Russia's Soyuz Rocket Production On Hold Due To Coronavirus (space.com) 20
Russian officials said they've halted manufacturing of the country's workhorse Soyuz rocket, which most recently flew on April 9 to carry three astronauts to the ISS in a launch that was essentially unaffected by the pandemic. Space.com reports: The news of the pandemic's impact on its production comes from an English-language transcript released on April 10 by Russia's government of a call held by President Vladimir Putin and a group of space center leaders. During that call, Putin cautioned against using the pandemic as a scapegoat for issues within the industry. "Clearly, the fact that we have to fight the coronavirus is forcing us to make adjustments in our country, the economy in general and Roscosmos specifically," Putin said at the end of the public portion of the call, according to the transcript. "At the same time, I would like to warn you against the temptation to blame unresolved issues and loose ends -- which are still in abundance -- on the coronavirus."
Russian space manufacturing has raised concerns since a small air leak on a Soyuz spacecraft docked to the space station in August 2018 and a failed Soyuz rocket launch in October 2018 sent two astronauts tumbling back to Earth during an emergency abort (they landed safely). Since then, all crewed launches have gone smoothly, and last week's launch relied on a different model of the Soyuz 2 rocket than the version that failed.
But for now, Soyuz 2 production is on hold, Dmitry Baranov, general director of the Progress Rocket and Space Center where the rocket is built, said during the call. Baranov said that decision was made because 52 completed Soyuz 2 rockets are on hand at the facility and at launch sites worldwide. Other aspects of rocket work are continuing as usual, including maintenance and testing of completed Soyuz 2 rockets and production of the Soyuz 5, a heavy-lift launch vehicle planned to make its first flight in late 2022, Baranov said. The facility will also consider restoring the full workforce with protective measures in place sometime after next week, he said.
Russian space manufacturing has raised concerns since a small air leak on a Soyuz spacecraft docked to the space station in August 2018 and a failed Soyuz rocket launch in October 2018 sent two astronauts tumbling back to Earth during an emergency abort (they landed safely). Since then, all crewed launches have gone smoothly, and last week's launch relied on a different model of the Soyuz 2 rocket than the version that failed.
But for now, Soyuz 2 production is on hold, Dmitry Baranov, general director of the Progress Rocket and Space Center where the rocket is built, said during the call. Baranov said that decision was made because 52 completed Soyuz 2 rockets are on hand at the facility and at launch sites worldwide. Other aspects of rocket work are continuing as usual, including maintenance and testing of completed Soyuz 2 rockets and production of the Soyuz 5, a heavy-lift launch vehicle planned to make its first flight in late 2022, Baranov said. The facility will also consider restoring the full workforce with protective measures in place sometime after next week, he said.
Wise move (Score:2)
Since they pay peanuts, a lot of their most useful employees are "pension age" (65+), AKA the age group that's completely devastated by C19. If those folks get infected en masse, Russia won't be able to launch anything at all within 3 weeks.
Re: Wise move (Score:2)
They were all about to be retired by spacex anyway. Russia needs a new generation of aersoapce engineers. The good news for them is that, since they're no longer bound by the dictates of a communist government, they may have a shot at competing. The bad news is that the rampant corruption in their new "capitalist" system is going to make that rather difficult.
Re: (Score:2)
Russia has too much oil and gas to care about any of this "space" stuff. "Capitalist system" has nothing to do with it. Why do anything else if you can just drill and sell? Capitalism could actually help here, if their system wasn't designed such that only oil and gas companies can survive.
Re: Wise move (Score:2)
I think the current suffices as a response to that. Even if oil and gas were sufficient to sustain their economy (they're not) competition from other nations can absolutely bury them.
It's never a good idea to hedge your economy on one or two resources.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
SpaceX isn't gonna have much traction inside Russia unless;-
1) The US govt lets them export there, which isn't a guaranteed thing and
2) The Russians actually want it.
Russia has a a really important lead in the space race on account of Soyez being not just Russias workhorse but the worlds workhorse. If SpaceX's technology proves cheaper and better , the Russians will develop their own copy of it. They aren't volentarily going to give up that advantage. They'll fight every inch of the way.
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If SpaceX's technology proves cheaper and better , the Russians will develop their own copy of it.
They've been developing the Angara for 25 years by now. Dream on.
Re: (Score:3)
Since they pay peanuts, a lot of their most useful employees are "pension age" (65+), AKA the age group that's completely devastated by C19. If those folks get infected en masse, Russia won't be able to launch anything at all within 3 weeks.
Mostly Correct.
Nowdays it is no longer "pay peanuts" - they had to rise the salaries quite a bit to retain staff. It is a case of "the people who did not run away in the 1990es when they were being paid LESS than peanuts (if at all)".
According to the Russian press, they already had 3 staff deaths which versus the overall death count for the country looks pretty ugly. Once again, considering the average staff age that is not surprising.
Re: (Score:2)
For the quality of the engineer you need to work on aerospace stuff, they still pay peanuts. When your competitor pays easily 5-10x, and the skill set can be applied globally, yeah, you're paying peanuts, and you're only getting people who, for whatever reason, did not choose to leave the country or work in the private sector for a lot more money.
SpaceX (Score:2)
SpaceX is continuing the legacy of the Russian space program by incorporating many of their ideas such as full flow staged combustion and more.
Re: SpaceX (Score:1)
Re: SpaceX (Score:5, Informative)
Plenty on google/wikipedia/youtube on all this stuff but ok ... A rocket engine requires fuel and oxidizer to be pumped into the engine's combustion chamber at a high rate, therefore it needs a fuel pump and an oxidizer pump. The pumps need to spin at a high rate, so the old way of doing it was to burn fuel and oxidizer in a gas generator which generates hot gases that spin a turbine which drives the fuel/oxidizer pumps. The exhaust gases are wasted in that method. One alternative is the expander cycle .. skip all that gas generator stuff and simply heat up some fuel by routing it near the main combustion chamber and then send the hot fuel to spin the turbine. An even better, but more complex, improvement the Soviets came up with is staged combustion in which all the fuel (or oxidizer, depending) that the main engine receives is sent to a pre-combustion chamber (called a preburner) and burnt. The exhaust, which contains unburnt fuel (or oxidizer, depending) is then routed to the main engine combustion chamber where it can burn with oxider (or fuel, depending). In full flow staged combustion, the above above configuration exists for both the fuel AND the oxidizer -- so two pre-burners exist .. one for fuel rich and the other for oxidizer rich.
To summarize:
Gas generator - some fuel and some oxidizer is diverted to a combustion chamber (called a gas generator) to drive the fuel and oxidizer pumps. Exhaust gases are routed out.
Expander cycle - heat up some fuel by using it as a coolant by routing it on the exterior of the nozzle and main engine and when it becomes a hot gas send it to spin the turbine that drives the fuel and oxidizer pumps. The returning fuel can be burnt in the main engine combustion chamber.
Fuel rich staged combustion - All the fuel that the main engine receives is first sent to a preburner (to generate energy/hot gases for driving a turbine that spins the fuel/oxidizer pumps) and partially burnt with some oxidizer. Extra oxidizer (driven by the oxidizer pump) is separately routed to the main engine combustion chamber.
Oxidizer rich staged combustion - All the oxidizer that the main engine receives is first sent to a preburner (to generate energy/hot gases for driving a turbine that spins the fuel/oxidizer pumps) and partially burnt with some fuel. Extra fuel (driven by the fuel pump) is separately routed to the main engine combustion chamber.
Full flow staged combustion - The fuel rich system and the oxidizer rich system described above both exist simultaneously. First attempted on the RD-180 engine.
Other methods:
i) World War II era V2 rocket drove the fuel/oxidizer turbopumps using a separate chamber where hydrogen peroxide + a catalyst reacted.
ii) The recent Electron rocket uses lithium batteries to drive the turbopumps with an electric motor.
Re: (Score:3)
Full flow staged combustion - The fuel rich system and the oxidizer rich system described above both exist simultaneously. First attempted on the RD-180 engine.
No, the RD-180 uses ORSC. FFSC was attempted on the RD-270 engine in the 1960s.
i) World War II era V2 rocket drove the fuel/oxidizer turbopumps using a separate chamber where hydrogen peroxide + a catalyst reacted.
Soyuz also uses this design on its lower stages (except for the Soyuz-2-1v which replaced such an engine with a modified NK-33).
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Shocked to see Russia over 36,000 cases (Score:1)
From Texas...
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Social distancing will slow it down. It's *possible* a cure (not a vaccine) has been found.
(more recent article)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news... [bloomberg.com]
(older article)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news... [bloomberg.com]
It's being widely reported in the news today.
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Sigh... the cyrillac message saying sorry those of you in Russia were sick and wishing you all good luck got wiped out by Slashdot's antiquated system.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, it's good news but there were no controls in the study. Apparently Gilead has promising controlled study data -- this information was leaked (possibly an SEC violation) so we'll have to see.