Updates Russia's Advanced Crew Transportation System's Development

[SiberianTiger]

Now, when it's officially conceived and all the primary contractors are selected by Roscosmos, I will stuff this thread with any relevant white books, green credentials, blue prints, yellow pages and red carpet events relevant to the ППТС (ACTS).

 

[Jake]

Umm... any links to some more info? (wiki or something)

 

[SiberianTiger]

Umm... any links to some more info? (wiki or something)

Patience, I'm doing this in the middle of my own work.

Here is the white book for the Space Ship part (Crew Transportation System) that can be found among other tender 7-289544 documents published in the web repository of state-offered contracts on 2009-02-26 (starting lot price 800000000.00RUB)

http://www.gostorgi.ru/tender/7-289544.html

I believe that legal and financial mumbo-jumbo would be off-topic here, so I'm skipping to right here...

V. REQUIREMENTS

for execution of development project
"Making an advanced crew transportation system of new generation that provides transportation services of orbiting space stations, advanced manned space systems and other near-Earth orbital constellation objects - a draft project stage".
Code Name: Development Project ACTS

Signed by:
Head of Manned Space Programmes of the Federal Space Agency A.B.Krasnov

The following requirements must be used when preparing a project of Technical Enquiry according to GOST State Standard RV 15.201-2003

1. Name and code name of the draft project, legal cause for development, customer, execution terms

1.1. The draft project's name: "Making an advanced crew transportation system of new generation that provides transportation services of orbiting space stations, advanced manned space systems and other near-Earth orbital constellation objects - a draft project stage"
Code Name: Development Project ACTS

1.2. The Legal cause for development: "The Federal Space Programme of Russia for years 2006-2015", chapter 1 (Russian Federation Government's Resolution #635 of October 22, 2005), State Defence Contract for the year 2009 and for the planned period of years 2010 and 2011 (Russian Federation Government's Resolution <i>number and date classified</i>).

1.3. The Customer is the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos).

1.4. The draft project's terms of execution: March 2009 till June 2010.

2. Aims and tasks of doing the Draft Project stage.

2.1. The Aim of the Development Project is development of a Draft Project for the Advanced Crew Transportation System (ACTS).

2.2. The tasks, solving which will enable reaching the set aim:
- Making a Draft Project of the ACTS;
- Expert Evaluation and producing a conclusion on the Draft Project.

3. The required performances.
While doing the Draft Project, it's necessary to provide for:

3.1. Scientific and technical level of the project, as well as project making methods not inferior to the contemporary foreign projects of crew space transportation systems.

3.2. Competitive position of homeland technology at the international market of space services, that implies minimum cost of the system's design, producing, service, launch, flight control, search&recovery and evacuation.

3.3. Maximum usage of the effective engineering solutions and technology know-hows that the branch enterprises possess.

3.4. Meeting the project technical performances for the ACTS, that include:

3.4.1. The ACTS must comprise a new generation manned spaceship and its versions.

The basic version of the manned space ship is intended for delivery of 6 people crew and no less than 500 kg of payload to Orbiting Space Stations (OSS) and return of the crew and no less than 500 kg of payload back to Earth.

Other versions are intended for:

- delivery of 4 people crew and no less than 100 kg of payload to a near-Lunar orbit, a Lunar Orbiting Space Station and returning them back to Earth;

- conducting experiments and research in autonomous flight with crew of up to 4 people (as required by the mission) with duration no less than 30 days before returning;

- transporting and technical servicing of automatic spacecrafts, autonomous platforms and free flying modules, in Low Earth Orbit, as well as operations targeted to removal of derelict automatic spacecrafts and space junk from their orbits;

- providing commercial space tourism services;

- delivery of no less than 2000 kg of payload up to an OSS and returning back no less than 500 kg of payload in a cargo unmanned version.

3.4.2. The basic variant spaceship's required orbit parameters are:

Orbit plane inclination 51.6 degrees when flying to the International Space Station and 51.8 degreees when flying to an OSS.

Orbit height during delivery and return of space stations' crews between 200 and 500 km.

Evaluate the possibility to enable the basic version space ship to perform the required tasks in 73.2 degrees inclination orbit.

3.4.3. The space ship's avionics must enable one cosmonaut to perform all flight operations from a single seat. The ship must have two seats providing identically full control capabilities for two crewmembers.

3.4.4. The space ship's crew's flight conditions, as well as those provided by its versions must comply with GOST State Standard R 50804-95 "A Cosmonaut's Environment within a manned spacecraft. General medical technical requirements". The g-loads exerted on the crew must not exceed:

- during ascent following the nominal flight profile - no more than 4.0 units;

- during descent following the nominal flight profile - no more than 3.0 units;

- during descent following the maximum cross range flight profile - no more than 5.0 units;

- in off-nominal situations: no more than 7.0 units when escaping a failed LV using an escape system; no more than 12.0 units at the atmospheric emergency descent path after an escape system's action.

3.4.5. A possibility must be provided for safe landing of the return vehicle in situations of emergency mission aborts and malfunctions of launch vehicle in every time of year on every unprepared land or water landing site.

3.4.6. Autonomous flight's duration:

- of the basic version of the manned space ship and of the unmanned cargo return version when servicing near-Earth OSS - no less than 5 days;

- of manned space ships servicing automatic spacecrafts and platforms, performing removal of derelict automatic spacecrafts and space junk, performing experiments involving special equipment, exercising technologies of quick responce Earth observation (including monitoring and early warning of large-scale natural and technological disasters), executing double purpose and military missions - no less than 30 days;

- of the Lunar-capable version with Lunar Orbit Insertion capability - no less than 14 days.

3.4.7. Durations of ACTS ships berthing at manned space stations:

- as a part of a Near-Earth OSS - no less than 1 year;

- as a part of a Near-Moon OSS - no less than 200 days.

3.4.8. The full delta velocity reserve of the space ships when performing transportation and technical service tasks must enable them dynamic operations such as, docking, redocking and backup docking to an OSS, to a LEO automatic spacecrafts, platforms and free-flying modules, and also dynamic operations during deorbiting, descent and landing the return vehicle in a designated area on Earth.

3.4.9. Flying around OSS', serviceable spacecrafts, orbital platforms and modules outfitted with relevant approach aids and docking to a designated port must be possible to do both in automatic and manual control modes.

3.4.10. Precision of landing of the return vehicle in the nominal descent profile should be no worse than 10 km provided the landing happens within the continental Russia. It is a requirement to consider different means of providing for this precision value.

3.4.11. Manned space ships of every version must guarantee crew survival over all the powered flight time, during water landings and tille the moment of arrival of a search and rescue force.

3.4.12. The level of dynamic loads during docking must not exceed the strength characteristics and load bearing capacity of an OSS, automatic spacecrafts, orbital modules and their construction parts.

3.4.13. The manned system's engines that are used during atmospheric flight stages must consume environmentally friendly propellants.

3.4.14. The launching mass of the space ship must allow putting it to a low parking orbit at inclination of 51.8 deg by a middle class launcher rocket of an improved payload capacity (carrying capacity no less than 20 tonnes at Hpo=200 km).

3.4.15. The lifetime of the reentry vehicle in case of repeated use - no less than 15 years; each unit must be able to perform no less than 10 flights.

3.4.16. Duration of the ACTS ships servicing cycle since their delivery to a space port till the next launch - no more than 30 days.

3.4.17. Reliability and safety:

- reliability of achieving a mission goal at LEO missions or servicing a near-Earth space station must be no less than 0.99;

- reliability of achieving a crew survival at LEO missions or servicing a near-Earth space station must be no less than 0.995;

- running the ACTS hardware must provide for ground personnel and support infrastructure safety;

- construction elements, mechanisms and onboard systems of the ACTS must be designed to meet the two failures resistance requirement:
* any first failure does not jeopardize mission goal;
* any second failure does not jeopardize lives of the crew.

4. Technical and economical requirements

The cost of works must not exceed the volume of financing provided in accordance with the Federal Space Programme of Russia for years 2006-1015. It may vary in the limits defined by applicable laws.

5. Patent clearance requirements

5.1. The design works must provide for patent clearance of the designed items and their parts in accordance with GOST State Standard R 15.001-96.

5.2. The Contractor performs the necessary actions to patent any genuinely new technological and design solutions that may appear in the course of doing this Design Project.

6. Protection of the State Secret requirements.

6.1. When carrying out the Design Project and making reporting documentation, the process must meet the requirements of the Federal Law "State Secret Protection" #131-FZ of Oct 16, 1997.

6.2. To meet the information security regulations, the workflow on the current selection and upkeep of the data base must comply with Roscosmos' requirements; the information technical security provisions must comply with regulatory and procedural guidelines of the Federal Service of the Technical and Export Regulation of Russia.

7. Workflow stages are defined when signing the State Contract according to the contract fulfillment conditions offered in the competition winner's tender and applicable regulations.

 

[Jake]

Whoa, nice. I think it's only a matter of time until somebody puts it into Orbiter.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Coming soon: Energia vs Khrunichev - what are the clashing designs? Who will trade off a space ship contract for other benefits and what is the third force emerging from the deep? :thumbup:

Sorry gents, I'm really short on time to deliver some on translating the stuff. But I promise to post something interesting tomorrow.

 

[Jarvitä]

Coming soon: Energia vs Khrunichev - what are the clashing designs? Who will trade off a space ship contract for other benefits and what is the third force emerging from the deep? :thumbup:

Sorry gents, I'm really short on time to deliver some on translating the stuff. But I promise to post something interesting tomorrow.

So post your Russian sources, you're not the only one capable of translating it.

 

[SiberianTiger]

So post your Russian sources, you're not the only one capable of translating it.

Jarvitä, you have my private message!

---------- Post added at 12:51 ---------- Previous post was at 04:15 ----------

The space ship proposal of Energia Corp. has won the Roscosmos ACTS tender few days ago: http://www.redorbit.com/news/space/...ose_contractor_for_soyuz_successor/index.html

Here is an overview of the Energia's space ship design according to the latest review published in Novosti Kosmonavtiki magazine last year (issue 9, 2008, pg. 8-12). It should be noted that this draft project is essentially a "napkin draft" that might underwent improvement even before presented to Roscosmos commitee this March. It wasn't even known at the time when the article was published if Europe is willing to join in or not. So, here we go...

All translated labels on the pics are mine, I apologize for their ugliness.

Overview

The spacecraft is mounted on the launch vehicle using an adapter and is protected during ascent by a fairing. The payload fairing is jettisoned after passing dense layers of Earth's atmosphere.

In case of LV failure during ascent, the emergency escape system must perform immediate separation and veer the space ship (or its RV) away from the malfunctioning rocket using solid fuel engines to enable it to land on a spot near the launch complex or at one of the zones located along the ascent track within continental Russia or in the Pacific ocean. In this off-nominal situation the crew will be exposed to 12 times the normal G load.

The space ship assembled with a payload fairing, adapter and escape tower comprise the payload assembly, and the payload assembly together with the booster rocket stages comprise a space mission vehicle. For LEO mission, the payload assembly mass at lift-off has the maximum mass of 16880 kg.

Note: mind that a Zenit derivative shown here isn't actually going to be the launcher anymore.

We propose to use advanced highly durable materials to build the hull structure of the modules and avionics fixing frames withing the spacecraft. The hull materials are going to be aluminium-lithium alloys V-1461 and V-1569T1 with better strength properties than AMG-6 alloy of which the space ships Progress M/M1 and Soyuz TMA are built. Also, a possibility to use composite construction materials is under consideration.

The heat protection layer will be TZMK reusable multi-layered insulation.

The Return Vehicle

The RV is structurally split into the Command Module (CM) and Propulsion Module (PM). CM and PM are connected together by a disengageable joint.

The Command Module is intended to house crew, life support equipment and avionics, as well as the ground equipment. Also it holds space for delivered or returned payload. The CM structure is a cone shaped welded pressurized shell strenghtened by metal framing. The lower part is connected to a spherical bottom, the upper part is connected to a cylinder shaped shell. At the cone's tip is an active docking device with the opening diameter about 1000 mm.

Outside the cylindrical part of the shell around the docking device is a round zone for approach system's antennae and sensors and for the on-board radio devices.

The cone shell embodies an ingress hatch; the hatch has a porthole window with opening diameter 220...400 mm.

The CM's construction arrangement is designed with placement of the required payload in the cabin in mind. That is, 6 person crew and 500 kg payload (for the ISS missions), two pilot control assemblies, life support system, avionics, zones for spacesuit donnings, sanitation and rest. At the CM's bottom is a frame that crew seats, payload containers, avionics are fixed to.

The central part of the frame holds payload containers. At both sides of the containers are the avionics sybsystems, comprised by Onboard Complex Control, Navigation and Movement Control and others. On top of them, three "Kazbek" crewmember seats are installed. To left and right of the seats, along the cone shell's curvature, there are 4 life support containers. Between those at one side is the sanitation zone, and on the other side is the catering zone.

Assembly design and landing configuration of the Return Vehicle

The calculated volume os the RV is 29 m^3, payload compartment's 1.8 m^3, per one person volume is 1.5 m^3.
The Propulsion Module is intended for housing of the solid rocket engines that enable the RV's soft landing and also propellant tanks for the descent control engines.

The hull structure is made up as an unpressurized conical shell with spherical bottom.
In the lower part there are 4 landing legs extendable out of the bottom. Between them are the 12 solid fuel landing retro rockets, oxidizer, fuel and pressurizer gas bottles, as well as the descent control system's pipework.
The retro rockets suspension allows them to gimbal off up to 45°.
There are pitch and yaw descent control engines in the cone's upper part outside of the pressure shell. Roll control engines are placed in the lower part of the RV. Each control engine's thrust is 60 kg.

Service Module

The Service Module is a cylindrical shell with conical adapter for joining to the RV and mating ring enabling connection to the launch vehicle. On the SM's surface the 4-section solar arrays are mounted. The total solar arrays' area is 22 m^2.
The entire SM's surface is occupied by heat radiator with total area of 18 m^2. The approach and reaction control system's engines On the conical adapter and also between the mating ring and the solar arrays. Each engine's thrust is 25 kg. Inside the SM's hull are the joint engine system's tanks. The lower part of the module holds accumulator batteries and 8 engines 60 kg of thrust each.

The central part of the module holds avionics.
Electical, pneumatical and hydraulic joints between SM and RV are made through umbilical plate and mast similar to those used at Soyuz-TMA spacecraft.

Assembly design of the SM for LEO missions and assembly design of the SM for Lunar missions.

Overview of an ISS mission.

Lunar Space Ship

A lunar space ship is a special version of the LEO targeted ship. On Lunar missions, the crew consists of 4 members. The full duarion of a flight is limited to 15 days. The mass of the delivered and returned cargo is at least 100 kg. The possibility of the cargo capacity increase is now under investigation.
As was already pointed out, a booster upper stage is delivered to the parking orbit together with the space ship. After a Lunar orbit insertion, the upper stage is jettisoned and the space ship approaches and docks to a pre-delivered Lunar lander. Some of the space ship's crew egress the lander and perform landing on the Moon. The rest of the crew stays in the Lunar orbit suitable for research activities.

After finishing the ground mission, the ascent stage of the lander launches, puts itself into the Moon's orbit and docks to the space ship. The lander's crew inrgesses the space ship, the ascent stage gets undocked and the space ship performs a trans-Earth injection.
The first docking to the lander is done in the "active" mode. During the second docking, the active role is played by the lander. When returning to Earth, a double entry trajectory is employed with the 4000 km coasting path between the entries. The Return Vehicle will follow a ballistic path following a brief immersion into the dense atmosphere (so called dipping); after that it reeenters again and performs a landing.
The differences in the assembly design of the space ship for Lunar missions from one for LEO are connected to the change in the crew numbers, the need to hold 15 days long life support supplies, an increased store of propellant enabling the mission profile, navigation and long range communication means. Another factor is making it possible to reenter the Earth's atmosphere with the parabolic velocity.

It's planned to confine the extra life support means and extra descent system's fuel stores in the RV's volumes frred up due to decrease of the crew number and mass of the transported payload. The hulls' heat protection and the heat shield's material will also undergo a change enabling them to sustain the heating profile during a high-speed reentry.
The Lunar SM's assembly design is drastically different compared to the one for LEO missions.
The spherical tanks of the main engine's propellant storing system split into two sections are embodied inside this version of the SM. In addition to the approach and docking engines, a cruise engine allowing the ship to exit the Moon's orbit, is mounted. Outside of the SM, in addition to the antennae and sensors that would be there, high gain antennae and star trackers are built over.
As long as there are limits on the mass of the Lunar space ship and use of non-toxic propellant components (alcohol and gaseous oxygen) this mass would increase almost twofold according to calculation. Because of that, use of Nitrogen Tetroxide and Asymmetrical Dimethyl Hydrazine is proposed for the Lunar version of the space ship.

It must be added to the above that Energia is inclined to name the spacecraft "Русь" (spelled Roos with the last "s" softened), which is the historical self-name of Russia, often used in poetry - but that is not finally decided upon yet. A little linguistic inquiry: how good does it sound in your tongue and how would you render the name in writing?

Coming next: Khrunichev Space Centre's space ship proposal presentation; Samara Space Centre's Rus-M LV white paper; Interview of the president of the SSC; Angara - the alternative launcher; Vostochny Space Port prospects.

 

[Jarvitä]

Very nice post, I'm working on the translation of the documentation you've sent me.

(soon™: Basic requirements for the fulfilment of the next generation space rocket complex project)

 

[SiberianTiger]

Thank you!

 

[Suzy]

...

It must be added to the above that Energia is inclined to name the spacecraft "Русь" (spelled Roos with the last "s" softened), which is the historical self-name of Russia, often used in poetry - but that is not finally decided upon yet. A little linguistic inquiry: how good does it sound in your tongue and how would you render the name in writing?

Rus', in English transliteration (just curious, why the choice of name?)

 

[Urwumpe]

The Rus had been the name of the viking settlers which essentially founded the Russian culture along the Volga river, AFAIR.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rus_(people)

 

[SiberianTiger]

Rus', in English transliteration (just curious, why the choice of name?)

Cool. If they write the name on the ship of the LV like this, everybody would think that's a license plate.

I can imagine that the idea is keeping heritage to the Soyuz. Soyuz (Union) was the colloquial or shortened name of the USSR. So both the ship and (afterwards) the rocket was given the name. The country is different, and I think that Roscosmos management feels comfortable with repeating the pattern. Not very imaginative, in my taste.

---------- Post added at 13:41 ---------- Previous post was at 13:36 ----------

The Rus had been the name of the viking settlers which essentially founded the Russian culture along the Volga river, AFAIR.

This theory has a right to exist, but unfortunately any reports from that old ethnography expedition from the West got lost and nobody can be sure in our days. However, they could not possibly reach the Volga: I believe that most of the contemporary Volga region was occupied by non-Slavic nomadic tribes at the time in question. Did you mean to say "the Dnepr"?

 

[Urwumpe]

This theory has a right to exist, but unfortunately any reports from that old ethnography expedition from the West got lost and nobody can be sure in our days. However, they could not possibly reach the Volga: I believe that most of the contemporary Volga region was occupied by non-Slavic nomadic tribes at the time in question. Did you mean to say "the Dnepr"?

Well, the thing is that there are many reports of the people who lived there and all agree to a culture which is closer to Scandinavian tribes, than to contemporary Slavic tribes. While there will be likely never be a clear indication that the Rus had been Scandinavian, they had at least a very intensive trade and cultural exchange with them.

And cities like Novgorod, which got founded by them, are known to be the origin of the Russian culture.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Well, the thing is that there are many reports of the people who lived there and all agree to a culture which is closer to Scandinavian tribes, than to contemporary Slavic tribes. While there will be likely never be a clear indication that the Rus had been Scandinavian, they had at least a very intensive trade and cultural exchange with them.

Historians state that the Volkhov settlements were a conglomerate of Slavic, Finnish and Baltic tribes. Surely it's possible that they could undergo a cultural influence from the Scandinavians too who came there in 9th century A.D.

And cities like Novgorod, which got founded by them, are known to be the origin of the Russian culture.

1. There are sources (1,2) that state that Novgorod existed by the time Rurik conquered the territory in 862 A.D. and built his own fortress and residence there.

2. Kiev was more culturally important in 9th A.D. and for the centuries on. After all, it was a Prince of Kiev who accepted Christianity first. Surely, it was ruled by Rurik house princes at the time, but who can be sure about the moment when their Viking identity dissolved in the local environment. I would dare to say, two generations. They couldn't just talk to Denmark over Skype then.

---------- Post added at 20:16 ---------- Previous post was at 14:24 ----------

Getting back to topic.

Here is the scarce information that's available on Khrunichev Space Centre's proposal of the crewed space ship offered to compete for the Roscosmos' tender. It is already known that Khrunichev have failed the competition to Energia, so this is possibly all that we will ever see to get the idea of what the PK-L (Manned Lunar Space Ship) would be like. The two last pictures show this space centre's concept of a Lunar expedition through Lunar Orbiting Station (LOS). All English labels are mine. Sorry for the low picture quality, they were a "spy photos" taking during a non-public presentation from a viewscreen.

 

[Eagle]

In the second picture, what is that cylinder coming in from the top of the crew module? An airlock?

 

[Jarvitä]

Here's my partial translation of the baseline requirements document. It's mostly legalese and I have more important stuff to do, so I've only managed to translate a little over half of it, but I'm attaching the original in case anyone else feels like it.

In the second picture, what is that cylinder coming in from the top of the crew module? An airlock?

Looks like an airlock to me. Makes sense, since there is no airlock on the frontal docking port.

 

[SiberianTiger]

In the second picture, what is that cylinder coming in from the top of the crew module? An airlock?

I think this is too little for an airlock. Compare its size with a seat. It might be a protruding to house some avionics, sensors and possibly a front-looking periscope for docking operations (a backup for cameras). Instead of an airlock, the whole spacecraft may be depressurized, like Apollo of Gemini CM. Or a special add-on module will be required in EVA-capable versions.

---------- Post added at 10:29 ---------- Previous post was at 10:28 ----------

Here's my partial translation of the baseline requirements document. It's mostly legalese and I have more important stuff to do, so I've only managed to translate a little over half of it, but I'm attaching the original in case anyone else feels like it.

Thank you, Jarvitä! I will complete the translation when I get a chance.

 

[Suzy]

What are the acronyms and meanings in Cyrillic/Russian?

•ACTS = ППТС = ?
•ACV = Advanced Crew Vehicle = ? (from this blog entry)

Also does the system include a vehicle and launcher rocket? (I'm a bit confused)

And what happened to Kliper, or is this design abandoned?

 

[SiberianTiger]

What are the acronyms and meanings in Cyrillic/Russian?

•ACTS = ППТС = ?
•ACV = Advanced Crew Vehicle = ? (from this blog entry)

ППТС = Перспективная Пилотируемая Транспортная Система
An ACV may refer to Europe's manned version of the ATV.

Also does the system include a vehicle and launcher rocket? (I'm a bit confused)

A good question. One thing we can sure about is that the vehicle and the launcher is built by different design bureaus. Roscosmos is the overall connecting entity between the projects. However, on Roscosmos level the system viewed at whole as a convergence between the space ship, the launcher rocket and all the supporting ground infrastructure - which I am following in this topic.

And what happened to Kliper, or is this design abandoned?

Looks like it. Kliper was an initative project carried out by a fraction of Energia engiineers backed by the former Energia head Sevastianov. He was pushed to oblivion because of the story connected to the way he borrowed loans outside of Roscosmos control, so was Kliper.

 

[Suzy]

...
Looks like it. Kliper was an initative project carried out by a fraction of Energia engiineers backed by the former Energia head Sevastianov. He was pushed to oblivion because of the story connected to the way he borrowed loans outside of Roscosmos control, so was Kliper.

Are the Parom and TKS projects abandoned too? (See my page, which I really need to update - it's hard keeping track of all these projects! )