laitimes

ESA astronauts issued a collective declaration calling for the development of autonomous space flight programs On February 16, 2022, at the European Astronautical Summit in Toulouse, France, ESA astronauts delivered

author:That cart of pastries

ESA astronauts issued a collective declaration calling for the development of autonomous spaceflight programs

On February 16, 2022, at the European Astronautical Summit in Toulouse, France, ESA astronauts issued a collective declaration, strongly calling for the development of an independent and autonomous manned space flight program

In November 2021, ministers from ESA's 22 member countries signed a declaration at a meeting in the Portuguese city of Matosinhos calling for priority in three urgent initiatives called "accelerators" aimed at responding to the climate crisis, responding to natural disasters, protecting spacecraft from orbital debris and destructive space weather, and accelerating the establishment of a "Digital Twin Earth" program to promote carbon neutrality by 2050

The manifesto contains two tentative mission recommendations:

One is that Europe is considering developing its own space launch system

The second is that the ESA launches a probe to Jupiter or Saturn's frozen moon and brings back samples

In proposing that Europe develop its own manned spacecraft, Aschbacher noted: "It is a political decision that only the United States, Russia and China, and possibly India, can quickly send astronauts into orbit." ”

So this time, ESA first asked the astronauts to submit a name to try the "depth"

Europe has also previously considered developing its own manned spacecraft

In 1987, the ESA approved the development of the Hermes Space Shuttle (Figure 1), similar to a miniature version of nasa's space shuttle, and planned to launch on an Ariane 5 rocket

The space system that the European Space Agency had planned to build in the 1990s also included the Columbus space station, the Arian 5 launch vehicle and the European Relay Satellite System. The Hermes small space shuttle uses a launch vehicle to launch vertically, landing horizontally like an airplane to a specially customized runway. It plans to reduce the cost of developing and utilizing space through reuse, and was one of the hallmarks of the European Space Agency's independent development of outer space (Grandpa once dreamed of it too).

At that time, the Hermes project had a total of 14 countries involved, and the initial plan was to bear 50% of the total cost of France, 15% of the Federal Republic of Germany, 13% of Italy, 7% of Belgium, 5% of the Netherlands, 4% of the United Kingdom, 4% of Spain, 4% of Sweden, 2% of Switzerland, 1.5% of Australia, 1% of Denmark, 0.6% of Ireland, and the proportion of investment in Norway and Canada was undecided

Hermes is 18 meters long, with a wingspan of 10.2 meters and a height of 3.4 meters, the front of the fuselage is the cockpit/cockpit, the middle is the load bay/cargo compartment, between the two is the airlock cabin, the rear is the power cabin and equipped with docking system (Figure 2).

At that time, Hermes was deeply influenced by the SMALL SPACE SHUTTLE of the United States HL-20, and also adopted a fairing-free launch, which required higher attitude control of the rocket (Figures 3 and 4)

The docking device, propellant reservoir and orbital attitude control engine can be seen from the rear of the spacecraft in Figure 5. The CNES logo separately marked on the fuselage of Hermes shows the unique position of the French National Centre for Space Research (CNES) to initiate research and support its development

The Hermes small space shuttle return re-entry flight time is about 40 minutes, and the flight distance is more than 10,000 kilometers. During the re-entry period, the flight altitude is first reduced from 120 km to 30 km in about 35 minutes, the speed is reduced to Mach 2, and then the speed is reduced to 300 km / h in 6 minutes and the landing is made. Hermes re-entered at angles of 25 to 40 degrees for most of the time (Figure 6).

Figure 7 is the thermal protection system of the Hermes small space shuttle, Hermes has a reusable heat protection layer throughout the fuselage, using carbon-silicon carbide, carbon-carbon and other composite materials and advanced manufacturing processes, which is more complete and lightweight than the heat protection layer of the US space shuttle (the heat protection layer of Hermes is 15 kg / square meter, and the US space shuttle is 40 kg / square meter)

Figure 8-10 shows a schematic diagram of the docking of the Small Space Shuttle Hermes and the Columbus Space Station

However, the spiraling costs, as well as the russian space agency's provision of cheap Soyuz spacecraft, led to the program being canceled in 1992

Since the first German astronaut entered the Salyut VI space station in 1978 on a Soyuz spacecraft, 47 ESA astronauts have entered space aboard US-Russian manned vehicles

If the above declaration is adopted, the ESA Director-General will submit it to the European Parliament for approval in November this year ([snoring] The so-called crisis consciousness of old Europe is that the process is carried out for a few years).

ESA astronauts issued a collective declaration calling for the development of autonomous space flight programs On February 16, 2022, at the European Astronautical Summit in Toulouse, France, ESA astronauts delivered
ESA astronauts issued a collective declaration calling for the development of autonomous space flight programs On February 16, 2022, at the European Astronautical Summit in Toulouse, France, ESA astronauts delivered
ESA astronauts issued a collective declaration calling for the development of autonomous space flight programs On February 16, 2022, at the European Astronautical Summit in Toulouse, France, ESA astronauts delivered
ESA astronauts issued a collective declaration calling for the development of autonomous space flight programs On February 16, 2022, at the European Astronautical Summit in Toulouse, France, ESA astronauts delivered
ESA astronauts issued a collective declaration calling for the development of autonomous space flight programs On February 16, 2022, at the European Astronautical Summit in Toulouse, France, ESA astronauts delivered
ESA astronauts issued a collective declaration calling for the development of autonomous space flight programs On February 16, 2022, at the European Astronautical Summit in Toulouse, France, ESA astronauts delivered
ESA astronauts issued a collective declaration calling for the development of autonomous space flight programs On February 16, 2022, at the European Astronautical Summit in Toulouse, France, ESA astronauts delivered
ESA astronauts issued a collective declaration calling for the development of autonomous space flight programs On February 16, 2022, at the European Astronautical Summit in Toulouse, France, ESA astronauts delivered
ESA astronauts issued a collective declaration calling for the development of autonomous space flight programs On February 16, 2022, at the European Astronautical Summit in Toulouse, France, ESA astronauts delivered
ESA astronauts issued a collective declaration calling for the development of autonomous space flight programs On February 16, 2022, at the European Astronautical Summit in Toulouse, France, ESA astronauts delivered

Read on