Dragon spacecraft's "pocket capabilities"
Aerospace construction has now become the focus of development in my country's space field.
With the successful return of the last batch of astronauts, the launch of Shenzhou 14 has once again brought a new team on the journey.
The focus of this mission is still to build the Tiangong Space Station and core module using . During the
mission, the astronauts will also conduct docking tasks in the experimental module and Mengtian experimental module .
A new round of plans will complete the final form of the Tiangong Space Station in the future.
The Tiangong Space Station is gradually taking shape.
After the astronauts' mission is completed, the Tiangong Space Station will remain in a long-term operational state. my country's future aerospace construction will enter the third stage.
In short, now we just need to wait patiently.
We have looked at the continuous development of our motherland in the space field time and time again. At the same time, we can also see the construction of European and American countries in the aerospace field.
Of course, when talking about the aerospace program, we have to mention the United States. However, in addition to NASA, the United States has strong support from Congress in aerospace.
The classic logo of NASA. On the other hand, the commercial space program is also in rapid progress. The most well-known among them is Elon Musk Space
As Musk’s most proud commercial product , the Dragon spacecraft has now been seen by the world.
Even private companies can have the opportunity to develop their own aerospace and carry out commercial aviation services .
Comparing the two, whether in terms of comprehensive performance or scientific exploration, the National Space Administration is still the most secure spacecraft.
But one thing may be discovered by friends who are good at thinking, that is, SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft has excellent recovery capabilities, and it can carry 47 people into space at one time.
The working Dragon spacecraft
In comparison, National Aeronautics and Space Administration seems to be a bit eclipsed in the general manned program .
Why can an ordinary commercial spacecraft be able to carry more people than the spacecraft that the country spent a lot of money to build?
In fact, this question can be solved from many aspects, but the key to the problem is:
Why is the gap between the two in terms of manpower so obvious? The itself may have to start from the perspective of commercial .
A business tycoon who sat in the Dragon spacecraft and experienced it
SpaceX has a short history of developing commercial spacecraft , but the development time has started from 2004 .
After the early construction of the Crew Dragon spacecraft received support from NASA, its focus was on commercial operations. After
completed the relevant commercial agreement cooperation, SpaceX's early commercial supply service was replaced by space shuttle commercial orbital transportation service .
The Dragon spacecraft is a very critical item in the plan.
NASA’s commercial project
Since it is a rocket for commercial transportation, the propulsion power is naturally much greater.
The Dragon spacecraft is powered by SpaceX’s own Falcon 9 rocket .
arrived in 2010, and after NASA approved the commercial transportation of the Dragon spacecraft, Musk started his own space business path.
The evolution of the manned capsule
Judging from the status of SpaceX operating for so many years, the Falcon 9 heavy rocket ensures that the spacecraft has enough power and can send multiple people into space.
The recyclable Dragon spacecraft has made progress in commercial manned spaceflight .
But one problem we need to pay attention to is that the number of people can carry does not mean that the spacecraft is very capable.
Unmanned operation of the Dragon spacecraft
Perhaps it is too simple to say that there is no clear comparison. In fact, we can simulate and compare from previous manned spacecraft.
Manned spaceflight has developed rapidly since achieved breakthroughs during the Cold War.
Starting from and in the 1960s, many European and American countries such as the Soviet Union and the United States have produced their own manned aircraft.
The Soviet Union's Vostok space capsule is mankind's first manned spacecraft . Its overall structural design is very retro, and the overall plan has been used for 40 years.
Its shadow can be seen to some extent in the manned space capsules of other countries.
The design of the Vostok manned cabin
The re-entry cabin is covered with ablative insulation material , which can effectively prevent the people inside from turning into barbecue.
The front cover part of the space capsule has a nose cone, which can maintain a low drag profile when the capsule is launched. The longitudinal axis of
is completely perpendicular to the space capsule.
In addition, the space capsule also has attitude control thrusters , which are mainly based on module design. The entire module will be discarded immediately before re-entry.
However, the Soviet manned space program was in the experimental stage at this time, so only Gagarin entered the space capsule at that time.
The attitude controller can adjust the satellite position
Later Vostok was modified, the improved space capsule allowed multiple astronauts to enter the space capsule.
At this time, the manned cabin part can accommodate 3 astronauts sitting side by side, or only carry two astronauts. There will be an inflatable lock between the astronauts to allow them to carry out extravehicular activities.
cabin design , the cylindrical inner cabin has a wider rectangular cabin.
As a result, the manned capacity of the Vostok has increased, but it has also become bulkier.
And to ensure that the cabin environment is relatively comfortable, the electrical and environmental systems of the device require air cooling for heat dissipation. Complete decompression will cause overheating.
The space capsule that landed on the sea
However, after completing these designs, the Vostok will discard the 250-kilogram airlock when entering the re-entry stage.
This means that astronauts must wear spacesuits when returning to prevent damage caused by decompression in the cabin during descent.
Its landing uses a parachute for a soft landing , and there will be a small solid fuel rocket on the landing line.
This can provide a better landing effect for the capsule when it descends close to the ground.
Basically, all future space capsule designs are based on this design as blueprint . After the United States' Mercury Project started, manned spaceflight did not seem to be a big problem.
However, the United States' manned spacecraft must start from the 1960s . Gemini and the Apollo program promoted the development of manned space capsules.
Gemini cockpit interior view showing
The Road to Space Business
During the Gemini program, NASA designed a space manned capsule with an adapter.
To put it simply, the cabin is not only the manned cabin part, the adapter on the head of the cabin can be assembled more personalizedly.
and then in the Apollo program. Apollo's lunar module can be said to be an epoch-making work. The
cabin still adopts a tapered design and has a module with greater thrust.
The entire space capsule allows three astronauts to enter the capsule for work, and the design adopted in the capsule was the most advanced solution at the time.
The cabin of the Apollo program appeared more advanced
Later, as NASA pushed the space program to further space exploration, the Apollo space capsule was superior to previous space capsules in all aspects.
Before entering modern space construction, the personnel configuration inside the space capsule did not change much.
First of all, consider that space missions do not require too many astronauts to participate , and the shift system can replace astronauts regularly.
Compared with later commercial launch flights, carrying people on a spacecraft is more of an experience.
Space missions do not require too many people.
At the same time, in terms of structural design, even the Dragon spacecraft only adopted NASA's early manned solution .
If it weren't for the very strong propulsion power of Falcon 9 , the Dragon spacecraft would not have allowed so many people to take off.
In addition, several important aspects are that the flight trajectory of the Dragon spacecraft does not reach the working height of the astronauts. The orbit of
commercial manned spacecraft is only in suborbital space and it has not really entered the space environment .
From this aspect, Dragon Spaceship has already lost.
Manned space flight has never been based on the number of people, but more importantly for scientific exploration and space construction .
After the space station was later developed, astronauts could live on it, so there was no need to carry too many personnel .
On the one hand, reduces the carrying pressure , on the other hand, also reduces the carrying risk.
Today's new generation of space capsules are mainly based on the American Orion and China's new generation manned spacecraft.
Although China’s new generation of spacecraft has not yet officially debuted, the prototype test flight in May 2020 has shown that the new generation of spacecraft is about to be completed.
The expected new spacecraft
The new space capsule has a larger carrier and consists of two modules, the return capsule and the life support module . It can carry up to 46 astronauts, or 3 astronauts and 500 kilograms of cargo.
Since the commercial transportation of needs to consider the cost issue , , so the more goods can be transported at one time, the better .
It is out of this consideration that the development direction of commercial transportation is different from conventional manned transportation .
If you also need to consider subsequent related services, such as astronaut life support and the carrying of various consumables.
Then it is not as simple as 7 people entering space.
Dragon spacecraft cargo test
However, judging from the current business development situation, future commercial transportation rockets have very broad prospects.
Dragon spacecraft has provided many space companies with some ideas and future plans.
