text/Hanqing
Yesterday was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and I don’t know if all the little oranges have accompanied their families to eat mooncakes.
The bureau seat didn't go out to roam. The moon was so good last night. The bureau seat took a newspaper and looked at it on the balcony. The lights were not turned on, and basically the big words on the newspaper could still be clearly seen.
(Photo from: NASA)
Unconsciously remembered a past story: In 2001, the bureau was studying at the Royal Academy of Military Sciences, and it was August 15th. The bureau director was sitting on the school lawn reading English newspapers. More than ten years have passed.
In the 1960s and 1970s, at that time, the United States and the Soviet Union were competing for hegemony, and both sides competed in the aerospace field. The Soviet Union took the lead in sending astronaut Gagarin to space, opening a new era for mankind to explore the universe. The United States has a strong sense of crisis. How can exploring the stars and seas allow its competitors to take the lead?
The United States also spent 1/5 of its total research funding to build an Apollo Program, more than 200 universities + more than 80 scientific research institutions + 20,000 supporting enterprises, and 300,000 scientists and engineers all invested in this project, which also created a miracle in human history.
The logo of the Apollo project (Photo from: NASA)
July 20, 1969 Armstrong took the famous "a big step for mankind". From Apollo 1 to Apollo 17 , 12 human astronauts landed on the moon, and some astronauts paid the price of their lives for the journey of the stars and seas.
(Photo from: NASA)
Many countries, such as Japan and India, can launch rockets themselves and send satellite into their predetermined orbit, but it is not possible to carry out manned space flight by themselves. This is a very difficult project. As for sending people to the moon? It is even more difficult. ． ． ． ． ．
The progress of China's aerospace industry in recent years is obvious to everyone. We are breaking through projects with high thresholds such as manned space flight, Beidou satellite networking, space stations, etc., but there is a bottleneck that cannot be avoided, that is, heavy rocket !
What is the rank of China's heavy rockets
China's current rocket with the strongest carrying capacity is "Long March 5". Because of its large size and thick waist, netizens nicknamed it " Fat Five ". Its core stage is tied to four boosters, each of which is equipped with two of the most advanced YF-100 liquid oxygen kerosene rocket engines .
In July 2017, the "Fat Five" launch failed in Hainan Wenchang Launch Center. It fell into the Pacific. The success rate of other rockets in the Long March series is very high. In recent years, it has rarely heard of launch failures, and our "Fat Five" is not yet mature and stable.
Strictly speaking, it cannot be considered a "heavy rocket", because there is a hidden rule in the international community: the rocket's take-off thrust must reach 3,500 tons, and the low-Earth orbit LEO (low Earth orbit) carrying capacity must reach 100 tons. This is why it is qualified to be called a "heavy rocket". We are far from reaching this standard. The " Heavy Falcon " rocket launched by Musk Space-X before also fails to meet this requirement. What is the status of the "Fat Five" in the world,
launch vehicle, what is the status of the launch vehicle ?
The following table can give you an intuitive feeling: the "Saturn V" used by the American Apollo moon landing plan in the table, as well as the Soviet N1 rocket and Energy rockets, have been discontinued, and the production lines have been removed, and they will not be rebuilt, and have become the ultimate sound of history.
"Saturn V" launch (Photo from: NASA)
And Musk was clamoring for a while ago to go on a lunar journey, and the Japanese tycoon also paid for the down payment. This trip was made using the BFR rocket that Space-X is developing.
From the table, we can see that "Fat Five" can only be said to be at the forefront of the world, and the gap from the world's top level is still huge. This must be clearly seen.
Long March Nine is comparable to Saturn V?
China is also developing other models of rockets simultaneously, such as the "Long March 9", which has been hyped up by the media, especially foreign media recently.
Some aerospace industry insiders revealed in public that the LEO capacity of the "Long March 9" is equivalent to that of the "Saturn V" rocket, both of which are 140 tons. SpaceX's "Falcon Heavy" launch vehicle LEO capacity is 63 tons, which was completely destroyed by the "Long March 9". In the future, Space-X's BFR rocket will only have a low-orbit carrying capacity of 100 tons, which is also not as good as that.
BFR rocket concept map (pictured from: Space-X)
and even the Space Launch System (SLS) launch vehicle being built by NASA. The near-Earth orbit payloads of Block1, Block1B and Block2 are 70 tons, 105 tons and 130 tons, respectively, all lower than the "Long March 9".
Let’s enjoy the scene of the large-scale war:
The American "Popular Machinery" website reported: Long March 9 is better than the "Saturn V" used by the American Apollo moon landing program back then. AFP said that China's "Long March 9" rocket surpassed NASA and had a payload of 7 times that of European Rockets. The report was cited by media websites such as the Times of India and the British " Daily Mail ".
The most hates brainless praising things that are not yet visible. This thing is the best in the world, and that thing is invincible in the world. From our aircraft carriers to our electromagnetic catapults, our electromagnetic guns, the media often do not calmly and objectively enough when describing these projects.
The first flight of the Long March 9 is expected to be in 2028-2030, which is still far away and is still in the project concept stage. Moreover, the heavy rocket's high-thrust engine has not yet been landed. The engineering prototype is still under development, and only some forgings have made breakthroughs.
In fact, the big thrust engine is the biggest bottleneck in the heavy rocket project. This thing has been stuck for a long time. Its threshold is quite high and puts forward great requirements for a country's comprehensive industrial strength. It requires continuous spending of money and time to settle down. It is not a matter of success in one go.
Russian RD-180 rocket engine The United States has also been "bottled" (Photo from: Russian Satellite News Agency)
To give the simplest example, the YF-100 rocket engine used in our "Fat Five" has increased its thrust by more than 60% compared to the engines used in the Long March series of rockets, which is a great improvement.
But now is not the time to be proud and complacent after achieving some achievements, and you cannot be confused by the "strategic fooling" at home and abroad.
The United States Apollo moon landing program, Saturn V rocket, what happened in the 1960s and 1970s. Its first-stage F1 rocket engine has a sea level thrust of 6770KN.
F1 rocket engine (Photo from: NASA)
Russia's very powerful RD-180 rocket engine has a sea level thrust of 3830KN; while the YF-100 used in China's "Fat Five" has a sea level thrust of only 1200KN, which is 1/3 of Russia and 1/6 of the United States.
Only by objectively seeing the gap and maintaining a clear mind can we move forward better. There is no intention to belittle China's aerospace industry progress here, just discuss the matter.
We do have a long way to go in the field of aerospace, especially in the engine. The engine construction and principles of aircraft, rockets, missiles, tanks, ships, and automobiles are very different, but there are also many things that are connected. Once we have overcome this hurdle, it will be very huge for the improvements in materials science, precision processing, manufacturing technology and other fields, which will produce a series of chain reactions.
Come on, China!
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