Martian masquerade with Tesla and stuffed animal
On February 7, 2018, an event occurred that, frankly speaking, was awaited with obvious interest throughout the world. Elon Musk, a famous trickster and technocrat throughout the world, still kept his word and launched his Tesla roadster into the depths of space with a stuffed astronaut in the driver’s seat. They say that before the start, music was turned on in the roadster and the flight of the electric car towards Mars began to resemble an 80s arcade race in the spirit of the game Outrun.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at Telegram, Facebook, Classmates or In contact with
However, according to experts, it is unlikely that the electric car will enter Mars orbit, as Musk hopes. Most likely, his life will rush off somewhere 80 million km away from Mars. Not a very targeted shot.
But this is not the main thing. Rocket scientists and cosmophiles among those who like to glue lunar rovers were waiting not so much for Musk's show-offs, but for the launch of a super-heavy launch vehicle with 27 Merlin 1D rocket engines, known as Falcon Heavy. It took SpaceX engineers seven years to design and build a launch vehicle with new engines of their own design.
The last time a super-heavy rocket launched into space was quite a long time ago - almost 30 years ago. It was in 1988 that the USSR made an impressive launch of the Energia-Buran system, after which interest in super-heavy rockets disappeared for many years. Before Energia, launches of super-heavy launch vehicles took place within the framework of the Apollo program - from 1967 to 1973, 13 launches of the Saturn V launch vehicle were made.
If we talk about terms, then super-heavy class rockets are considered to be carriers capable of delivering over 50 tons of payload into low Earth orbit. And since it so happened that humanity has ceased to be interested in manned interplanetary flights or at least building an outpost in space in the form of heavy orbital platforms, then all space powers have focused on commercial launches, which do not require super-heavy rockets.
Currently, four countries are capable of building super-heavy launch vehicles. These are the USSR/Russia, the USA, France (Eurocosmos, if we are to be very scrupulous) and China. Of these, only two have experience of actual launches - the USSR and the USA. In post-Soviet Russia, the construction and launch of super-heavy launch vehicles was not carried out, although all the necessary drawings and technologies remained. In addition to Energia, there were developments from the even more powerful Vulcan launch vehicle, designed to carry 200 tons of payload.
I admit, as a hardened ramjet technocrat and space lover, I watched the launch of the Falcon Heavy launch vehicle live via YouTube with great interest. It was especially impressive that SpaceX engineers managed to coordinate the synchronous operation of 27 engines. Let me remind you that the Soviet manned flight program to the Moon failed due to the unsolved problem of synchronizing fuel combustion in the chambers of 30 first-stage NK-15 engines. However, modern computer technologies make it possible to solve and control many of the once dead-end problems.
No less impressive was the soft and, most strikingly, synchronous landing of the two launch modules on special platforms. The central block launched the upper stage into space, in which the roadster with the stuffed animal was hidden, but it was unable to return back in normal mode: according to SpaceX, the central block used up almost the entire fuel supply, which is why only one of the three landing engines turned on. As a result, the device crashed into the water at a speed of 480 km/h, and its debris damaged the floating platform with the romantic name Of Course I Still Love You.
The hard worker Musk even decided to make a PR out of the collapse of the central block, announcing the imminent release of a video with an explosion, if one was caught on camera.
In general, the first, seemingly successful, launch of the launch vehicle did not turn out very smoothly. Of course, there is something to praise the Space-X engineers for, but Musk still did not keep his main promise, because initially the businessman boasted of surpassing the record of the Soviet “Energia” - placing over 100 tons of payload into low orbit. Falcon Heavy's payload is much smaller - about 64 tons.
It is clear that for the first test launch, no one in their right mind would attach an expensive payload to the rocket in the form of a cool space probe, hung with expensive instruments, with a nuclear power plant on board. Therefore, the flight of a roadster with a dummy towards Mars does not in any way set a record - Musk, accustomed to external effects, relied on the wow effect. Hipsters actually reacted favorably to show-offs.
In my opinion, what could be sacrificed at the dawn of the space age, when the USSR was the first to throw a metal ball into space with antennas and a transmitter on board that emitted “beep-beep,” is in no way suitable 60 years later. A full-fledged inert cargo with a small set of scientific instruments would be much more useful than a stupid electric car weighing about a ton with Mr. Spaceman, launched as a monument to his beloved in the vicinity of Mars.
In short, it is too early to talk about revolution. At the moment, private rocket science, led by Musk, is trying to repeat the achievements of 30 years ago in a new round. And so far it’s not catching up.
They say that today the non-brothers in the Verkhovna Zrada of Ukraine staged a drinking party in honor of the achievements of SpaceX and even blathered something in the sense that “the Americans fly like crazy, but the Katsaps are blowing everything up.”
Apparently, Ukrainian people's deputies have the memory of aquarium fish. Most recently, SpaceX launched the top-secret billion-dollar Zuma satellite with extreme failure. And now Zuma cannot be found even in strong telescopes - the device has disappeared in swarms of space debris. And so, everyone’s rockets explode. Especially the new ones. And there’s no escape – this is always the case with complex systems. It is only parliamentary talkers and slackers who do not risk anything and are capable of launching anything only in a negative sense.
It should also be said that the launch of Falcon Heavy had a life-giving effect on the Russian leadership. On February 1, President Putin instructed Roscosmos to develop a domestic super-heavy launch vehicle. And, although such a project was not in the approved plans of Roscosmos for the period 2017 - 2025, an amendment was nevertheless made. The rocket complex will be created at the Vostochny cosmodrome. By 2028, the corresponding infrastructure and launch complexes will be built at the cosmodrome, and superheavy testing is planned to begin by 2027.
Impressed by the start of the super-heavyweight race, China also promises to launch its super-heavy Long March launch vehicle in 2025.
As for the Falcon Heavy, a lot of questions remain about its future. If the issue is more or less clear with the launch of several heavyweight satellites, then with manned spacecraft things are oh so difficult. So far, most of the flights of the Dragon spacecraft have ended in either an accident, an explosion, or some other emergency situation. And that means it will take at least a few more years to fine-tune it. In addition, many experts consider a combination of 27 engines to be dangerous. More starts are needed to understand whether this design is viable or not.
In addition, Falcon Heavy is breathing down the neck of other projects of American super-heavy launch vehicles - the SLS - Space Launch System from Boeing Corporation, as well as the promising New Armstrong launch vehicle, should launch in 2019. As practice shows, scattering resources in the design of rocket systems does not lead to anything good, as evidenced by the failure of the USSR in the manned lunar program. It is possible that the United States is stepping on the same rake.
The test launch of Falcon Heavy with a roadster and a stuffed astronaut is most similar to Tesla advertising and Elon Musk’s self-PR. Of course, he managed to impress the respectable audience. As for the rest, we'll wait and see.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.