Lunar and alien bases - new prospects of creation and exploitation
The XXXVII academic conference on astronautics, devoted to the memory of Academician S.P.Korolev and other outstanding domestic scientists - the pioneers of exploration of outer space.
Lunar and alien bases - new prospects of creation and exploitation
A. Mayboroda
In the report new possibilities of creation and exploitation of the lunar and alien bases are considered, the possibilities that have now been opened by new progressive means of cargo transportation both to and from the base to orbital stations. Methods of low-cost rocket fuel delivery to the base needed for getting the personnel back to the Earth as well as water and various raw materials and whatever else is necessary for the base functioning and its further deployment are discussed here. Also methods for supplying the circumlunar (alien) orbital station with rocket fuel with a view to refueling spacecrafts (SC) which land to the base and/or return the personnel and the production of the base to the Earth are explained herein.
At present, due to the volume printers and 3D-printing a lunar base is simplified - now most of the cargo delivered to the area of base deployment may not be some ready-to-be-used technical products, but raw materials for their production, which is represented by things that are fragile in terms of getting strikes and being under high temperature. Given the delivery to the base of simple components of rocket fuel, instead of ready hard-molecular products, the main cargo traffic will be a raw material, and the part of finished complex technical products will be insignificant.
This structure of cargo delivery makes it possible to significantly reduce costs during the construction phase of the base because it makes it possible to carry out the supply of necessary raw materials supplies from Earth without using missiles at the area of lunar landing of loads. These simple materials like the water containing the necessary for the base oxygen and hydrogen, hydrocarbons, various chemicals for lunar industrial complexes, aluminum, titanium and other metals that do not need a soft landing on the Moon. The main thing is that after a tough, impact landing these substances would be easy to collect and accumulate for future use. The required solution provides the project of Moon (alien) apparatus of raw collector fed from the circum terrestrial orbit by interorbital tugs. The first proposals in this direction were given in the late 80's of the last century (US Patent 4775120). However, the proposed system’s cumbersome was the major obstacle to its realization.
In terms of reducing the mass and dimensions of the lunar or alien raw collector (LRC or ARC) was the invention of an effective solution to the RU patent number 2385275, which reduces the mass and dimensions of the LRC to an acceptable level. Innovative option of LRC may have a mass of less than 1 ton, which allows to deliver it to the Moon, asteroids and dwarf planets by existing launch vehicles. Direct transmission of the flow of raw materials from lunar orbit to the LRC increases in several times the mass of the goods, descended from orbit (at the expense of fuel required for a soft landing) and, therefore, greatly increases carrying capacity boosters or interorbital tugs (IT), sent from Earth orbit. For example, in IT, using cryogenic oxygen-hydrogen fuel is in 2-3 times increases the part of cargo delivered to the moon, and the IT with engines on high fuel load increases in the proportion in 3-4 times.
On the basis of the same invention RU 2385275, as well as RU 2451631, at the Moon can be displayed similar to the same raw materials collector, but of the orbital deployment of mass 3-5 tons. Orbital raw collector (ORC) is designed for the capture of two types of flows of goods: as sent directly from the earth and from the lunar surface.
Freight turnover from the Moon, in turn, is divided into two types: the first - loads of terrestrial origin, in transit through a lunar base, it makes sense to the base deployment stage, and the second - loads of lunar origin, for example, water. These traffic flows are generated by the mass accelerator of a new type, which has a mass of between one and a half ton. The report shows that the modern industrial high pressure pumps (6500-10000 bar) at the jet ejection 1200-1700 m/s, is a complete basis for the jet mass accelerator (JMA), a more forward-looking than the railgun on mass and size, power ratings, resource and other important indicators. JMA for 1 year of service with an electrical power of about 100 kW is able to transfer up to 2,000 tons of water, aqueous liquids and other liquids in the low-orbit group ORC. To create jets that are stable in vacuum, using supercooled liquid with antifreeze additives and gelling agents that are being transferred from the JMA in ORS with the cold of the night side of the Moon.
The report shows that the system "JMA-LRC" can be successfully used for the exchange of resources between lunar bases, separated by a distance of 5500 km. JMA, established on the one of the poles of the Moon, for example, in Shackleton crater, where water supplies are found, presumably in the form of water ice, allows to supply with water all bases located on the equator of the moon or closer, which are equipped with stationary or mobile LRC. Meanwhile it is possible use of intermediate repeater bases of raw materials.
Equatorial launch sites are more convenient compared to the polar. The transfer of raw materials to the equatorial base therefore increases the efficiency of subsequent transport and manufacturing operations, for creation a near lunar and near Earth rocket fuel reserves, as well as the lunar materials for the production of thin-film photovoltaic cells for space solar power stations (SSPS). At the stage of the deployment of the bases, transfer the lunar material is made in the group ORC in polar orbit.
From the equatorial bases, water is passed through the medium of the JMA in lunar ORC further by interorbital tugs thrown into near-Earth ORS, and, accordingly, in the orbital production complex (OPC), which is further processed into rocket fuel. The fuel is used to refuel interorbital tugs providing for the carriage of commercial cargo to geostationary orbit (communication satellites and power SSPS) and to the lunar bases.
The system of "LRC-JMA-ORC" thus provides a low-cost stocks of rocket fuel, not only on the surface of the moon, but also to lunar orbit, which provides refueling spacecrafts landing on the base, or returning to Earth. For example, the part of the payload vehicle (using a high-boiling rocket fuel) landing on the base, provided it is based on refueling before launching back into the orbit of the Moon, increases in 15 times or more. This provides a reasonable cost for flights to regular change of the base personnel. In the short term, the cost of delivery and evacuation of a lunar base personnel can be reduced to the present cost of the change of the International Space Station crew.
Grouping near Earth ORC intercepting flows lunar materials, has the technical ability to use the kinetic energy of the lunar cargos for the work on the accumulation of oxygen and nitrogen in the upper atmosphere of the planet (US Patent 5199671), on the basis of the well-known technology PROFAC. For every 1 kg of air accumulated ORC must absorb 2.7 kg of lunar material. Also in the report other options small spacecraft accumulator (SCA) of the atmospheric air, doing the work by the kinetic energy of lunar cargo are set out. It shows that the function of SCA can carry spacecrafts with a cargo of lunar material which while making multi-turn braking in the atmosphere to go into low-Earth orbit, lightweight system of air accumulating is used instead of an aerodynamic screen.
The report demonstrates that in the future the kinetic energy of cargo turnover from the Moon to the Earth, can be used as well to bring the spacecraft from Earth (Patent RU 2385275) by pulse transmission to apparatuses, which were previously raised to a height of 100-150 km. To output every 1 kg of cargo into Earth orbit by this method requires 1-2 kg of lunar material, for example, water in the form of cords of sustainable hydrogel (with diameters of 1-10 mm). Here missile launch plays a supporting role, which allows single-stage launch vehicles with a capacity of 35-40 percent of the starting mass or with the normal carrying capacity, but in the reusable version, due to increasing its safety factor.
Based on the foregoing, it is concluded that the opening of the first lunar base and its industrial application for the needs of the Earth can be real much sooner than it has been planned without these innovations.
Animated principal diagrams
http://mayboroda.com/images/flash3/rolik22.swf
http://mayboroda.com/images/flash3/2.swf
http://mayboroda.com/images/flash3/moonbase4.swf
http://mayboroda.com/images/flash3/duga5.swf
Метки: колонизация Луны сегодня