Vol 2 Chapter 1108: Creative rocket fairing recovery technology

"Military Technology (
In addition, even for the Falcon rocket, after so many years of development, the first-stage rocket body recovered from its landing must undergo some maintenance and replace some parts before being reused.
This time usually takes half a month to a month, but Haoyu Technology can repeatedly use the launch within ten days. Does this mean that this kind of parachute plus engine compound landing recovery technology is more reliable and more advanced?
Then there is the payload of this launch. In these two launches, one is to launch two communication satellites, and the other is to launch a heavy experimental satellite.
The weight of a single communication satellite has reached more than one ton, and the weight of that heavy satellite has not been announced to the public, but news has emerged that the weight of this satellite has reached six tons. This also means that the thrust of this Jianmu-2 rocket has been greatly increased.
Even this time, it should not be the original version of the Jianmu-2 recoverable rocket, but the improved model Jianmu-2! Recyclable launch vehicle.
However, this news has not been confirmed by Haoyu Aerospace and Haoyu Technology. However, many people found a lot of differences between the rocket bodies in the launch video and the recovery video, so they confirmed this statement.
If this is the case, it is not enough to attract so many people's attention.
During these two launches, Haoyu Aerospace also conducted a recovery test of the rocket fairing.
You know, currently only Falcon rockets are conducting research experiments on fairing recovery and have achieved good results.
But the fairing recovery technology of the Falcon Rocket is not always successful. It often happens that only half of the fairing is recovered, and the other half of the fairing falls into the sea and cannot be recovered.
And this time, the two rocket launch missions of Haoyu Technology conducted the fairing recovery test.
In the first recovery test, after the two halves of the fairing fell, only half was successfully recovered, and the other half fell into the vast desert and was severely damaged.
In the second recovery test, both fairing halves were recovered successfully. Such a high success rate makes the entire industry boil.
Similar to the recovery method of the rocket fairing of the Falcon Rocket, the two fairing halves of Jianmu 2 will fall to the predetermined area after falling off and separating, and a paraglider will also be thrown to slow down and control the direction of the slide .
But the difference is that when the Falcon rocket finally landed, it was supported by a large net supported by the drone below to catch the landing fairing.
This is like precise docking. The landing point and speed of the fairing must be controlled. At the same time, the speed of the unmanned boat must be controlled so that the fairing and the unmanned boat can successfully dock.
As for the Jianmu-2 rocket fairing, there is no such unmanned boat and no mobile receiving platform.
Wu Hao and the others adopted a more concise and convenient recycling method.
Directly in the process of the fairing sliding down in the air, a helicopter is used for recovery.
Simply put, the helicopter must first hover around the edge of the area where the rocket fairing is about to fall.
After discovering the fairing, the helicopter flew over quickly, and then hung the paraglider above the fairing through the hook rope hoisted under the helicopter, thereby suspending the entire fairing.
Then a helicopter transported the fairing to a predetermined location and put it down, so that the recovery was successful.
Unlike the rocket body, the fairing is relatively large, but light enough. It is also because it is light enough, which laid the foundation for the use of helicopter aerial capture hoisting recovery technology.
The fairing is located on the top of the rocket to protect the rocket load from harmful environments such as aerodynamic forces, aerodynamic heating and acoustic vibration.
After reaching a sufficient height, usually after the booster and the first-stage rocket body fall off, it will fly for a period of time, and then the fairing will automatically fall off.
This also requires the fairing to be strong and light enough, because every gram of weight on the rocket will affect the ultimate carrying capacity of the rocket.
So don't look at it as a protective shell, but it is actually difficult and demanding to manufacture, which also makes it more expensive.
The price of the fairing of the Falcon Rocket is about $1 million, evenly divided, and half is about $500,000.
The manufacturing price of the two-half fairing of Jianmu-2 and the price of raw materials add up to about one million yuan, although it is far less than the fairing price of the Falcon Rocket, it is also very expensive.
And if this recycling technology is successful, the two half fairings can save them one million yuan in cost, which is very cost-effective.
Moreover, this recovery method is much simpler, more reliable, and cheaper than the fairing recovery method of the Falcon rocket.
And this news made the entire aerospace technology field lively all at once. Many rocket load transportation experts have affirmed and highly evaluated this fairing recovery technology.
On the other hand, he also put forward bolder ideas.
For example, some experts have put forward such a concept or idea. Since the fairing can be recovered in this way, can the rocket's first-stage and second-stage rocket bodies also be recovered in this way.
You should know that at present, both the Falcon rocket and the Jianmu-2 rocket's recovery technology use rocket motors to slow down.
This method has higher technical requirements for the rocket, and the cost is naturally higher. But if this method of helicopter air capture and transportation is used to recover these rocket bodies, UU read www.uukanshu. com's rocket technology difficulty and recovery cost will be greatly reduced.
Anyway, after the rocket is launched into the air and then detached, the fuel in the rocket body will basically be used up, so the weight of the empty rocket body is not too heavy.
It should not be a problem to use a parachute to slow down, and then use a heavy helicopter for aerial capture and transportation.
And if one heavy helicopter is not enough, you can also use multiple heavy helicopters to capture and transport together.
Experts even proposed to use multiple helicopters to pull a net in the air, and then use this net to catch the first and second level fairings of the rockets that landed.
In this way, 90% of the rocket body can be recycled and used, which will greatly reduce the launch and transportation cost of the carrier rocket and lay a solid foundation for mankind to use space on a large scale.
Since the first and second stage fairings of the rocket have been recovered, why is it only 90% and not all of them.
Generally inside the fairing of the rocket, there is actually a first-level transportation device. This level device is generally called the upper stage, which is used to transport satellites for orbit change and to send satellites to precise orbits.
In addition, when launching some high-orbit satellites and spacecraft, it will also be applied to the upper stage.
Once this upper stage is used, it will fall into the atmosphere and be burned, and it is basically not recoverable.
However, the cost of the upper stage generally only accounts for a small part of the cost of the entire rocket, so there is not much recovery value. Moreover, it has to pass through the entire atmosphere, it is very difficult to recycle, and the cost is also very high, so there is no need to recycle. Even before Wu Hao's new recycling technology, almost all the secondary rocket bodies were not recoverable.