The modification work of Hongyan rocket officially started in July.
The first thing to start is the escape system.
This part of the Hongyan No. 1 was not originally available, so Zhang Xingyang and the others could only learn from the design of the Long 2F for the design of the escape system.
The design of the long 2F upper escape system is relatively conservative, using a top escape tower design.
It consists of three parts, namely the tower, escape engine and separation engine.
The escape engine and separation engine both use solid rocket motors.
In fact, among the manned rockets that have been put into use and have not been retired, only the United spacecraft of the Mao family has adopted an escape system design.
The escape tower can ensure the safety of astronauts from 15 minutes before take-off to 120 seconds after take-off.
During the entire process, once the rocket's fault detection and processing system finds a problem, it will immediately start the separation engine on the escape tower, allowing the spacecraft's orbital module and return module to separate from the rocket and land in a safe zone.
Help the astronauts on the spacecraft out of danger as soon as possible!
"Brother Xingyang, their solid engine performance doesn't seem to be very good?"
Geng Bo said while looking at the separation engine under the escape tower in front of him and flipping through the performance report in his hand.
For escape towers, it is important to separate the performance of the engine.
Because when the escape tower is escaping, it separates the entire escape tower from the tip of the rocket by separating the engine.
If the performance of the separation engine is not very good, it is easy for the separation distance to be too small during the ejection process.
If the launch vehicle explodes at this time, it will easily pose a fatal threat to the astronauts in the escape tower.
For example, if the separation engine can only eject the escape tower to a distance of less than one thousand meters after starting, the explosion of the rocket at this time will still cause fatal damage to the astronauts in the escape tower.
Therefore, the performance of the separation engine is a very important indicator for the escape system.
The separation engine on the Chang 2F can indeed meet the requirements for the escape tower during separation.
However, for the sake of greater safety, Geng Bo proposed to Zhang Xingyang to improve the separation solid engine of the escape tower.
"In fact, we don't need to carry out other modifications. We only need to slightly modify the fuel agent."
The solid fuel agent currently used on Chang 2F is hydrogenated carbon-based, and the thrust generated under the same conditions is still smaller than the high-nitrogen anion salt developed by the Rocket Research Institute.
"Although the high-nitrogen anion salts we produced before have better performance, they have higher requirements for storage and transportation conditions."
"Once any problem occurs during transportation or storage, a violent explosion will occur."
Zhang Xingyang did not agree with changing the solid fuel agent of the separation engine.
The manned rocket engine is not like the cargo rocket engine they developed before. The biggest pursuit is to increase the thrust of the rocket engine as much as possible.
Manned rockets pay more attention to safety issues, and the biggest requirement is to ensure the safety of astronauts in manned rockets.
After all, every astronaut in the Dragon Kingdom was hard-earned, and it was impossible for them to sacrifice casually.
Compared with Dragon Kingdom, Yingjiang's current spaceship has reached another extreme.
None of the spacecraft they used was equipped with an escape system. They believed that the spacecraft developed by this company was very safe and did not need an escape system.
A decade ago, the Challenger spacecraft exploded just over a minute after liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center, killing seven astronauts.
At that time, the "Challenger" did not have any escape system installed. After the crisis was discovered by the ground command center, they had no way to save the astronauts on it.
If they had had a reliable enough escape system, the accident that killed seven astronauts might have been avoided.
"The engine on the escape tower needs to be added to a certain extent, and a yaw control engine must be installed so that it can turn in time after the escape tower is separated."
After Zhang Xingyang looked at the design on the escape tower, he said to Geng Bo.
"The current escape engine cannot turn immediately after it is started, so there is a certain risk."
Because after the separation engine is started, the escape tower and the launch vehicle fly along the same track, and because the rocket propulsion system is still working, the launch vehicle is still accelerating.
In order to prevent the escape tower from colliding with the launch vehicle, a yaw control engine must be installed on the escape tower to allow the escape tower to deviate from the rocket's flight path.
"Will this cause too many engines?"
"The complexity of the entire control system will increase exponentially!"
Although Geng Bo agrees with Zhang Xingyang's consideration from a safety perspective, doing so is not without its drawbacks.
If another set of yaw steering engines is added, there will be 5 types and 12 engines in the entire escape system!
The high-altitude escape engine and high-altitude separation engine on the fairing, the escape engine, separation engine, and yaw control engine on the escape tower.
Two different escape methods are adopted, namely separation with escape tower and separation without escape tower.
If before the rocket flies for 120 seconds, the power for separation of the escape tower comes from the separation engine on the escape tower; after 120 seconds of flight, the power for separation of the rocket without an escape tower comes from the high-altitude separation engine on the fairing.
To be honest, Geng Bo felt his scalp go numb just thinking about such a complicated escape system.
He could only mutter silently in his heart, hoping that Qin Ming, who was responsible for the design and development of the control system, would stop scolding his mother.
Of course, at this time, Qin Ming still didn't know what kind of complex system he would face next.
At this time, he was still worrying about the fault detection and processing system!
"Even if the difficulty of the control system is increased to the highest level, the lives of our astronauts must be protected!"
"Geng Bo, you should also know how valuable astronauts are!"
Zhang Xingyang's tone was stern, but what he said was also true.
For the nascent manned space industry, every astronaut is a hard-won treasure!
Geng Bo didn't say much at this time. Instead, he looked at the almost completely dismantled escape tower in front of him and said with some emotion:
"Shenzhou-1, our own manned spacecraft, I really look forward to the day when it flies into space!"
The Chinese people’s space dream, which started hundreds of years ago when tens of thousands of households flew into the sky, will finally be realized in the hands of our generation.
We are based on the earth, but we always yearn for the stars.
(End of chapter)
