Luna 7 or SpaceX in Russian

You will not surprise anyone with a private space program in Russia, projects of varying degrees of ambition are constantly emerging. But not so long ago, on the vast expanses of the Internet, I came across a truly amazing project from a private Russian company, Lin Industrial. The company has swatted at the colonization of the Moon, and if such projects usually cause only a sad smile, then this one really struck me with the depth of elaboration. And so what is it actually about?

Light rocket as the key to success

In the beginning a little about the company itself. Ling Industrial is a small team of engineers and scientists who work on various civil and dual-use projects. The news section of the site tells us that Lin Industrial has received a certificate from a participant in the Skolkovo project. They also managed to find out that in Skolkovo, the team from Lin Industrial is promoting its development in parts of light and ultra-light launch vehicles: Adler and Aldan . In my opinion, this is a very sensible approach, as we all remember the well-known Ilon Musk also began with the development of the Falcon-1 light launch vehicle. But about these projects some other time, because I was most interested in the section of the site "Our promising projects" with the proposal for the development of manned space exploration - "Luna seven".

Why actually seven?

As you know, at the moment people landed on our natural satellite six times during the Apollo missions. The company Lin Industrial offers to do it for the seventh time, so much so that I would stay there seriously and for a long time. Naturally, Roskosmos has already voiced plans for the colonization of the Moon, but Lin Industrial is confident that with the deadlines laid down in the program, that it is Russia that will make the seventh disembarkation cannot speak, China steps on its heels , and no one bothers the Americans once again to correct the plans, the benefit of the creation of the SLS launch vehicle and the Orion spacecraft was in the home stretch. In order not to lose the initiative in the field of colonization of the Moon, in Lin Industrial offer a project to make maximum use of existing (or available in the near future) technical solutions such as:
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• Booster Angara-A5 ;
• Spacecraft Soyuz ;
• Overclocking unit Frigate ;
• KVTK overclocking unit.

Naturally, for the implementation of the plan will require some alteration of all of the above, but more on that below. This is how the complete system will look like:



From left to right (or from the bottom up, if you wish): the third step of the A5, KVTK, Frigate and Union (more precisely, what is left of it). How, with such a limited set of technical means, will the two astronauts land on the moon land? And this is as much as the Americans were able to land on the moon using such a monster as Saturn-5.

Kondratyuk single

I already wrote that the Kondratyuk scheme makes it possible to deliver more cargo to the surface of the Moon than with a direct flight, but even so, the Americans needed a rocket with a carrying capacity of 140 tons to land on the moon. What to do if we do not have such a rocket? Roscosmos solves the problem head on, if there is no rocket, then it needs to be built. In this very moment, in the opinion of the guys from Lin Industrial, the main mistake is concealed, the creation of a carrier of this type costs a lot of money (according to the latest data, 214.6 billion rubles and this is only for the first stage!) And will take a lot of time 2030), during this time you can lose the initiative. From myself I would add that such carriers pose another risk, they are very specialized and cannot be used for commercial launches, due to this, media of this type are launched extremely rarely, which, together with expensive development, makes them truly golden.



How do you propose to solve this problem in Lin Industrial? Firstly, they suggest using several, but available right now, instead of one super-rocket, and secondly, they offer a direct flight scheme! Stop, let's see! It turns out that in order to replace one Saturn-5 in payload, at least 6 (six) such missiles as the Angara-A5 are needed, but if the Kondratyuk scheme is abandoned, their number should increase. In Lin Industrial declare that THREE is enough! How do they do it?

Watch hands

To begin with, it is proposed to take the orbital compartment and the returned apparatus from the Union, and instead of the instrument-aggregate compartment use a special version of the upper stage Frigate. Frigate-L (let's call it that) should have not only solar panels and radiators, but also landing supports for landing. In general, something like this:



To send the whole thing to the moon, you need a hydrogen overclocking unit. Fortunately, in Russia, the development of KVTK (heavy oxygen-hydrogen class) is coming to an end, this accelerating unit is being designed just for use as part of Angara-A5. Here the first problem arises, the carrying capacity of the Angara-A5 is not enough to lift this economy to the Earth's orbit. But here everything is solved. In the post about the first flight of the Angara, I mentioned that when designing this rocket, it turned out that the URM-2 is great for A1, but small for the A5. The situation for easy Angara fixed and GKNPTs them. Khrunichev has plans to modernize URM-2 for Angara-A5, by replacing the RD0124A engine with a 30 tf engine with two RD0125A engines with a total 59th tf engine. This option and offer to use in Lin Industrial. However, it would still be necessary to use the KVTK to bring the ship into the reference orbit (just like in the case of Saturn-5). After that, a bundle of the ship and the upper stage with fuel with a total mass of more than 28 tons is in orbit.



After restarting the hydrogen accelerating block, the ship is sent to the moon. I must say that this flight should take place for two astronauts in fairly comfortable conditions, even in comparison with Apollo. The flight doesn’t take much longer than before it was required to get to the ISS, and not three but only astronauts fly in Union volumes, so what to say, there is even a normal toilet (unless of course you don’t have to throw it out because of weight saving , but more on that below). However, the fuel located in the Frigate-L is enough only for what would go into the moon's orbit and actually lean on the moon, after which his tanks will be empty. In order not to turn the two astronauts into heroes of suicides, two tankers, representing Frigates-A with spherical fuel tanks installed on them, are sent to the Moon in advance (using the A5 and KVTK). Speaking of safety, if for some reason the mooring is canceled, there will just be enough fuel left to send the ship back to Earth.



And on one tanker, the tanks will not be completely filled, so it is possible to send with him additional equipment for the work of astronauts on the surface of the Moon. Naturally, all three ships are landing in a pre-selected area in sufficient proximity to each other, in order to fill a manned ship for departure to Earth. Then everything is simple, relatively, of course, the astronauts work on the surface at the right time, refuel the ship and go home. That's all for it.
Also on the site are detailed stages of the construction of the lunar base, but I can write about it next time, if of course it will be interesting for habravchanam.

A spoon of tar

Of course, this project has undeniable advantages:

• The ship does not expect the expedition to return to orbit. The problem of stable near-moon orbits is removed. Due to the influence of the Earth and the Sun, not all circumlunar orbits are stable;
• You can start at almost any time (in the version with docking in orbit, you will need to start at the exact time or phasing - even if the ship expects a takeoff module in the polar orbit);
• There are no complex docking operations on the Earth or on the Moon. No docking or radio equipment is required;
• Well, as mentioned earlier, the use of standard media and other components in this program saves a lot of budgetary funds and allows you to beat the competition.

But, as always, there is one BUT: even in Lin Industrial, they are not sure that a manned ship can be pressed down to 3.6 tons, and that is how much can be delivered to the Moon by these means. As you can easily check, the used components from the Union exceed this mass, in fact, you need to leave only the outer hull of the ship, and redo the stuffing in order to meet the tight limits. The problem would not have arisen if there was such a rocket as the Angara-A7 (35 tons per DOE), but unfortunately it is not even on the horizon. Nevertheless, Lin Industrial does not lose optimism, this is what the company's founder writes in his LiveJournal: “The possibility of real cooperation with RSC Energia appears. The issue requires discussion, but perhaps “The Moon Seven” (after a small or large transformation) will become a government program :) Not immediately, of course - but there is a chance. ”

And finally, a beautiful video:


Related Links:
Lin Industrial website ;
Learn the company's founder;
A thread on the Cosmonautics News forum.