On October 21, 2021, South Korea's self-developed carrier rocket "Sodo" was launched from the Roo Cosmos Center in Kokyang-gun, Jeolla Nam Province. It is reported that the rocket is a three-stage carrier rocket, which is the first rocket in South Korea to be developed entirely using its own technology, and its importance is self-evident. The mission is to send a 1.5-ton satellite model into an orbit 600 to 800 kilometers from Earth. Although full of joy, the rocket also rose to an altitude of 700 kilometers, but the satellite did not enter the intended orbit. That is, the launch mission failed.
South Korea's economic and technological strength, looking at the world, is still relatively strong. GDP will reach $1.6 trillion in 2020, higher than Russia. In terms of technology, South Korea's most powerful is semiconductor manufacturing. The semiconductor industry is the cornerstone of technological development, and the most cutting-edge semiconductor manufacturing industry is CPU manufacturing. At present, the world's enterprises that can realize the mass production of CPU 5nm process, in addition to TSMC in Taiwan Province, the other is South Korea's Samsung.
The World carrier rocket project was officially launched in 2010, took nearly 12 years, and the cumulative investment exceeded 2 trillion won (about 10.9 billion yuan).
Since South Korea can build CPUs, after so many years, why has the self-developed rocket project that took more than 10 years still not succeeded, and is it really difficult to build rockets?
With the level of south Korea's science and technology, so much investment, so long time, still failed, it can be seen that self-developed rockets are really not easy for anyone to play!
However, this does not mean that the technical content of rocket engines is higher than that of CPU. Strictly speaking, the technical content of making CPUs is higher. After all, it is difficult to integrate billions of transistors on a fingernail-sized wafer. In fact, there are only a few countries in the world that can manufacture CPUs independently and completely independently. Without the support of Laomei, it is estimated that South Korea will not be able to achieve much in the field of CPU manufacturing.
South Korea's space dream has a long history, before the "World", South Korea had cooperated with Russia to develop the "Luo Lao" two-stage carrier rocket. After two failed launches in 2008 and 2010, Luo Lao successfully launched the Techstar 2c satellite into a predetermined orbit in 2013, becoming the 11th country in the world with the ability to launch satellites autonomously.
The most important component on the car is the engine, and the most important component on the rocket is the rocket engine. In fact, the first stage of the "Luo Lao" two-stage carrier rocket was made by the Russian side, and the second stage was made by South Korea. Although the three stages of the "World" are all manufactured independently by South Korea, according to public information, the performance of the rocket engine that South Korea has spent more than a decade developing is far behind the rocket engine provided by Russia before. In this way, if there is no first-stage rocket provided by Russia, it is estimated that the 2013 "Luo Lao" may also fail to launch.
Although failures in the process of space launches are common, the reason why the mission failed is actually that South Korea has not yet fully mastered the ability to launch rocket satellites autonomously, and the performance of rocket engines is too weak. Although the name is loud, the strength is still average after all.
Launching a rocket is not flying a kite, after all, the kite has a line to hold, once the rocket takes off, it is difficult to control at will. In order to send the satellite into the sky, the rocket must fly according to the predetermined trajectory, when to turn in the middle, when the secondary rocket is ignited, must be planned in advance, any link is wrong, the launch mission can not be successful.
A carrier rocket is a vehicle that sends spacecraft such as artificial satellites, manned spacecraft, and interplanetary probes into space, generally in stages 2 to 4. Up to now, only the European Union and a few countries in the world, such as China, the United States, Russia and India, have mastered the full set of technology for launch vehicles. Looking at the world, the technical level of the World is not advanced at present, and there is still a big gap between the launch vehicles of the world's major space powers.
According to aerospace experts, the overall performance of the World rocket is not as good as China's Long March 2 carrier rocket in the 1970s. The Long March 2 carrier rocket is a two-stage carrier rocket that can send a 2.4-ton payload to a low-Earth orbit of 200 to 400 kilometers.
Whether it is launching satellites, manned spaceflight, or exploring the moon, if you can't independently develop launch vehicles, it is impossible to become a space power, and it is always possible to be subject to people.
On April 24, 1970, China successfully launched its self-developed rockets and satellites, the Long March 1 and Dongfanghong 1, becoming the fifth country in the world to independently develop and launch artificial earth satellites after the Soviet Union, the United States, France and Japan. At that time, the environment, poor and white, and the courage to build rockets, really admired the older generation of people. Of course, China's rapid success at that time was also inseparable from the contributions of scientists such as Qian Xuesen. Moreover, in order to develop the space industry at that time, it was also invested at any cost.
It is reported that the South Korean space department has joined the NASA-led Artemis program and plans to further carry out lunar exploration projects independently and autonomously. As for how far it can go, it is really difficult to say. After all, the direct economic value created by the aerospace industry is still very small, far less than the direct economic value created by the CPU. Without a certain volume, it is difficult to continue to invest.
In addition to space use, launch vehicles can be turned into missiles with slight modifications. Although the launch failed, South Korea could not stop there. As for whether South Korea is to realize the space dream or for other purposes, let us wait and see.
#韩国运载火箭 The launch of The World failed #