A big country of aerospace with black technology

The transformation of the Hongyan rocket officially started in July.

The first thing to start is the escape system.

This part did not exist on Hongyan No. 1, so for the design of the escape system, Zhang Xingyang and the others could only learn from the design on Chang 2F.

The design of the escape system on the long 2F is relatively conservative, and the design of the escape tower at the top is adopted.

It consists of three parts, namely the tower, the escape motor and the separation motor.

Among them, the escape engine and the separation engine all adopt solid rocket motors.

In fact, among the manned rockets that have been put into use and have not been retired, only Damao's "United" spacecraft has adopted an escape system design.

The escape tower can ensure the safety of the astronauts from 15 minutes before the rocket takes off to 120 seconds after takeoff.

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, the performance of their solid motors doesn't seem to be very good?"

While looking at the separated engine under the escape tower in front of him, Geng Bo flipped through the performance report in his hand and said.

The performance of the separation engine is important for escape towers.

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 to cause 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 kilometer after it is started, 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 use of the escape tower during separation.

However, out of safer considerations, Geng Bo still proposed to Zhang Xingyang to improve the separation solid engine of the escape tower.

"Actually, we don't need to make other modifications, we just need to modify the fuel agent a little bit."

The solid fuel used in the Chang 2F is hydrogenated carbon-based, and the thrust produced under the same conditions is still smaller than the high-nitrogen anion salt developed by the Rocket Research Institute.

"Although the high-nitrogen anion salt we produced before has better performance, it has higher requirements for storage and transportation conditions."

"Once there is any problem during transportation or storage, a violent explosion will occur."

Zhang Xingyang did not quite agree to change the solid fuel agent of the separated 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 the manned rocket.

After all, every astronaut in Longguo is hard-won, and it is impossible for them to sacrifice casually.

Compared with Longguo, Yingjiang's current spaceship has reached another extreme.

None of the spacecraft they used had 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 at the Kennedy Space Center, killing seven astronauts.

At that time, there was no escape system installed on the "Challenger", and after the crisis was discovered by the ground command center, they had no way to save the astronauts on it.

If they had a sufficiently reliable escape system at the time, it is possible that the accident that killed the seven astronauts could 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.

"After the current escape engine is started, it cannot make the first turn, and there is a certain risk."

Since the escape tower and the launch vehicle are flying along the same orbit after the separation engine is started, and because the rocket propulsion system is still working, the launch vehicle is still in accelerated motion.

In order to prevent the escape tower from colliding with the launch vehicle, it is necessary to install a yaw control engine on the escape tower to make the escape tower deviate from the rocket's flight track.

"Won't that cause a problem with too many engines?"

"In this way, the complexity of the entire control system will increase exponentially!"

Although Geng Bo agreed with Zhang Xingyang's consideration from the perspective of safety, doing so was not without its drawbacks.

If another set of yaw steering engines is added, then there will be 5 types and 12 engines in the entire escape system!

The high-altitude escape engine on the fairing, the high-altitude separation engine, the escape engine, the separation engine, and the yaw control engine on the escape tower.

Two different escape methods are adopted, that is, separation with escape tower and separation without escape tower.

If before the rocket flies for 120 seconds, the power of the escape tower separation comes from the separation engine on the escape tower; after 120 seconds of flight, the separation power of the rocket in the state of no escape tower comes from the high-altitude separation engine on the fairing.

To be honest, with such a complicated escape system, Geng Bo felt his scalp tingle just thinking about it for a while.

He could only whisper in his heart, hoping that Qin Ming, who was in charge of the design and development of the control system, would not scold her.

Of course, at this time, Qin Ming still doesn't know what kind of complex system he will 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 piled up to the highest level, the safety of our astronauts must be guaranteed!"

"Geng Bo, you should also know how valuable an astronaut is!"

Zhang Xingyang's tone was harsh, but what he said was also true.

For the just-started manned spaceflight industry, every astronaut is a hard-won treasure!

Geng Bo didn't say much at this time, but looked at the escape tower that was almost completely dismantled in front of him, and said with some emotion:

"Shenzhou-1, our own manned spaceship, I'm really looking forward to the day when it flies into space!"

The aerospace dream that Chinese people started hundreds of years ago with thousands of households flying into the sky will finally come true in the hands of our generation.

We are based on the earth, but we have been yearning for the starry sky.