I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

"The Aramco Dream Chaser space shuttle completed its first unmanned full flight, staying in space for 24 hours and returning to the ground."

"Sierra Nevada Corporation: It will conduct another unmanned full-state flight in November and the first manned flight in December, which will use a reusable Falcon 9 rocket."

"Musk will add two offshore recovery platforms to provide high-frequency support for the manned launch of the Dream Chaser space shuttle."

"ABC: Aramco has a space shuttle again, and NACA is leading Aramco back to the top."

"The island country India wants to jointly develop the super-heavy rocket 'Asia Star' for lunar landing, and will send astronauts from both countries to the lunar surface in 2020."

On October 12, the space shuttle Dream Chaser landed on the runway of the Kennedy Space Center. After a lapse of five years, the space shuttle landed here again.

The Dream Chaser, which has a relatively mature design, basically had no accidents during this flight. The four dummies were in very good condition throughout the flight and were fully capable of carrying out manned launch missions.

Director Claire praised the Dream Chaser’s research and development team and made the decision that the Dream Chaser will be ready for its first manned flight after one more unmanned flight.

As a space shuttle with a dry weight that is much heavier than a spacecraft, it is indeed remarkable that the Dream Chaser can fit 9 people into a space with a maximum take-off mass of no more than 15 tons. Every part is pursuing lightweighting.

Of course, there are some slight imperfections, that is, the manufacturing cost of the first Dream Chaser B1 was overrun by 35%. Fortunately, this is a routine operation. As long as things fly, Congress will not care about such a small amount of money.

And the Dream Chaser did not cost much money as a small space shuttle. The large space shuttle is the gold-eating beast.

After the FATS program, the Space Shuttle Endeavor at the Kennedy Space Center has been modified at the Boeing 747 factory for two months.

Although there is no nuclear engine suitable for it yet, the nuclear engine team has only been formed for a month. They are sorting out the research materials left over at the Air Force Base in the Nevada desert. It will definitely take next year to straighten out the technical route for development.

However, don’t worry too much about the progress. The eight different types of nuclear engines manufactured that year all have technical data and even finished products preserved. Even if they were based on their performance at the time, they could be used by the Endeavor. After recovery, the progress will definitely be rapid.

On the contrary, it was very troublesome to carry the aircraft. Boeing engineers first removed all the insulation tiles. This is backward technology and must be replaced with newer, lighter, more durable, and larger insulation tiles.

Then there is the interior, which also needs to be completely dismantled. After dismantling the body with only an empty shell, it is necessary to continue to remove the internal pipelines and replace them with new ones. This is more troublesome than making a new body.

Boeing is very clear: Unless it wants to send seven more people to die, Endeavor's first test flight will never be earlier than July 2017.

The insulation tiles are removed from the outside, the interior trim is removed from the inside, and the pipelines are removed from the middle. Even the landing gear needs to be replaced with a new one. The only body that may remain unchanged needs to be overhauled and key parts replaced. Because the nuclear engine is very heavy, the center of gravity must be reconsidered. and changes in the direction of structural strength application.

The Endeavor has almost been completely changed inside and out, and it’s hard to relate to the Endeavor of 1992.

In order to do this, Boeing asked for US$3.5 billion.

Half of the money was used to share the research and development expenses of other manufacturers. Many manufacturers that originally produced parts for the space shuttle have gone bankrupt, and the technical data are naturally missing, so they need to start over.

NACA knew it was a waste of money, but it couldn't do anything, because those companies that collapsed were not state-owned enterprises, and they had no need to keep their core technologies in NACA's archives.

So it is often said that NACA cannot build the Saturn V. It may be true. Although NACA has most of the main designs, if the outsourcing manufacturers are no longer there, those technologies will definitely have to be developed from scratch.

But in general, the FATS and NSTS plans are progressing more quickly and smoothly, unlike the Artemis plan, which has frequent problems.

This time it is not a problem with the SLS rocket. SLS is currently making good progress and can make its first flight in time. The Orion spacecraft was completed during the Constellation Project, and the lander is still a few years away, so there is no big problem.

The trouble comes from countries participating in the Artemis program.

The current Artemis Project is not yet a huge organization with 29 member states in the future. In addition to island countries, it is also Aramco and some European countries (mainly Belt and Road countries).

As a result, some time ago, the Aerospace Development Commission announced that it was willing to sell engines and recovery control systems, giving ESA an additional "Veneto 1" rocket, and it was also planning its own moon landing plan. Although their urine quality is one year The project was established quickly, but it still paid less attention to the Artemis project.

Especially Europe's largest industrial country and the country with the strongest aerospace technology. If they also choose to engage in the "Selene" project, it will definitely interfere with the progress of the Artemis project.

The service module manufacturers of the Orion spacecraft are Airbus and defense companies, which provide automatic docking and attitude adjustment capabilities for the spacecraft. Aramco mainly uses manual docking and robotic arm-assisted docking routes.

Europe has mastered this technology through ATV (European Automated Transfer Vehicle), and also has excellent investment technology.

Artemis plans a total of 6 manned missions, which means at least 6 service modules. The price paid by Aramco is only three seats.

You know, the six Orion spacecrafts have a full 24 seats, and the service cabin has just been provided with 3 of them.

The cost of each service module built for the Orion spacecraft is about 200 million euros, which is now almost 250 million US dollars, which is not a small sum of money for ESA.

Fortunately, ESA does not have a strong tendency to be independent at present, and it is too dispersed and easy to suppress, so NACA chooses to wait and see for the time being.

The island country is different. At the beginning of the month, the island country had a morning visit to India. Senior personnel from JAXA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries were present together. Then a week later, the island country and India, who did not know what kind of PY deal they had reached, actually announced that they had reached a joint moon landing. intention?

The island country, India, manned a manned moon landing.

Putting these three words together, they don't look reliable at all.

But the island country seems to be taking it very seriously, and has already announced that it will jointly develop with India a super rocket with a take-off weight of 1,500 tons: Asia Star, JAXA code name H-X (10).

The core stage of the Asia Star rocket will use the 5.2-meter-diameter rocket body from the H2 and H3 series rockets. The core stage is equipped with four LE9-X open expansion cycle 130-ton hydrogen and oxygen engines, bundled with two 3.2-meter-diameter rockets upgraded from India based on the S200. meter diameter, 45-meter-tall five-stage solid booster, with a single thrust of 875 tons.

The total thrust is 2,270 tons, the take-off mass is 1,650 tons, the low-Earth orbit transport capacity is 54 tons, and the lunar transfer orbit transport capacity is 23 tons.

According to their idea of ​​landing on the moon, a rocket will be fired in India, a manned spacecraft made by the island country will be launched for testing, and a rocket will be fired by the island country to orbit people on the moon.

The last two rockets were manufactured by the two countries and launched within a week of each other. India launched the lander they made, and the island country launched the manned spacecraft to rendezvous and dock in the lunar orbit for the moon landing.

It looks... like copying Artemis' plan? ?