So I bring to your attention a simple, but very long recipe for cooking ...
It began in 1957, when the first satellite, Sputnik-1, was launched in the USSR. Since then, people have managed to visit, and unmanned space probes have visited all the planets, with the exception of. Satellites orbiting the Earth have become part of our lives. Thanks to them, millions of people have the opportunity to watch TV (see the article ""). The figure shows how part spaceship returns to Earth with a parachute.
rockets
The history of space exploration begins with rockets. The first rockets were used for bombing during the Second World War. In 1957, a rocket was created that delivered Sputnik-1 into space. Most rockets occupy fuel tanks. Only gets to orbit top part missiles called payload. The Ariane-4 rocket has three separate sections with fuel tanks. They are called rocket stages. Each stage pushes the rocket a certain distance, after which, when empty, it separates. As a result, only the payload remains from the rocket. The first stage carries 226 tons liquid fuel. Fuel and two boosters create the huge mass necessary for takeoff. The second stage separates at an altitude of 135 km. The third stage of the rocket is hers, working on liquid and nitrogen. Fuel here burns out in about 12 minutes. As a result, only the payload remains from the European Space Agency's Ariane-4 rocket.
In the 1950s-1960s. The USSR and the USA competed in space exploration. Vostok was the first manned spacecraft. The Saturn V rocket carried humans to the moon for the first time.
Missiles of the 1950s-/960s:
1. "Satellite"
2. Vanguard
3. "Juno-1"
4. "East"
5. "Mercury-Atlant"
6. "Gemini-Titan-2"
8. "Saturn-1B"
9. "Saturn-5"
space speeds
To get into space, the rocket must go beyond. If its speed is insufficient, it will simply fall to the Earth, due to the action of the force. The speed required to go into space is called first cosmic speed. It is 40,000 km/h. In orbit, the spacecraft circles the Earth with orbital speed . The orbital speed of a ship depends on its distance from the Earth. When a spaceship flies in orbit, it essentially just falls, but it cannot fall, because it loses height just as much as the earth's surface goes down under it, rounding.
space probes
Probes are unmanned space vehicles sent over long distances. They have visited every planet except Pluto. The probe can fly to its destination for many years. When he flies to the right celestial body, then goes into orbit around it and sends the extracted information to Earth. Miriner-10, the only probe that has visited. Pioneer 10 became the first space probe to leave the solar system. It will reach the nearest star in more than a million years.
Some probes are designed to land on the surface of another planet, or they are equipped with landers that are dropped onto the planet. The descent vehicle can collect soil samples and deliver them to Earth for research. In 1966, for the first time, a spacecraft, the Luna-9 probe, landed on the surface of the Moon. After landing, it opened up like a flower and started filming.
satellites
A satellite is an unmanned vehicle that is placed into orbit, usually the earth. 
The satellite has specific task- for example, to watch, transmit a television image, explore mineral deposits: there are even spy satellites. The satellite moves in orbit at orbital speed. In the picture you see a picture of the mouth of the Humber River (England), taken by Landset from Earth orbit. "Landset" can "consider areas on Earth with an area of as little as 1 square. m.
The station is the same satellite, but designed for the work of people on board. A spacecraft with a crew and cargo can dock to the station. So far, only three long-term stations have been operating in space: the American Skylab and the Russian Salyut and Mir. Skylab was launched into orbit in 1973. Three crews worked in succession on its board. The station ceased to exist in 1979.
Orbital stations play a huge role in studying the effect of weightlessness on the human body. Stations of the future, such as Freedom, which the Americans are now building with contributions from Europe, Japan, and Canada, will be used for very long-term experiments or for industrial production in space.
When an astronaut leaves a station or spacecraft for outer space, he puts on spacesuit. Inside the spacesuit is artificially created, equal to atmospheric. The inner layers of the suit are cooled by liquid. Devices monitor the pressure and oxygen content inside. The glass of the helmet is very durable, it can withstand the impact of small stones - micrometeorites.
The solar system has not been of particular interest to science fiction writers for a long time. But, surprisingly, our “native” planets do not cause much inspiration for some scientists, although they have not yet been practically explored.
Having barely cut a window into space, humanity is torn into unknown distances, and not only in dreams, as before.
Sergei Korolev also promised to soon fly into space “on a trade union ticket”, but this phrase is already half a century old, and a space odyssey is still the lot of the elite - too expensive. However, two years ago, HACA launched a grandiose project 100 Year Starship, which involves the gradual and long-term creation of a scientific and technical foundation for space flights.
This unprecedented program should attract scientists, engineers and enthusiasts from all over the world. If everything is successful, in 100 years humanity will be able to build an international star ship, and we will move around the solar system like on trams.
So what are the problems that need to be solved to make stellar flight a reality?
TIME AND SPEED ARE RELATIVE
Astronomy automatic devices seems to some scientists an almost solved problem, oddly enough. And this despite the fact that there is absolutely no point in launching automata to the stars with current snail speeds (about 17 km / s) and other primitive (for such unknown roads) equipment.
Now the American spacecraft Pioneer 10 and Voyager 1 have left the solar system, there is no longer any connection with them. Pioneer 10 is moving towards the star Aldebaran. If nothing happens to him, he will reach the vicinity of this star ... in 2 million years. In the same way crawl across the expanses of the Universe and other devices.
So, regardless of whether a ship is habitable or not, to fly to the stars, it needs a high speed close to the speed of light. However, this will help solve the problem of flying only to the nearest stars.
“Even if we managed to build a star ship that could fly at a speed close to the speed of light,” K. Feoktistov wrote, “the travel time only in our Galaxy will be calculated in millennia and tens of millennia, since its diameter is about 100,000 light years. But on Earth, for this time will pass a lot more".
According to the theory of relativity, the course of time in two systems moving relative to one another is different. Since at large distances the ship will have time to develop a speed very close to the speed of light, the difference in time on Earth and on the ship will be especially large.
It is assumed that the first goal of interstellar flights will be alpha Centauri (a system of three stars) - the closest to us. At the speed of light, you can fly there in 4.5 years, on Earth during this time years will pass ten. But the greater the distance, the greater the difference in time.
Remember the famous Andromeda Nebula by Ivan Efremov? There, flight is measured in years, and earthly ones. A beautiful story, to say the least. However, this coveted nebula (more precisely, the Andromeda galaxy) is located at a distance of 2.5 million light years from us.
According to some calculations, the astronauts' journey will take more than 60 years (according to starship hours), but an entire era will pass on Earth. How will the space "Neanderthals" be met by their distant descendants? And will the Earth be alive at all? That is, the return is basically meaningless. However, like the flight itself: we must remember that we see the Andromeda galaxy as it was 2.5 million years ago - so much of its light reaches us. What is the point of flying to an unknown target, which, perhaps, has not existed for a long time, in any case, in its former form and in the old place?
This means that even flights at the speed of light are justified only up to relatively close stars. However, vehicles flying at the speed of light, so far live only in a theory that resembles science fiction, however, scientific.
A SHIP THE SIZE OF A PLANET
Naturally, first of all, scientists came up with the idea to use the most efficient engine in the ship's engine. thermonuclear reaction- as already partially mastered (for military purposes). However, for round trip travel at close to light speed, even with an ideal system design, a ratio of initial mass to final mass of at least 10 to the thirtieth power is required. That is, the spaceship will look like a huge train with fuel the size of a small planet. It is impossible to launch such a colossus into space from Earth. Yes, and collect in orbit - too, it is not for nothing that scientists do not discuss this option.
The idea of a photon engine using the principle of matter annihilation is very popular.
Annihilation is the transformation of a particle and an antiparticle during their collision into any other particles that are different from the original ones. The most studied is the annihilation of an electron and a positron, which generates photons, the energy of which will move the spaceship. Calculations by American physicists Ronan Keane and Wei-ming Zhang show that, based on modern technologies it is possible to create an annihilation engine capable of accelerating a spacecraft to 70% of the speed of light.
However, further problems begin. Unfortunately, using antimatter as a rocket fuel is very difficult. During annihilation, flashes of the most powerful gamma radiation occur, which are detrimental to astronauts. In addition, the contact of positron fuel with the ship is fraught with a fatal explosion. Finally, there are no technologies yet to obtain enough antimatter and store it for a long time: for example, an antihydrogen atom "lives" now for less than 20 minutes, and the production of a milligram of positrons costs $25 million.
But, let's assume, over time, these problems can be resolved. However, a lot of fuel will still be needed, and the starting mass of a photon starship will be comparable to the mass of the Moon (according to Konstantin Feoktistov).
BROKEN THE SAIL!
The most popular and realistic starship today is considered solar sail nickname, the idea of which belongs to the Soviet scientist Friedrich Zander.
Solar (light, photon) sail is a device that uses pressure sunlight or a laser on a mirror surface to propel the spacecraft.
In 1985, the American physicist Robert Forward proposed the design of an interstellar probe accelerated by microwave energy. The project envisaged that the probe would reach the nearest stars in 21 years.
At the XXXVI International Astronomical Congress, a project was proposed for a laser spacecraft, the movement of which is provided by the energy of optical lasers located in orbit around Mercury. According to calculations, the path of a starship of this design to the star Epsilon Eridani (10.8 light years) and back would take 51 years.
“It is unlikely that we will be able to make significant progress in understanding the world in which we live, based on data obtained from travels in our solar system. Naturally, thought turns to the stars. After all, earlier it was understood that flights around the Earth, flights to other planets of our solar system are not the ultimate goal. To pave the way to the stars seemed to be the main task.These words do not belong to a science fiction writer, but to the spacecraft designer and cosmonaut Konstantin Feoktistov. According to the scientist, nothing particularly new in the solar system will be found. And this despite the fact that man has so far only flown to the moon ...
However, outside the solar system, the pressure of sunlight will approach zero. Therefore, there is a project to accelerate a solar sailboat with laser systems from some asteroid.
All this is still theory, but the first steps are already being taken.
In 1993, a 20-meter-wide solar sail was deployed for the first time on the Russian ship Progress M-15 as part of the Znamya-2 project. When docking the Progress with the Mir station, its crew installed a reflector deployment unit on board the Progress. As a result, the reflector created a bright spot 5 km wide, which passed through Europe to Russia at a speed of 8 km/s. The patch of light had a luminosity roughly equivalent to that of the full moon.
So, the advantage of a solar sailboat is the lack of fuel on board, the disadvantages are the vulnerability of the sail design: in fact, it is a thin foil stretched over a frame. Where is the guarantee that the sail will not get holes from cosmic particles along the way?
The sail version may be suitable for launching automatic probes, stations and cargo ships, but is not suitable for manned return flights. There are other designs for starships, but they somehow resemble the ones listed above (with the same massive problems).
SURPRISES IN INTERSTELLAR SPACE
It seems that many surprises await travelers in the universe. For example, just leaning out of the solar system, the American device "Pioneer-10" began to experience a force of unknown origin, causing weak deceleration. Many suggestions have been made, up to yet unknown effects of inertia or even time. There is still no unambiguous explanation for this phenomenon, a variety of hypotheses are considered: from simple technical ones (for example, the reactive force from a gas leak in an apparatus) to the introduction of new physical laws.
Another spacecraft, Voyager 1, detected an area at the edge of the solar system with a strong magnetic field. In it, the pressure of charged particles from interstellar space causes the field created by the Sun to thicken. The device also registered:
- an increase in the number of high-energy electrons (about 100 times) that penetrate into the solar system from interstellar space;
- a sharp increase in the level of galactic cosmic rays - high-energy charged particles of interstellar origin.
The space between the stars is not empty. Everywhere there are remnants of gas, dust, particles. When trying to move at a speed close to the speed of light, each atom colliding with the ship will be like a particle of high-energy cosmic rays. The level of hard radiation during such a bombardment will increase unacceptably even during flights to the nearest stars.
And the mechanical impact of particles at such speeds will be likened to explosive bullets. According to some calculations, every centimeter of the starship's protective screen would be fired continuously at a rate of 12 shots per minute. It is clear that no screen can withstand such exposure for several years of flight. Or it will have to have an unacceptable thickness (tens and hundreds of meters) and mass (hundreds of thousands of tons).
Actually, then the starship will consist mainly of this screen and fuel, which will require several million tons. Due to these circumstances, flights at such speeds are impossible, all the more so because along the way you can run into not only dust, but also something larger, or get trapped in an unknown gravitational field. And then death is inevitable again. Thus, even if it is possible to accelerate the spacecraft to subluminal speed, it will not reach the final goal - there will be too many obstacles on its way. Therefore, interstellar flights can only be carried out at significantly lower speeds. But then the time factor makes these flights meaningless.
It turns out that to solve the problem of transportation material bodies to galactic distances with velocities close to the speed of light is impossible. It makes no sense to break through space and time with the help of a mechanical structure.
MOLE HOLE
Science fiction, trying to overcome the inexorable time, invented how to "gnaw holes" in space (and time) and "fold" it. They came up with a variety of hyperspace jumps from one point of space to another, bypassing intermediate areas. Now scientists have joined science fiction writers.
Physicists began to look for extreme states of matter and exotic loopholes in the universe, where you can move at a superluminal speed contrary to Einstein's theory of relativity.
This is how the idea of the wormhole was born. This burrow links the two parts of the universe like a cut tunnel that connects two cities separated by high mountain. Unfortunately, wormholes are only possible in absolute vacuum. In our universe, these burrows are extremely unstable: they can simply collapse before a spaceship gets there.
However, to create stable wormholes, you can use the effect open by dutch Hendrik Casimir. It consists in the mutual attraction of conducting uncharged bodies under the action of quantum oscillations in a vacuum. It turns out that the vacuum is not completely empty, there are fluctuations in the gravitational field, in which particles and microscopic wormholes spontaneously appear and disappear.
It remains only to find one of the holes and stretch it, placing it between two superconducting balls. One mouth of the wormhole will remain on Earth, the other will be moved by the spacecraft at near-light speed to the star - the final object. That is, the spaceship will, as it were, punch through a tunnel. Once the starship reaches its destination, the wormhole will open up for real lightning-fast interstellar travel, the duration of which will be calculated in minutes.
WARP BUBBLE
Akin to the theory of wormholes bubble curvature. In 1994, the Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre performed calculations according to Einstein's equations and found the theoretical possibility of wave deformation of the spatial continuum. In this case, the space will shrink in front of the spacecraft and simultaneously expand behind it. The starship, as it were, is placed in a bubble of curvature, capable of moving at an unlimited speed. The genius of the idea is that the spacecraft rests in a bubble of curvature, and the laws of the theory of relativity are not violated. At the same time, the bubble of curvature itself moves, locally distorting space-time.
Despite the impossibility of traveling faster than light, nothing prevents space from moving or propagating the warp of space-time faster than light, which is believed to have happened immediately after the Big Bang at the formation of the Universe.
All these ideas do not yet fit into the framework modern science However, in 2012, NASA representatives announced the preparation of an experimental test of Dr. Alcubierre's theory. Who knows, maybe Einstein's theory of relativity will someday become part of a new global theory. After all, the process of learning is endless. So, one day we will be able to break through the thorns to the stars.
Irina GROMOVA
11.06.2010 00:10
The US spacecraft Dawn recently installed new record gaining speed - 25.5 thousand km / h, ahead of its main competitor - the Deep Space 1 probe. This achievement was made possible thanks to the super-powerful ion engine installed on the device. However, according to experts NASA, this is far from the limit of its capabilities.
The speed of the American spacecraft Dawn reached a record high on June 5 - 25.5 thousand km / h. However, according to scientists, in the near future the speed of the ship will reach the mark of 100 thousand km / h.
Thus, thanks to the unique engine, Dawn surpassed its predecessor, the Deep Space 1 probe, an experimental robotic spacecraft launched on October 24, 1998 by a launch vehicle. True, Deep Space 1 still retains the title of the station whose engines have worked the longest. But to get ahead of the "competitor" in this category Dawn may already in August.
The main task of the spacecraft, launched three years ago, is to study the asteroid 4 Vesta, which the device will approach in 2011, and the dwarf planet Ceres. Scientists hope to obtain the most accurate data on the shape, size, mass, mineral and elemental composition of these objects located between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. Common Path, which the Dawn device has to overcome, is 4 billion 800 million kilometers.
Since there is no air in outer space, having accelerated, the ship continues to move at the gained speed. On Earth, this is not possible due to frictional deceleration. The use of ion thrusters in vacuum conditions allowed scientists to make the process of gradually increasing the speed of the Dawn spacecraft as efficient as possible.
The principle of operation of the innovative engine is to ionize the gas and accelerate it with an electrostatic field. At the same time, due to the high charge-to-mass ratio, it becomes possible to accelerate the ions to very high speeds. Thus, a very high specific impulse can be achieved in the engine, which makes it possible to significantly reduce the consumption of the reactive mass of ionized gas (compared to chemical reaction), but requires high costs energy.
The three engines of the Dawn are not constantly running, but are switched on briefly at certain points in the flight. To date, they have worked for a total of 620 days and have used up over 165 kilograms of xenon. Simple calculations show that the speed of the probe increased by about 100 km / h every four days. By the end of the eight-year Dawn mission (although experts do not exclude its extension), the total operating time of the engines will be 2000 days - almost 5.5 years. Such indicators promise that the speed of the spacecraft will reach 38.6 thousand km / h.
This may seem like a small amount against the background of at least the first cosmic speed at which artificial Earth satellites are launched, but for an interplanetary vehicle without any external accelerators, which does not perform special maneuvers in the gravitational field of the planets, such a result is indeed remarkable.
Space exploration has long been a common thing for mankind. But flights to near-Earth orbit and to other stars are unthinkable without devices that allow you to overcome the earth's gravity - rockets. How many of us know: how the launch vehicle is arranged and functions, where the launch comes from and what is its speed, which allows to overcome the gravity of the planet in airless space. Let's take a closer look at these issues.
Device
To understand how a launch vehicle works, you need to understand its structure. Let's start the description of nodes from top to bottom.
CAC
An apparatus that puts a satellite into orbit or a cargo compartment always differs from the carrier, which is intended for transporting the crew, by its configuration. The latter has a special emergency rescue system at the very top, which serves to evacuate the compartment from astronauts in the event of a failure of the launch vehicle. This non-standard shape the turret, located at the very top, is a miniature rocket that allows you to "pull" the capsule with people up under extraordinary circumstances and move it to a safe distance from the point of failure. initial stage flight, where it is still possible to carry out a parachute descent of the capsule. In airless space, the role of the SAS becomes less important. In near-Earth space, a function that makes it possible to separate the descent vehicle from the launch vehicle will allow astronauts to be saved.
cargo compartment
Below the SAS there is a compartment carrying the payload: a manned vehicle, a satellite, a cargo compartment. Based on the type and class of the launch vehicle, the mass of the cargo put into orbit can range from 1.95 to 22.4 tons. All cargo transported by the ship is protected by a head fairing, which is dropped after passing through the atmospheric layers.
sustainer engine
Far from outer space, people think that if the rocket was in a vacuum, at an altitude of one hundred kilometers, where weightlessness begins, then its mission is over. In fact, depending on the task, the target orbit of the cargo being launched into space can be much further. For example, telecommunications satellites need to be transported to an orbit located at an altitude of more than 35 thousand kilometers. To achieve the necessary removal, a sustainer engine is needed, or, as it is called in another way, an accelerating unit. To enter the planned interplanetary or departure trajectory, one should change the flight speed more than once, performing certain actions, therefore this engine must be started and turned off repeatedly, this is its dissimilarity with other similar rocket components.
Multistage
In a launch vehicle, only a small fraction of its mass is occupied by the transported payload, everything else is engines and fuel tanks, which are located in different stages of the apparatus. Design feature of these nodes is the possibility of their separation after the development of fuel. Then they burn up in the atmosphere before reaching the ground. True, according to the reactor.space news portal, in last years a technology was developed that allows returning the separated steps unharmed to the point allotted for this and re-launching them into space. In rocket science, when creating multi-stage ships, two schemes are used:
- The first one, longitudinal, allows you to place several identical engines with fuel around the hull, which are simultaneously switched on and synchronously reset after use.
- The second - transverse, makes it possible to arrange steps in ascending order, one above the other. In this case, their inclusion occurs only after resetting the lower, exhausted stage.
But often designers prefer a combination of a transverse-longitudinal pattern. A rocket can have many stages, but increasing their number is rational up to a certain limit. Their growth entails an increase in the mass of engines and adapters that operate only at a certain stage of flight. Therefore, modern launch vehicles are not equipped with more than four stages. Basically, the fuel tanks of the stages consist of reservoirs in which various components are pumped: an oxidizer (liquid oxygen, nitrogen tetroxide) and fuel (liquid hydrogen, heptyl). Only with their interaction can the rocket be accelerated to the desired speed.
How fast does a rocket fly in space?
Depending on the tasks that the launch vehicle must perform, its speed may vary, subdivided into four values:
- First space. It allows you to rise into orbit where it becomes a satellite of the Earth. If translated into the usual values, it is equal to 8 km / s.
- Second space. Speed at 11.2 km / s. makes it possible for the ship to overcome gravity for the study of the planets of our solar system.
- Third space. Adhering to the speed of 16.650 km/s. it is possible to overcome the gravity of the solar system and leave its limits.
- Fourth space. Having developed a speed of 550 km / s. the rocket is capable of flying out of the galaxy.
But no matter how great the speed of spacecraft, they are too small for interplanetary travel. With such values, it will take 18,000 years to get to the nearest star.
What is the name of the place where rockets are launched into space?
For the successful conquest of space, special launch pads are needed, from where you can launch rockets in space. In everyday use they are called spaceports. But this simple name includes a whole complex of buildings that occupies vast territories: the launch pad, the premises for the final test and assembly of the rocket, and the buildings of related services. All this is located at a distance from each other, so that other structures of the cosmodrome would not be damaged in the event of an accident.
Conclusion
The more space technologies improve, the more complex the structure and operation of the rocket becomes. Maybe in a few years, new devices will be created to overcome the gravity of the Earth. And the next article will be devoted to the principles of operation of a more advanced rocket.
However, in space everything is different, some phenomena are simply inexplicable and defy any laws in principle. For example, a satellite launched a few years ago, or other objects will rotate in their orbit and never fall. Why is this happening, how fast does a rocket fly into space? Physicists assume that there is centrifugal force, which neutralizes the effect of gravity.
Having done a small experiment, we ourselves can understand and feel this without leaving our homes. To do this, you need to take a thread and tie a small load to one end, then unwind the thread around the circumference. We will feel that the higher the speed, the clearer the trajectory of the load, and the more tension on the thread, if the force is weakened, the rotation speed of the object will decrease and the risk that the load will fall increases several times. With such a small experience, we will begin to develop our topic - speed in space.
It becomes clear that high speed allows any object to overcome the force of gravity. As for space objects, each of them has its own speed, it is different. Four main types of such speed are determined, and the smallest of them is the first. It is at this speed that the ship flies into Earth's orbit.
In order to fly out of it, you need a second speed in space. At the third speed, gravity is completely overcome and you can fly out of the solar system. Fourth rocket speed in space will allow you to leave the galaxy itself, this is about 550 km / s. We have always been interested rocket speed in space km/h, when entering orbit, it is 8 km / s, beyond it - 11 km / s, that is, developing its capabilities up to 33,000 km / h. The rocket gradually increases its speed, full acceleration begins from a height of 35 km. Speedspacewalk is 40,000 km/h.
Speed in space: record
Maximum speed in space- the record, set 46 years ago, is still holding, it was made by astronauts who took part in the Apollo 10 mission. Having circled the moon, they returned back when spaceship speed in space was 39,897 km/h. In the near future, it is planned to send the Orion spacecraft into weightlessness, which will put astronauts into low Earth orbit. Perhaps then it will be possible to break the 46-year-old record. The speed of light in space- 1 billion km / h. I wonder if we can overcome such a distance with our maximum available speed of 40,000 km / h. Here what is the speed in space develops near the light, but we do not feel it here.
Theoretically, a person can move at a speed slightly less than the speed of light. However, this will entail enormous harm, especially for an unprepared organism. Indeed, to begin with, such a speed must be developed, an effort must be made to safely reduce it. Because rapid acceleration and slowdown can be fatal to humans.
In ancient times, it was believed that the Earth was motionless, no one was interested in the question of the speed of its rotation in orbit, because such concepts did not exist in principle. But even now it is difficult to give an unambiguous answer to the question, because the value is not the same in different geographical points. Closer to the equator, the speed will be higher, in the region of southern Europe it is 1200 km / h, this is the average Earth's speed in space.
