In addition, even the Falcon rocket, after so many years of development, the first-stage rocket body recovered from its landing needs to be repaired and some parts replaced before being reused.
This time usually takes half a month to a month, but Haoyu Technology can reuse and launch within ten days. Does this mean that this compound landing and recovery technology of parachute and engine is more reliable and advanced.
Then there is the payload of this launch. Of these two launches, one was to launch two communication satellites, and the other was to launch a heavy experimental satellite.
The weight of a single communication satellite has reached more than one ton. The weight of the heavy-duty satellite has not been announced to the public, but there is news that the weight of this satellite has reached six tons. This also means that the thrust of this Jianmu-2 rocket has been greatly increased.
Even the one used this time should not be the original version of the Jianmu-2 recyclable rocket, but the improved model Jianmu-2! Recoverable launch vehicle.
However, this news has not been confirmed by Haoyu Aerospace and Haoyu Technology. However, many people found a lot of differences when comparing the rocket body in the launch video and the recovery video, so they confirmed this statement.
If it were just this, it wouldn't be enough to attract so many people's attention.
During these two launches, Haoyu Aerospace also conducted rocket fairing recovery tests.
You know, currently only the Falcon rocket is conducting research experiments on fairing recovery, and has achieved good results.
However, the fairing recovery technology of the Falcon rocket is not always successful. It often happens that only half of the fairing is recovered, and the other half falls into the sea and cannot be recovered.
This time, Haoyu Technology’s two rocket launch missions both conducted fairing recovery tests.
In the first recovery test, after the two halves of the fairing fell, only half was successfully recovered, while the other half fell into the vast desert and was seriously damaged.
As for the second recycling test, both halves of the fairing were successfully recycled. Such a high success rate has made the entire industry excited.
Similar to the recovery method of the Falcon rocket's fairing, the two halves of the Jianmu-2 fairing will also slide to a predetermined area after falling off and separating, and a paraglider will also be thrown to slow down and control the direction of the slide. .
But the difference is that when the Falcon rocket finally landed, the unmanned boat below supported a large net to catch the landing fairing.
This is like precise docking. The landing point and speed of the fairing must be controlled. At the same time, the speed of the unmanned boat must be controlled so that the fairing and the unmanned boat can successfully dock.
And what about the Jianmu-2 rocket fairing? There is no such unmanned boat prepared, and there is no mobile receiving platform.
Wu Hao and the others adopted another simpler and more convenient recycling method.
Directly in the process of the fairing sliding down in the air? A helicopter is used to recover it.
To put it simply, the helicopter must first hover at the edge of the area where the rocket fairing is about to slide down and wait.
After discovering the fairing, the helicopter flew over quickly, and then used the hook rope hoisted under the helicopter to hang the paraglider on the fairing? Thus the entire fairing was hung.
Then a helicopter will transport the fairing to a predetermined location and drop it off? The recovery is successful.
Unlike the rocket body, although the fairing is relatively large, it is light enough. It is also because it is light enough that it lays the foundation for the use of helicopter aerial capture and hoisting recovery technology.
The fairing is located at the top of the rocket to protect the rocket payload from harmful environmental effects such as aerodynamics, aerodynamic heating and acoustic vibration.
After reaching a sufficient altitude, usually after the booster and first-stage rocket body fall off? After flying for a period of time, the fairing will automatically fall off.
This also requires that the fairing must be light enough in addition to being strong, because every gram of weight on the rocket will affect the final carrying capacity of the rocket.
So don’t think it’s just a protective shell, but it’s actually very difficult and demanding to manufacture, which also makes it more expensive.
The price of the Falcon rocket fairing is about one million US dollars. If divided equally, half of it is about half a million US dollars.
The manufacturing price and raw material price of the two halves of Jianmu-2's fairing add up to about one million yuan. Although it is far less than the price of the Falcon rocket's fairing, it is still very expensive.
And if this recycling technology can be successful, these two halves of fairings can save them one million yuan in cost, which is a very cost-effective deal.
Moreover, this recycling method is far simpler and more reliable than the Falcon rocket fairing recycling method, and the cost is cheaper.
This news suddenly made the entire aerospace technology field lively. Many rocket load transportation experts affirmed and spoke very highly of this fairing recovery technology.
On the other hand, bolder ideas have also been proposed.
For example, some experts have put forward such an idea or suggestion. Since the fairing can be recycled in this way, can the first-stage and second-stage rocket bodies of the rocket also be recycled in this way?
You should know that the current recovery technology of both the Falcon rocket and the Jianmu-2 rocket uses rocket engines to decelerate.
This method has higher technical requirements for rockets, and the cost will naturally be higher. But if this method of helicopter aerial capture and transportation is used to recover these rocket bodies, the rocket technology difficulty and recovery cost will be greatly reduced.
Anyway, after the rocket is launched and then separated, the fuel in the rocket body will basically be consumed, so the weight of the empty rocket body is not too heavy.
It shouldn't be a problem to use a parachute to slow down and then use a heavy helicopter to capture and transport it in the air.
And if one heavy helicopter fails, multiple heavy helicopters can be used to capture and transport them together.
Experts even proposed using multiple helicopters to pull up a net in the sky, and then use this net to catch the landing rocket's first- and second-stage fairings.
In this way, 90% of the rocket body can be partially recycled and reused, which will greatly reduce the launch and transportation costs of the launch vehicle and lay a solid foundation for human beings to use space on a large scale.
Since the first-stage, second-stage body and first-stage fairing of the rocket have been recovered, why is it only 90% and not all?
Generally, inside the fairing of a rocket, there is actually a first-level transport device. This first-level device is generally called the upper stage, and is used to transport satellites for orbit changes and to send satellites to precise orbits.
In addition, upper stages will also be used when launching some high-orbit satellites and spacecrafts.
Once this upper stage is used, it will fall into the atmosphere and burn, and is basically non-recyclable.
However, the cost of the upper stage generally only accounts for a very small part of the cost of the entire rocket, so it does not have much recovery value. Moreover, it has to pass through the entire atmosphere, so recycling is very difficult and costly, so there is no need to recycle it. Even before Wu Hao's new recycling technology, almost all secondary rocket bodies were non-recyclable.
