School encyclopedia. Spaceships "Soyuz Description of the spaceship for children
How does the spacecraft crew emergency rescue system work? aslan wrote in October 24th, 2018
The Emergency Rescue System, or SAS for short, is a “rocket within a rocket” that crowns the spire of the Union:
The astronauts themselves sit in the lower part of the spire (which has the shape of a cone):
SAS ensures the rescue of the crew both on the launch pad and during any part of the flight. Here it is worth understanding that the probability of getting lyuli at the start is many times higher than in flight. It's like a light bulb - most burnouts happen the moment you turn it on. Therefore, the first thing the SAS does at the moment of an accident is to fly into the air and take the astronauts somewhere away from the spreading explosion:
The SAS engines are brought into readiness 15 minutes before the rocket launch.
Now comes the most interesting part. The SAS is activated by two attendants who synchronously press a button at the command of the flight director. Moreover, the command is usually the name of some geographical object. For example, the flight director says: “Altai” and the attendants activate the SAS. Everything is the same as 50 years ago.
The worst thing is not the landing, but the overload. In the news about the rescued cosmonauts, the overload was immediately indicated as 9g. This is an extremely unpleasant overload for an ordinary person, but for a trained astronaut it is not fatal or even dangerous. For example, in 1975, Vasily Lazarev achieved an overload of 20, and according to some sources, 26G. He did not die, but the consequences put an end to his career.
As it was said, CAS is already more than 50 years old. During this time, it has undergone many changes, but formally the basic principles of its work have not changed. Electronics have appeared, many different sensors have appeared, reliability has increased, but rescuing astronauts still looks the same as it would have looked 50 years ago. Why? Because gravity, overcoming the first cosmic velocity and the human factor are quantities that are apparently unchanged:
The first successful testing of SAS was carried out in 1967. Actually, they tried to fly around the Moon unmanned. But the first pancake came out lumpy, so we decided to test the CAS at the same time, so that at least some result would be positive. The descent vehicle landed intact, and if there had been people inside, they would have survived.
And this is what the SAS looks like in flight:
A spaceship is also an aircraft, but it is only intended for movement in airless space. You can fly through the air much faster than swimming on water or moving on land, and in airless space you can reach even higher speeds, but the higher the speed, the more important the weight of the structure. Increasing the weight of the spacecraft leads to a very large increase in the weight of the rocket system that launches the ship into the planned region of outer space.
Therefore, everything that is on board the spacecraft should weigh as little as possible, and nothing should be superfluous. This requirement poses one of the biggest challenges for spacecraft designers.
What are the main parts of a spacecraft? Spacecraft are divided into two classes: inhabited (there is a crew of several people on board) and uninhabited (scientific equipment is installed on board, which automatically transmits all measurement data to Earth). We will only consider manned spacecraft. The first manned spacecraft on which Yu. A. Gagarin made his flight was Vostok. It is followed by ships from the Sunrise series. These are no longer single-seat devices like the Vostok, but multi-seat devices. For the first time in the world, a group flight of three pilot-cosmonauts - Komarov, Feoktistov, Egorov - was carried out on the Voskhod spacecraft.
The next series of spacecraft created in the Soviet Union was called Soyuz. The ships of this series are much more complex in design than their predecessors, and the tasks they can perform are also more complex. The United States also created various types of spaceships.
Let's consider the general design of a manned spacecraft using the example of the American Apollo spacecraft.
Rice. 10. Diagram of a three-stage rocket with a spacecraft and recovery system.
Figure 10 shows a general view of the Saturn rocket system and the Apollo spacecraft docked to it. The spacecraft sits between the rocket's third stage and a device that attaches to the spacecraft on a truss called the escape system. What is this device for? When a rocket engine or its control system operates during a rocket launch, malfunctions cannot be ruled out. Sometimes these problems can lead to an accident - the rocket will fall to Earth. What could happen? The fuel components will mix, and a sea of fire will form, in which both the rocket and the spacecraft will find themselves. Moreover, when mixing fuel components, explosive mixtures can also form. Therefore, if for any reason an accident occurs, it is necessary to move the ship away from the rocket to a certain distance and only then land. Under these conditions, neither explosions nor fire will be dangerous for astronauts. This is the purpose for which the emergency rescue system (abbreviated SAS) serves.
The SAS system includes main and control engines running on solid fuel. If the SAS system receives a signal about the emergency state of the missile, it is activated. The spacecraft separates from the rocket, and the escape system's propellant engines propel the spacecraft upward and away. When the powder engine finishes working, a parachute is ejected from the spacecraft and the ship smoothly descends to Earth. The SAS system is designed to rescue astronauts in the event of an emergency during the launch of the launch vehicle and its flight in the active phase.
If the launch of the launch vehicle went smoothly and the flight in the active phase is successfully completed, there is no need for an emergency rescue system. Once the spacecraft is launched into low-Earth orbit, this system becomes useless. Therefore, before the spacecraft enters orbit, the emergency rescue system is discarded from the ship as unnecessary ballast.
The emergency rescue system is directly attached to the so-called descent or reentry vehicle of the spacecraft. Why does it have this name? We have already said that a spacecraft going on a space flight consists of several parts. But only one of its components returns to Earth from a space flight, which is therefore called the reentry vehicle. The return or descent vehicle, unlike other parts of the spacecraft, has thick walls and a special shape, which is most advantageous from the point of view of flight in the Earth's atmosphere at high speeds. The recovery vehicle, or command compartment, is where astronauts are during the launch of the spacecraft into orbit and, of course, during the descent to Earth. Most of the equipment used to control the ship is installed in it. Since the command compartment is intended for lowering astronauts to Earth, it also houses parachutes, with the help of which the spacecraft is braked in the atmosphere, and then smoothly descends.
Behind the descent vehicle is a compartment called the orbital compartment. In this compartment, scientific equipment necessary for carrying out special research in space is installed, as well as systems that provide the ship with everything necessary: air, electricity, etc. The orbital compartment does not return to Earth after the spacecraft completes its mission. Its very thin walls are not able to withstand the heat that the return vehicle is exposed to during its descent to Earth, passing through the dense layers of the atmosphere. Therefore, upon entering the atmosphere, the orbital compartment burns up like a meteor.
In spacecraft intended for flight into deep space with landing people on other celestial bodies, it is necessary to have one more compartment. In this compartment, astronauts can descend to the surface of the planet and, when necessary, take off from it.
We have listed the main parts of a modern spacecraft. Now let's see how the vital functions of the crew and the functionality of the equipment installed on board the ship are ensured.
It takes a lot to ensure human life. Let's start with the fact that a person cannot exist either at very low or at very high temperatures. The temperature regulator on the globe is the atmosphere, i.e. air. What about the temperature on the spacecraft? It is known that there are three types of heat transfer from one body to another - thermal conductivity, convection and radiation. To transfer heat by conduction and convection, a heat transmitter is needed. Consequently, these types of heat transfer are impossible in space. A spacecraft, being in interplanetary space, receives heat from the Sun, Earth and other planets exclusively by radiation. It is worth creating a shadow from a thin sheet of some material that will block the path of the rays of the Sun (or light from other planets) to the surface of the spacecraft - and it will stop heating. Therefore, it is not difficult to thermally insulate a spacecraft in airless space.
However, when flying in outer space, one has to fear not overheating of the ship by the sun's rays or its overcooling as a result of the radiation of heat from the walls into the surrounding space, but overheating from the heat that is released inside the spacecraft itself. What can cause the temperature in a ship to increase? Firstly, the person himself is a source that continuously emits heat, and secondly, a spaceship is a very complex machine, equipped with many instruments and systems, the operation of which involves the release of large amounts of heat. The system that ensures the vital functions of the ship's crew members faces a very important task - all the heat generated by both people and instruments is promptly removed outside the ship's compartments and ensures that the temperature in them is maintained at the level required for normal human existence and the operation of the instruments.
How is it possible, in space conditions, where heat is transferred only by radiation, to ensure the necessary temperature conditions in a spacecraft? You know that in the summer, when the sultry Sun is shining, everyone wears light-colored clothes, in which the heat is less felt. What's the matter? It turns out that a light surface, unlike a dark one, does not absorb radiant energy well. It reflects it and therefore heats up much less.
This property of bodies, depending on their color, to absorb or reflect radiant energy to a greater or lesser extent, can be used to regulate the temperature inside the spacecraft. There are substances (they are called thermophototropes) that change their color depending on the heating temperature. As the temperature rises, they begin to discolor, and the more strongly the higher the temperature of their heating. On the contrary, they darken when cooled. This property of thermophototropes can be very useful if they are used in the thermal control system of spacecraft. After all, thermophototropes allow you to maintain the temperature of an object at a certain level automatically, without the use of any mechanisms, heaters or coolers. As a result, the thermal control system using thermophototropes will have a small mass (and this is very important for spacecraft), and no energy will be required to activate it. (Thermal control systems that operate without consuming energy are called passive.)
There are other passive thermal control systems. All of them have one important property - low mass. However, they are unreliable in operation, especially during long-term use. Therefore, spacecraft are usually equipped with so-called active temperature control systems. A distinctive feature of such systems is the ability to change the operating mode. An active temperature control system is like a central heating system's radiator - if you want the room to be cooler, you shut off the hot water supply to the radiator. On the contrary, if you need to raise the temperature in the room, the shut-off valve opens completely.
The task of the thermal control system is to maintain the air temperature in the ship's cabin within the normal room temperature, i.e. 15 - 20°C. If the room is heated using central heating batteries, then the temperature anywhere in the room is practically the same. Why is there very little difference in air temperature near a hot battery and far from it? This is explained by the fact that there is continuous mixing of warm and cold layers of air in the room. Warm (light) air rises, cold (heavy) air sinks. This movement (convection) of air is due to the presence of gravity. Everything in a spaceship is weightless. Consequently, there cannot be convection, i.e. mixing of air and equalizing the temperature throughout the entire volume of the cabin. There is no natural convection, but it is created artificially.
For this purpose, the thermal control system provides for the installation of several fans. Fans, driven by an electric motor, force air to continuously circulate throughout the ship's cabin. Thanks to this, the heat generated by the human body or any device does not accumulate in one place, but is evenly distributed throughout the entire volume.
Rice. 11. Scheme of cooling the air in the spacecraft cabin.
Practice has shown that more heat is always generated in a spacecraft than is radiated into the surrounding space through the walls. Therefore, it is advisable to install batteries in it through which cold liquid needs to be pumped. The cabin air driven by a fan will give off heat to this liquid (see Fig. 11), while cooling. Depending on the temperature of the liquid in the radiator, as well as its size, you can remove more or less heat and thus maintain the temperature inside the ship’s cabin at the required level. The radiator, which cools the air, also serves another purpose. You know that when breathing, a person exhales into the surrounding atmosphere a gas that contains significantly less oxygen than air, but more carbon dioxide and water vapor. If water vapor is not removed from the atmosphere, it will accumulate in it until a state of saturation occurs. Saturated steam will condense on all instruments, the walls of the ship, and everything will become damp. Of course, it is harmful for a person to live and work in such conditions for a long time, and not all devices can function normally at such humidity.
The radiators we talked about help remove excess water vapor from the spacecraft cabin atmosphere. Have you noticed what happens to a cold object brought from the street into a warm room in winter? It is immediately covered with tiny droplets of water. Where did they come from? From the air. The air always contains some amount of water vapor. At room temperature (+20°C), 1 m³ of air can contain up to 17 g of moisture in the form of vapor. As the air temperature rises, the possible moisture content also increases, and vice versa: with a decrease in temperature, there may be less water vapor in the air. This is why moisture falls on cold objects brought into a warm room in the form of dew.
In a spacecraft, the cold object is a radiator through which cold liquid is pumped. As soon as too much water vapor accumulates in the cabin air, it from the air washing the radiator tubes condenses on them in the form of dew. Thus, the radiator serves not only as a means of cooling the air, but at the same time is an air dehumidifier. Since the radiator performs two tasks at once - it cools and dries the air, it is called a refrigerator-dryer.
So, in order to maintain normal temperature and air humidity in the spacecraft cabin, it is necessary to have a liquid in the thermal control system that must be continuously cooled, otherwise it will not be able to fulfill its role of removing excess heat from the spacecraft cabin. How to cool liquid? Cooling the liquid is, of course, not a problem if you have a regular electric refrigerator. But electric refrigerators are not installed on spaceships, and they are not needed there. Outer space differs from earthly conditions in that it has both heat and cold at the same time. It turns out that in order to cool the liquid, with the help of which the temperature and humidity of the air inside the cabin are maintained at a given level, it is enough to place it in outer space for a while, but so that it is in the shade.
The thermal control system, in addition to fans that drive air, includes pumps. Their task is to pump liquid from a radiator located inside the cabin to a radiator installed on the outside of the spacecraft shell, i.e. in outer space. These two radiators are connected to each other by pipelines, which contain valves and sensors that measure the temperature of the liquid at the inlet and outlet of the radiators. Depending on the readings of these sensors, the speed of pumping liquid from one radiator to another is regulated, i.e., the amount of heat removed from the ship’s cabin.
What properties should a liquid used in a temperature control system have? Since one of the radiators is located in outer space, where very low temperatures are possible, one of the main requirements for the liquid is a low solidification temperature. Indeed, if the liquid in the external radiator freezes, the temperature control system will fail.
Maintaining the temperature inside a spacecraft at a level that maintains human performance is a very important task. A person cannot live and work in either cold or heat. Can a person exist without air? Of course not. And such a question never arises before us, since air is everywhere on Earth. The air also fills the cabin of the spacecraft. Is there a difference in providing a person with air on Earth and in the cabin of a spacecraft? The airspace on Earth is large. No matter how much we breathe, no matter how much oxygen we consume for other needs, its content in the air practically does not change.
The situation in the spacecraft cabin is different. Firstly, the volume of air in it is very small and, in addition, there is no natural regulator of the composition of the atmosphere, since there are no plants that would absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Therefore, very soon people in the spacecraft cabin will begin to feel a lack of oxygen to breathe. A person feels normal if the atmosphere contains at least 19% oxygen. With less oxygen, breathing becomes difficult. In a spacecraft, per one crew member there is free volume = 1.5 - 2.0 m³. Calculations show that after 1.5 - 1.6 hours the air in the cabin becomes unsuitable for normal breathing.
Consequently, the spacecraft must be equipped with a system that would feed its atmosphere with oxygen. Where do you get oxygen from? Of course, you can store oxygen on board a ship in the form of compressed gas in special cylinders. As necessary, gas from the cylinder can be released into the cabin. But this type of oxygen storage is of little use for spacecraft. The fact is that metal cylinders, in which the gas is under high pressure, weigh a lot. Therefore, this simple method of storing oxygen on spacecraft is not used. But oxygen gas can be turned into liquid. The density of liquid oxygen is almost 1000 times greater than the density of gaseous oxygen, as a result of which a much smaller container will be required to store it (of the same mass). In addition, liquid oxygen can be stored under slight pressure. Consequently, the walls of the vessel may be thin.
However, the use of liquid oxygen on board a ship poses some difficulties. It is very easy to introduce oxygen into the atmosphere of a spacecraft cabin if it is in a gaseous state, but more difficult if it is liquid. The liquid must first be converted into gas, and for this it must be heated. Heating oxygen is also necessary because its vapors can have a temperature close to the boiling point of oxygen, i.e. - 183°C. Such cold oxygen cannot be allowed into the cabin; it is, of course, impossible to breathe with it. It should be heated to at least 15 - 18°C.
For gasification of liquid oxygen and heating of vapors, special devices will be required, which will complicate the oxygen supply system. We must also remember that in the process of breathing a person not only consumes oxygen in the air, but at the same time releases carbon dioxide. A person emits about 20 liters of carbon dioxide per hour. Carbon dioxide, as is known, is not a poisonous substance, but it is difficult for a person to breathe air that contains more than 1 - 2% carbon dioxide.
To make the air in a spacecraft cabin breathable, it is necessary not only to add oxygen to it, but also to simultaneously remove carbon dioxide from it. For this purpose, it would be convenient to have on board the spacecraft a substance that releases oxygen and at the same time absorbs carbon dioxide from the air. Such substances exist. You know that a metal oxide is a compound of oxygen with a metal. Rust, for example, is iron oxide. Other metals, including alkaline ones (sodium, potassium), also oxidize.
Alkali metals, when combined with oxygen, form not only oxides, but also so-called peroxides and superoxides. The peroxides and superoxides of alkali metals contain much more oxygen than the oxides. The formula for sodium oxide is Na₂O, and the formula for superoxide is NaO₂. When exposed to moisture, sodium superoxide decomposes with the release of pure oxygen and the formation of alkali: 4NaO₂ + 2H₂O → 4NaOH + 3O₂.
Alkali metal superoxides turned out to be very convenient substances for obtaining oxygen from them in spacecraft conditions and purifying cabin air from excess carbon dioxide. After all, alkali (NaOH), which is released during the decomposition of alkali metal superoxide, very readily combines with carbon dioxide. Calculations show that for every 20 - 25 liters of oxygen released during the decomposition of sodium superoxide, soda alkali is formed in an amount sufficient to bind 20 liters of carbon dioxide.
The binding of carbon dioxide with alkali consists in the fact that a chemical reaction occurs between them: CO₂ + 2NaOH → Na₂CO + H₂O. As a result of the reaction, sodium carbonate (soda) and water are formed. The relationship between oxygen and alkali, formed during the decomposition of alkali metal superoxides, turned out to be very favorable, since an average person consumes 25 A of oxygen per hour and emits 20 liters of carbon dioxide in the same time.
Alkali metal superoxide decomposes when interacting with water. Where to get water for this? It turns out you don't need to worry about this. We have already said that when a person breathes, he emits not only carbon dioxide, but also water vapor. The moisture contained in the exhaled air is abundantly sufficient to decompose the required amount of superoxide. Of course, we know that oxygen consumption depends on the depth and frequency of breathing. You sit at the table and breathe calmly - you consume one amount of oxygen. And if you go for a run or do physical work, you breathe deeply and often, and therefore consume more oxygen than with quiet breathing. Spacecraft crew members will also consume different amounts of oxygen at different times of the day. During sleep and rest, oxygen consumption is minimal, but when work involving movement is performed, oxygen consumption increases sharply.
Due to the inhaled oxygen, certain oxidative processes occur in the body. As a result of these processes, water vapor and carbon dioxide are formed. If the body consumes more oxygen, it means it emits more carbon dioxide and water vapor. Consequently, the body, as it were, automatically maintains the moisture content in the air in such an amount as is necessary for the decomposition of the corresponding amount of alkali metal superoxide.
Rice. 12. Scheme of feeding the spacecraft cabin atmosphere with oxygen and removing carbon dioxide.
A diagram of air purification from carbon dioxide and replenishing it with oxygen is shown in Figure 12. The cabin air is driven by a fan through cartridges with sodium or potassium superoxide. The air coming out of the cartridges is already enriched with oxygen and purified of carbon dioxide.
A sensor is installed in the cabin to monitor the oxygen content in the air. If the sensor shows that the oxygen content in the air is becoming too low, a signal is sent to the fan motors to increase the number of revolutions, as a result of which the speed of air passing through the superoxide cartridges increases, and therefore the amount of moisture (which is in the air) entering the cartridge at the same time. More moisture means more oxygen is produced. If the cabin air contains more oxygen than normal, then sensors send a signal to the fan motors to reduce the speed.
Vostok spaceships. On April 12, 1961, a three-stage launch vehicle delivered the Vostok spacecraft into low-Earth orbit, on board of which was a citizen of the Soviet Union, Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin.
The three-stage launch vehicle consisted of four side blocks (I stage) located around a central block (II stage). The third stage of the rocket is placed above the central block. Each of the first stage units was equipped with a four-chamber liquid-propellant jet engine RD-107, and the second stage was equipped with a four-chamber jet engine RD-108. The third stage was equipped with a single-chamber liquid-jet engine with four steering nozzles.
Vostok launch vehicle
1 — head fairing; 2 — payload; 3 - oxygen tank; 4 — screen; 5 - kerosene tank; 6 — control nozzle; 7—liquid rocket engine (LPRE); 8 - transition truss; 9 - reflector; 10 — instrument compartment of the central unit; 11 and 12 - variants of the head unit (with the Luna-1 and Luna-3 satellites, respectively).
| Lunar | For human flight | |
| Launch weight, t | 279 | 287 |
| Payload mass, t | 0,278 | 4,725 |
| Fuel mass, t | 255 | 258 |
| Engine thrust, kN | ||
| Stage I (on Earth) | 4000 | 4000 |
| Stage II (in the void) | 940 | 940 |
| Stage III (in the void) | 49 | 55 |
| Maximum speed, m/s | 11200 | 8000 |
The Vostok spacecraft consisted of a descent module and an instrumentation compartment connected together. The weight of the ship is about 5 tons.
The descent vehicle (crew cabin) was made in the form of a ball with a diameter of 2.3 m. The astronaut's seat, control devices, and a life support system were installed in the descent vehicle. The seat was positioned in such a way that the overload occurring during takeoff and landing had the least effect on the astronaut.
Spaceship "Vostok"
1 — descent vehicle; 2 — ejection seat; 3 — cylinders with compressed air and oxygen; 4 — braking rocket engine; 5 - third stage of the launch vehicle; 6 - third stage engine.
The cabin was maintained at normal atmospheric pressure and the same air composition as on Earth. The helmet of the spacesuit was open, and the astronaut was breathing cabin air.
A powerful three-stage launch vehicle launched the ship into orbit with a maximum altitude above the Earth’s surface of 320 km and a minimum altitude of 180 km.
Let's look at how the landing system of the Vostok ship works. After turning on the braking engine, the flight speed decreased and the ship began to descend.
At an altitude of 7000 m, the hatch cover opened and a chair with an astronaut was fired from the descent vehicle. 4 km from Earth, the chair separated from the astronaut and fell, and he continued his descent by parachute. On a 15-meter cord (halyard), together with the cosmonaut, an emergency emergency reserve (EAS) and a boat, which was automatically inflated when landing on the water, were lowered.
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Scheme of the descent of the Vostok ship 1 and 2 - orientation to the Sun; 4 — turning on the brake motor; 5—instrument compartment compartment; 6 — flight path of the descent vehicle; 7 — ejection of the astronaut from the cabin along with the chair; 8 — descent with a braking parachute; 9 — activation of the main parachute; 10 - NAZ department; 11—landing; 12 and 13 - opening of the brake and main parachutes; 14 — descent with the main parachute; 15 — landing of the descent vehicle. |
Regardless of the astronaut, at an altitude of 4000 m, the brake parachute of the descent vehicle opened and its rate of fall decreased significantly. The main parachute opened 2.5 km from the Earth, smoothly lowering the vehicle to the Earth.
Voskhod spaceships. The tasks of space flights are expanding and spacecraft are being improved accordingly. On October 12, 1964, three people immediately went into space on the Voskhod spacecraft: V. M. Komarov (ship commander), K. P. Feoktistov (now a Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences) and B. B. Egorov (doctor).
The new ship was significantly different from the ships of the Vostok series. It could accommodate three astronauts and had a soft landing system. Voskhod 2 had an airlock chamber for exiting the ship into outer space. It could not only descend to land, but also splash down. The cosmonauts were in the first Voskhod spacecraft in flight suits without spacesuits.
The flight of the Voskhod-2 spacecraft took place on March 18, 1965. On board were the commander, pilot-cosmonaut P.I. Belyaev and the co-pilot, pilot-cosmonaut A.A. Leonov.
After the spacecraft entered orbit, the airlock was opened. The airlock chamber unfolded from the outside of the cabin, forming a cylinder that could accommodate a person in a spacesuit. The gateway is made of durable sealed fabric, and when folded it takes up little space.
The Voskhod-2 spacecraft and the airlock diagram on the ship
1,4,9, 11 - antennas; 2 - television camera; 3 — cylinders with compressed air and oxygen; 5 - television camera; 6 - gateway before filling; 7 — descent vehicle; 8 — aggregate compartment; 10 — engine of the braking system; A - filling the airlock with air; B - the astronaut exits the airlock (the hatch is open); B — release of air from the airlock to the outside (the hatch is closed); G — astronaut exits into space with the outer hatch open; D - separation of the airlock from the cabin.
A powerful pressurization system ensured that the airlock was filled with air and created the same pressure in it as in the cabin. After the pressure in the airlock and in the cabin had equalized, A. A. Leonov put on a backpack containing compressed oxygen cylinders, connected the communication wires, opened the hatch and “moved” into the airlock. Having left the airlock, he moved some distance away from the ship. He was connected to the ship only by a thin thread of a halyard; the man and the ship were moving side by side.
A. A. Leonov was outside the cockpit for twenty minutes, of which twelve minutes were in free flight.
The first human spacewalk allowed us to obtain valuable information for subsequent expeditions. It has been proven that a well-trained astronaut can perform various tasks even in outer space.
The Voskhod-2 spacecraft was delivered into orbit by the Soyuz rocket and space system. The unified Soyuz system began to be created under the leadership of S.P. Korolev already in 1962. It was supposed to ensure not individual breakthroughs into space, but its systematic establishment as a new sphere of habitation and production activity.
When creating the Soyuz launch vehicle, the main part underwent modifications; in fact, it was created anew. This was caused by the only requirement - to ensure the rescue of astronauts in the event of an accident on the launch pad and the atmospheric phase of the flight.
Soyuz is the third generation of spacecraft. The Soyuz spacecraft consists of an orbital compartment, a descent module and an instrumentation compartment.
The astronauts' seats are located in the cabin of the descent vehicle. The shape of the seat makes it easier to withstand the overloads that occur during takeoff and landing. On the chair there is a control knob for the orientation of the ship and a speed control knob for maneuvering. A special shock absorber softens the shocks that occur during landing.
The Soyuz has two autonomously operating life support systems: the cabin life support system and the spacesuit life support system.
The cabin life support system maintains conditions familiar to humans in the descent module and the orbital compartment: air pressure of about 101 kPa (760 mm Hg), partial pressure of oxygen of about 21.3 kPa (160 mm Hg), temperature 25-30 °C, relative air humidity 40-60%.
The life support system purifies the air, collects and stores waste. The operating principle of the air purification system is based on the use of oxygen-containing substances that absorb carbon dioxide and part of the moisture from the air and enrich it with oxygen. The air temperature in the cabin is regulated using radiators installed on the outer surface of the ship.
Soyuz launch vehicle
Launch weight, t - 300
Payload weight, kg
"Soyuz" - 6800
"Progress" - 7020
Engine thrust, kN
Stage I - 4000
Stage II - 940
III stage - 294
Maximum speed, m/s 8000
1—emergency rescue system (ASS); 2 — powder accelerators; 3 - Soyuz ship; 4 — stabilizing flaps; 5 and 6 — stage III fuel tanks; 7 — stage III engine; 8 - truss between stages II and III; 9 — tank with stage 1 oxidizer; 10 — tank with stage 1 oxidizer; 11 and 12—tanks with stage I fuel; 13 — tank with liquid nitrogen; 14 — first stage engine; 15 — stage II engine; 16 — control chamber; 7 — air rudder.
The bus arrived at the starting position. The astronauts got out and headed towards the rocket. Everyone has a suitcase in their hand. Obviously, many felt that the essentials for a long journey were stowed there. But if you look closely, you will notice that the suitcase is connected to the astronaut with a flexible hose.
The spacesuit must be continuously ventilated to remove moisture released by the astronaut. The suitcase contains an electric fan and a source of electricity - a rechargeable battery.
The fan sucks in air from the surrounding atmosphere and forces it through the suit's ventilation system.
Approaching the open hatch of the ship, the astronaut will disconnect the hose and enter the ship. Having taken his place in the work chair of the ship, he will connect to the life support system of the suit and close the helmet window. From this moment on, air is supplied to the spacesuit by a fan (150-200 liters per minute). But if the pressure in the cabin begins to drop, an emergency supply of oxygen from specially provided cylinders will turn on.
Head unit options
I - with the Voskhod-2 ship; II—with the Soyuz-5 spacecraft; III - with the Soyuz-12 spacecraft; IV - with the Soyuz-19 spacecraft
The Soyuz T spacecraft was created on the basis of the Soyuz spacecraft. Soyuz T-2 was first launched into orbit in June 1980 by a crew consisting of ship commander Yu. V. Malyshev and flight engineer V. V. Aksenov. The new spacecraft was created taking into account the experience in the development and operation of the Soyuz spacecraft - it consists of an orbital (domestic) compartment with a docking unit, a descent module and an instrument compartment of a new design. The Soyuz T has new on-board systems installed, including radio communications, attitude control, motion control, and an on-board computer complex. The launch weight of the ship is 6850 kg. The estimated duration of the autonomous flight is 4 days, as part of the orbital complex 120 days.
S. P. Umansky
1986 “Cosmonautics today and tomorrow”
Today, space flights are not considered science fiction stories, but, unfortunately, a modern spaceship is still very different from those shown in films.
This article is intended for persons over 18 years of age
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Russian spaceships and
Spaceships of the future
Spaceship: what is it like?
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Spaceship, how does it work?
The mass of modern spacecraft is directly related to how high they fly. The main task of manned spacecraft is safety.
The SOYUZ lander became the first space series of the Soviet Union. During this period, there was an arms race between the USSR and the USA. If we compare the size and approach to the issue of construction, the leadership of the USSR did everything for the speedy conquest of space. It is clear why similar devices are not being built today. It is unlikely that anyone will undertake to build according to a scheme in which there is no personal space for the astronauts. Modern spaceships are equipped with crew rest rooms and a descent capsule, the main task of which is to make it as soft as possible at the moment of landing.
The first spaceship: history of creation
Tsiolkovsky is rightly considered the father of astronautics. Based on his teachings, Goddrad built a rocket engine.
Scientists who worked in the Soviet Union became the first to design and be able to launch an artificial satellite. They were also the first to invent the possibility of launching a living creature into space. The States realize that the Union was the first to create an aircraft capable of going into space with a man. Korolev is rightly called the father of rocket science, who went down in history as the one who figured out how to overcome gravity and was able to create the first manned spacecraft. Today, even kids know in what year the first ship with a person on board was launched, but few people remember Korolev’s contribution to this process.
The crew and their safety during the flight
The main task today is the safety of the crew, because they spend a lot of time at flight altitude. When building a flying device, it is important what metal it is made of. The following types of metals are used in rocket science:
- Aluminum allows you to significantly increase the size of the spacecraft, since it is lightweight.
- Iron copes remarkably well with all loads on the ship’s hull.
- Copper has high thermal conductivity.
- Silver reliably binds copper and steel.
- Tanks for liquid oxygen and hydrogen are made from titanium alloys.
A modern life support system allows you to create an atmosphere familiar to a person. Many boys see themselves flying in space, forgetting about the very large overload of the astronaut at launch.
The largest spaceship in the world
Among warships, fighters and interceptors are very popular. A modern cargo ship has the following classification:
- The probe is a research ship.
- Capsule - cargo compartment for delivery or rescue operations of the crew.
- The module is launched into orbit by an unmanned carrier. Modern modules are divided into 3 categories.
- Rocket. The prototype for the creation was military developments.
- Shuttle - reusable structures for delivering the necessary cargo.
- Stations are the largest spaceships. Today, not only Russians are in outer space, but also French, Chinese and others.
Buran - a spaceship that went down in history
The first spacecraft to go into space was Vostok. Afterwards, the USSR Rocket Science Federation began producing Soyuz spacecraft. Much later, Clippers and Russ began to be produced. The federation has great hopes for all these manned projects.
In 1960, the Vostok spacecraft proved the possibility of manned space travel. On April 12, 1961, Vostok 1 orbited the Earth. But the question of who flew on the Vostok 1 ship for some reason causes difficulty. Maybe the fact is that we simply don’t know that Gagarin made his first flight on this ship? In the same year, the Vostok 2 spacecraft went into orbit for the first time, carrying two cosmonauts at once, one of whom went beyond the ship in space. It was progress. And already in 1965, Voskhod 2 was able to go into outer space. The story of the ship Voskhod 2 was filmed.
Vostok 3 set a new world record for the time a ship spent in space. The last ship in the series was Vostok 6.
The American Apollo series shuttle opened new horizons. After all, in 1968, Apollo 11 was the first to land on the Moon. Today there are several projects to develop spaceplanes of the future, such as Hermes and Columbus.
Salyut is a series of interorbital space stations of the Soviet Union. Salyut 7 is famous for being a wreck.
The next spacecraft whose history is of interest is Buran, by the way, I wonder where it is now. In 1988 he made his first and last flight. After repeated dismantling and transportation, Buran's route of movement was lost. The known last location of the spacecraft Buranv Sochi, work on it is mothballed. However, the storm around this project has not yet subsided, and the further fate of the abandoned Buran project is of interest to many. And in Moscow, an interactive museum complex has been created inside a model of the Buran spaceship at VDNKh.
Gemini is a series of ships designed by American designers. They replaced the Mercury project and were able to make a spiral in orbit.
American ships called Space Shuttle became a kind of shuttles, making more than 100 flights between objects. The second Space Shuttle was Challenger.
One cannot help but be interested in the history of the planet Nibiru, which is recognized as a supervisory ship. Nibiru has already approached the Earth at a dangerous distance twice, but both times a collision was avoided.
Dragon is a spacecraft that was supposed to fly to the planet Mars in 2018. In 2014, the federation, citing the technical characteristics and condition of the Dragon ship, postponed the launch. Not long ago, another event occurred: the Boeing company made a statement that it had also begun development of a Mars rover.
The first universal reusable spacecraft in history was to be an apparatus called Zarya. Zarya is the first development of a reusable transport ship, on which the federation had very high hopes.
The possibility of using nuclear installations in space is considered a breakthrough. For these purposes, work has begun on a transport and energy module. In parallel, development is underway on the Prometheus project, a compact nuclear reactor for rockets and spacecraft.
China's Shenzhou 11 launched in 2016 with two astronauts expected to spend 33 days in space.
Spacecraft speed (km/h)
The minimum speed with which one can enter orbit around the Earth is considered to be 8 km/s. Today there is no need to develop the fastest ship in the world, since we are at the very beginning of outer space. After all, the maximum height that we could reach in space is only 500 km. The record for the fastest movement in space was set in 1969, and so far it has not been broken. On the Apollo 10 spacecraft, three astronauts, having orbited the Moon, were returning home. The capsule that was supposed to deliver them from the flight managed to reach a speed of 39.897 km/h. For comparison, let's look at how fast the space station is traveling. It can reach a maximum speed of 27,600 km/h.
Abandoned spaceships
Today, a cemetery in the Pacific Ocean has been created for spaceships that have fallen into disrepair, where dozens of abandoned spaceships can find their final refuge. Spaceship disasters
Disasters happen in space, often taking lives. The most common, oddly enough, are accidents that occur due to collisions with space debris. When a collision occurs, the object's orbit shifts and causes crash and damage, often resulting in an explosion. The most famous disaster is the death of the American manned spacecraft Challenger.
Nuclear propulsion for spacecraft 2017
Today, scientists are working on projects to create a nuclear electric motor. These developments involve the conquest of space using photonic engines. Russian scientists plan to begin testing a thermonuclear engine in the near future.
Spaceships of Russia and the USA
Rapid interest in space arose during the Cold War between the USSR and the USA. American scientists recognized their Russian colleagues as worthy rivals. Soviet rocketry continued to develop, and after the collapse of the state, Russia became its successor. Of course, the spacecraft that Russian cosmonauts fly on are significantly different from the first ships. Moreover, today, thanks to the successful developments of American scientists, spaceships have become reusable.
Spaceships of the future
Today, projects that will allow humanity to travel longer are of increasing interest. Modern developments are already preparing ships for interstellar expeditions.
Place from where spaceships are launched
Seeing a spacecraft launch at the launch pad with your own eyes is the dream of many. This may be due to the fact that the first launch does not always lead to the desired result. But thanks to the Internet, we can see the ship take off. Given the fact that those watching the launch of a manned spacecraft should be quite far away, we can imagine that we are on the take-off platform.
Spaceship: what is it like inside?
Today, thanks to museum exhibits, we can see with our own eyes the structure of ships such as the Soyuz. Of course, the first ships were very simple from the inside. The interior of more modern options is designed in soothing colors. The structure of any spaceship necessarily frightens us with many levers and buttons. And this adds pride to those who were able to remember how the ship works, and, moreover, learned to control it.
What spaceships are they flying on now?
New spaceships with their appearance confirm that science fiction has become reality. Today, no one will be surprised by the fact that spacecraft docking is a reality. And few people remember that the first such docking in the world took place back in 1967...
The instrument panel of Yu. A. Gagarin's Vostok-1 ship. Central Museum of the Armed Forces, Moscow
The total mass of the spacecraft reached 4.73 tons, the length (without antennas) was 4.4 m, and the maximum diameter was 2.43 m.
The ship consisted of a spherical descent module (weighing 2.46 tons and a diameter of 2.3 m) also serving as an orbital compartment and a conical instrument compartment (weighing 2.27 tons and a maximum diameter of 2.43 m). Thermal protection weight is from 1.3 tons to 1.5 tons. The compartments were mechanically connected to each other using metal bands and pyrotechnic locks. The ship was equipped with systems: automatic and manual control, automatic orientation to the Sun, manual orientation to the Earth, life support (designed to maintain an internal atmosphere close in its parameters to the Earth’s atmosphere for 10 days), command and logic control, power supply, thermal control and landing . To support tasks related to human work in outer space, the ship was equipped with autonomous and radiotelemetric equipment for monitoring and recording parameters characterizing the state of the astronaut, structure and systems, ultrashort-wave and short-wave equipment for two-way radiotelephone communication between the astronaut and ground stations, a command radio line, a software-time device, a television system with two transmitting cameras for monitoring the astronaut from Earth, a radio system for monitoring orbital parameters and direction finding of the ship, a TDU-1 braking propulsion system and other systems.
The weight of the spacecraft together with the last stage of the launch vehicle was 6.17 tons, and their combined length was 7.35 m.
When developing the descent vehicle, the designers chose an axisymmetric spherical shape as the most well studied and having stable aerodynamic characteristics for all ranges of angles of attack at different speeds. This solution made it possible to provide an acceptable mass of thermal protection for the device and implement the simplest ballistic scheme for descent from orbit. At the same time, the choice of the ballistic descent scheme determined the high overloads that the person working on board the ship had to experience.
The descent vehicle had two windows, one of which was located on the entrance hatch, just above the astronaut’s head, and the other, equipped with a special orientation system, in the floor at his feet. The astronaut, dressed in a spacesuit, was placed in a special ejection seat. At the last stage of landing, after braking the descent vehicle in the atmosphere, at an altitude of 7 km, the astronaut ejected from the cabin and landed by parachute. In addition, provision was made for the astronaut to land inside the descent vehicle. The descent vehicle had its own parachute, but was not equipped with the means to perform a soft landing, which threatened the person remaining in it with serious injury during a joint landing.
The equipment of the Vostok ships was made as simple as possible. The return maneuver was usually handled by an automatic command transmitted by radio from Earth. Infrared sensors were used to orient the ship horizontally. Alignment along the orbital axis was performed using stellar and solar orientation sensors.
If the automatic systems failed, the astronaut could switch to manual control. This was possible through the use of the original optical orientation device “Vzor” installed on the cabin floor. A ring-shaped mirror zone was placed on the porthole, and arrows were placed on a special matte screen indicating the direction of displacement of the earth's surface. When the spacecraft was correctly oriented relative to the horizon, all eight mirror zone sights were illuminated by the sun. Observation of the earth's surface through the central part of the screen (“Earth run”) made it possible to determine the direction of flight.
Another device helped the astronaut decide when to begin the return maneuver - a small globe with a clock mechanism, which showed the current position of the ship above the Earth. Knowing the starting point of the position, it was possible to determine the location of the upcoming landing with relative accuracy.
This manual system could only be used in the illuminated part of the orbit. At night, the Earth could not be observed through the “Gaze”. The automatic attitude control system had to be able to operate at any time.
The Vostok spacecraft were not suitable for human flights to the Moon, and also did not allow the possibility of flight by people who had not undergone special training. This was largely due to the design of the ship's descent module, affectionately called Ball. The spherical shape of the descent vehicle did not provide for the use of attitude control engines. The device was like a ball, the main weight of which was concentrated in one part, thus, when moving along a ballistic trajectory, it automatically turned with the heavy part down. Ballistic descent meant an eight-fold overload when returning from Earth orbit and a twenty-fold overload when returning from the Moon. A similar ballistic device was the Mercury capsule; The Gemini, Apollo and Soyuz ships, due to their shape and shifted center of gravity, made it possible to reduce the overloads experienced (3 G for returning from low-Earth orbit and 8 G when returning from the Moon), and had sufficient maneuverability to change the landing point.
The Soviet ships Vostok and Voskhod, like the American Mercury, were not able to perform orbital maneuvers, allowing only rotations about the main axes. There was no provision for restarting the propulsion system; it was used only for the purpose of performing a return braking maneuver. However, Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, before starting the development of the Soyuz, considered the possibility of creating a maneuverable Vostok. This project involved docking the ship with special booster modules, which in the future would make it possible to use it in a mission to fly around the Moon. Later, the idea of a maneuverable version of the Vostok spacecraft was implemented in the Zenit reconnaissance satellites and specialized Foton satellites.
Pilots of the Vostok spacecraft