, are being built by competing teams in Texas and in Florida. They are planned to be used for high-altitude, high-velocity testing beginning in late 2019. All test articles have a 9-meter (30 ft)-diameter stainless steel hull.

Video Credit: SpaceX

 

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