On the morning of July 14, the second stage of the Epsilon-S rocket of Japan's latest improved solid launch vehicle Epsilon-S rocket exploded during test ignition, and the plant building was directly blown away by the explosion gas wave, and the scene was thick smoke, which was clearly visible dozens of kilometers away.
What is more strange is that there have also been two large explosions at rocket engine test sites in the United States recently, and they are still busy investigating the cause of the problem. However, American and Japanese netizens made wild remarks about the "Suzaku II" of Blue Arrow Aerospace, a Chinese private enterprise that first opened a methane rocket into orbit a few days ago, and had to find a father for the rocket.
Big explosion at the Japanese rocket test site: The accident casts a shadow over Japan's space flight
According to Japan's Kyodo News Agency, the second stage engine of the Epsilon S rocket ignited and tested at the Noyo Test Center in Akita Prefecture, Japan, exploded 47 seconds after ignition, and the smoke rushed to a height of thousands of meters, and several nearby wind turbines "shivered" in the smoke, while encountering the baptism of smoke, while still whirring to generate electricity, this scene is not to mention how funny:
From the monitoring footage, the solid rocket was in the normal combustion test, suddenly burst out of the side of the flame, and then a large explosion, the roof of the plant was directly lifted, and then the scene fell into flames and smoke. However, according to an official from Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the explosion caused a fire that destroyed the test site but caused no casualties.
The explosion occurred on the Epsilon S (the latest modification of the Epsilon rocket) two-stage solid rocket, which is a follow-up project to the retirement of Japan's M-V solid rocket, because the previous M-V solid rocket was a 140-ton three-stage rocket capable of sending 1.8-ton satellites into 250-kilometer low-Earth orbit, with a good payload but too high a cost, so it was withdrawn from active service in 2006, less than 10 years after its first flight in 1997.
M-V solid rocket
The JPAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) developed the smaller but lower cost Epsilon rocket in 2007 and made its first flight in 2013, and the Epsilon S is an improved version with a load capacity that is not much worse than the previous version, the load capacity of the Epsilon S is:
- Sun-synchronous orbit (350-700 km): ≧600 kg
- Low Earth orbit (500 km): ≧ 1400 kg
The Epsilon S is also not much different in size from the previous Epsilon, with a height of 26.0 meters, a diameter increase from 0.5 meters to 0.6 meters, and a total takeoff weight of 95 tons. The first stage of the Epsilon S rocket was replaced by the H3's bundled solid rocket booster SRB-3, the third stage was replaced by a newly designed solid rocket, and the second stage was an M-34c solid rocket motor.
Speculation on the cause of the explosion: most likely the technology is not at home
Solid rocket extinguishing has obvious differences in fuel tanks and engines, because the whole structure is an engine, with the consumption of fuel, the burning position of the rocket will slowly spread from the tail to the middle to the end of the solid fuel, under normal circumstances, the thrust of the solid rocket is not adjustable, but in different time periods of rocket launch, the thrust requirements are not the same What to do?
The thrust can only be changed by changing the shape of the charge column, and the accuracy of the shape is very demanding, so the column of the solid rocket needs to be manually trimmed after casting and molding, so in the field of solid rockets there is a master of repairing the column, in the environment full of solid rocket charge The danger of repairing is extremely high, and a spark can directly blow the entire plant into the sky. The mainland has been introduced among the craftsmen of large countries, and the gunpowder shaper Xu Liping is the top master in this regard, and his correction accuracy can reach 0.1 mm.
The shape of the column is different for different segments
There are several possible reasons for the explosion of Epsilon's rocket engine this time, one is uneven casting, and uneven combustion occurred after ignition, resulting in structural damage and a large explosion; Another may be that the shape is not in place, resulting in combustion problems, and another is structural damage, the shell of the solid engine is mostly carbon fiber winding, if there is a manufacturing quality problem, the high temperature and high pressure flame can not be covered, the explosion is inevitable.
Judging from the surveillance video of the explosion, it seems that the nozzle structure is broken or there is a problem with the combined position of the nozzle and the arrow structure, of course, the amount of information is too small, and it is only a blind guess.
Solid rockets are so expensive, why does Japan keep making solid rockets?
Solid rockets have a simple structure and a large thrust, and are often used as boosters, such as the rocket on both sides of the Space Shuttle launch is the solid rocket booster SRB, each booster can produce 1,225 tons of thrust, which is much larger than any liquid rocket engine.
But most of the time used as a booster, but Japan has been developing solid rockets that can launch satellites, Japan may also be one of the earliest and most comprehensive solid rocket launch satellites in the world, the reason is also very simple, solid rocket technology can be directly used to make ballistic missiles, Japan due to the restrictions of the pacifist constitution, the development of ballistic missile technology is restricted.
However, solid rockets are not among them, so Japan's sparing efforts to develop solid rockets are obviously purposeful, and payloads like the M-V and Epsilon can be replaced by warheads to obtain a global strike capability, so we must not take Japan's ambitions lightly.
Although this explosion will cast a shadow on the development of Epsilon S, Japan's pace on this road will never stop, and it has recently reconciled with Japan and South Korea, and also tried to introduce NATO into Asia, and the United States engaged in an Indo-Pacific alliance to try to contain China.
The United States and Japan have recently had three explosions: but they are still busy slandering Chinese rockets
On February 17, Japan's new generation H3 launch vehicle launched at the end of the countdown for a puff of smoke and did not take off, and the result was that after the main engine ignited, the control system of the first stage of the rocket detected some abnormal situation, so it did not transmit an ignition signal to the solid rocket thruster, resulting in the suspension of the launch.
On March 7, the H3 rocket (the one that failed in February) was launched again, this time the rocket successfully took off, but at an altitude of 526 kilometers at 7 minutes and 26 seconds, it lost speed, and finally the speed was insufficient to enter orbit, JAXA controlled its self-detonation, and on March 8, the investigation reported that before and after the arrow body sent an ignition signal to the secondary engine, the rocket power system had an abnormal ignition and finally failed to fire.
At that time, China Aerospace also issued an article to encourage JAXA, saying that our Chinese CZ-5 launch also suffered a failure, JAXA was moved to sigh, after all, this is a rare Japanese Chinese organization, including the author, most of the Chinese are ridiculing or joking that Japanese technology is not at home, and it is necessary to cultivate and cultivate Yunyun.
It is more coincidental that this explosive plague is not only Japan, but even the United States has been bombing this year, the first bombing of the United States in 2023 is on March 29, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) new generation rocket "Vulcan-Centaur V" hydrogen and oxygen upper stage structural parts exploded during qualification tests at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, witnesses said: "A mushroom cloud larger than the test bench rises." ”
After the explosion, ULA boss Tory Bruno said that the structural part was "abnormal under extreme test conditions", but was ridiculed by netizens as an "understatement", and interestingly was filmed by the high-definition cameras on Blue Origin's BE-4 and BE-3U test benches 100 meters away, and ULA's boss asked Blue Origin to delete the video.
At the time, it was said to have been deleted, but the result was the surveillance video of the explosion by Twitter god Eric Berger who did not know how to use it, which made Musk also laugh. Everyone is not happy. Fortunately, at that time, because of the test hydrogen and oxygen storage tank, the liquid hydrogen storage tank was filled with liquid hydrogen, and the liquid oxygen storage tank was filled with liquid nitrogen, otherwise this time it would not only be deflagration, it would be a super explosion.
On June 30, 2023, at the test site in West Texas, a BE-4 liquid oxygen methane engine of Blue Origin exploded violently only 10 seconds after ignition during a hot test, and both the engine and the test bench were seriously damaged in the explosion.
The market is also speculating about what caused the explosion, the author also analyzed, it is very likely that the high-temperature gas turbopump is blocked, and then the high-pressure high-temperature gas makes the pressure rise sharply resulting in the explosion, but until now, Blue Origin has not announced the cause, I don't know if it's embarrassing or the problem is still under investigation.
The successive explosions of the United States and Japan have cast a shadow on space activities in 2023, but on the Internet, American and Japanese netizens did not reflect on what went wrong, after all, the United States and Japan are busy with ideological struggles, especially the United States, all the ones that have a little relationship with China even a magnet must be put under X-rays to see if China has a bug, which is really a disease, and for Chinese scientists, it is even more chasing the wind, no materials will also give you a whole black material to check your ancestors for three generations.
In fact, there is nothing to say for us, Americans themselves engage in sports, surveys, restore McCarthyism, support LGBT, engage in gender antagonism, etc., they like to play as much as they like, Chinese scientists who work in the United States that is their business, we welcome back, but to be investigated, then sorry, this is your choice, we can't do anything about it.
Coincidentally, on July 12, the day after the BE-4 engine explosion accident was announced, the mainland private enterprise Blue Arrow Aerospace's "Suzaku II" put a test "invalid load" into orbit, maybe many friends did not care, but Blue Arrow Aerospace created a world first, because this is the world's first liquid oxygen methane rocket successfully put the payload into orbit.
Friends who are familiar with liquid oxygen methane rockets know that there are Starship, New Glenn, Vulcan Centaur, Terran R, Neutron, Terran 1 and Stoke Space on this track, but only Blue Arrow Aerospace has won the first place, don't think that the technical difficulty of the success of Chinese private enterprises is very low, on the contrary, this difficulty is quite high.
At this festive moment, Western netizens are coldly expressing their opinions, and said that they want to find a father for Blue Arrow Aerospace's "Suzaku II"! On July 12, on the day of the successful launch of Blue Arrow Aerospace, only SpaceNews and NasaSpaceFlight made relevant reports in the Western media, both of which are suitable for professional aerospace media, and the evaluation is still very pertinent, directly affirming the status of the first arrow of Suzaku II methane.
BUT IN THE MESSAGE AREA IS NOT SO POLITE, SOME NETIZENS SAID THAT CHINA HAS ALWAYS BEEN COPYING, FROM THE 1980S BY TO THE 2040s:
Some netizens said, "So Suzaku-2 is a COPY? But soon someone who understood said that this rocket in the West is not the same yet, and even if it is, it has not yet succeeded:
The friend who replied was very patient, and also clearly knew that Blue Arrow Aerospace had an "official background", and the author also learned that Blue Arrow Aerospace was not "self-made", but had technical support from senior engineers who left China Aerospace, so the netizen who replied believed that only a state-owned background could succeed.
But in fact, this assumption completely ignores how SpaceX started, completely poaching NASA talents, or NASA engineers who have been marginalized to SpaceX, without NASA there would be no SpaceX today, relying only on SpaceX's own efforts is far from enough.
This friend directly pointed out that the US space industry killed 24 people, while China suffered zero casualties! However, some netizens later pointed out that only 15 dead people were related to the aerospace industry, but some netizens said that China is really zero? The author can tell you that at least because of the direct astronaut casualties are really zero. Other aerospace accident casualties, the author also has no detailed information.
Most of these netizens are part of the indiscriminate spray, but there are also many friends who know to help explain that with the advancement of China's aerospace technology, space activities are becoming more and more frequent, and many rumors have been self-defeating, and we don't have to be sad about these small buzzes, and over time, their own are boring.
#所见所得, it's all scientific#