Russia's new SHLV plan

[_Augustus_]

Relatively recently, Roscosmos announced the decision to switch PTK-NP/Federatsiya from flying on Angara to flying on Soyuz-5/Sunkar/Fenix (it has a lot of names), basically a slightly upscaled Zenit with new parts.

Since the whole point of PTK is to fly beyond Earth orbit at some point, it kind of needs an SHLV to get it there. So they've now proposed this bizarre rocket that uses asymmetric Sunkar first stages clustered in groups of either 3 or 5, and an utterly ridiculous number of upper stages:

http://russianspaceweb.com/superheavy-2017.html

The smallest version uses a cluster of 3 Sunkar first stages, a URM-2 second stage, and two stacked Block-DMs as third and fourth stages, delivering 50 metric tons to LEO. The medium version uses a cluster of 5 Sunkar first stages, a URM-2 second stage, a KVTK third stage, and a Block-DM fourth stage, delivering 88 metric tons to LEO. The largest version uses a cluster of 5 Sunkar first stages, a TBD hydrolox second stage, a KVTK third stage, and a block-DM fourth stage, delivering 108 metric tons to LEO. 

Sunkar is planned to fly by 2022 from Baikonur. The first two iterations of the SHLV require little to no new technology to build and are expected to fly by 2028. The 108 metric ton version is expected to fly by 2033, but seeing as it's not necessarily needed for a lunar landing I doubt it'll ever fly.

To land on the Moon, two medium version SHLVs would be launched, one carrying the PTK and the other carrying a lunar lander. They'd rendezvous in lunar orbit.

 

 

[PB666]

15 minutes ago, _Augustus_ said:

Relatively recently, Roscosmos announced the decision to switch PTK-NP/Federatsiya from flying on Angara to flying on Soyuz-5/Sunkar/Fenix (it has a lot of names), basically a slightly upscaled Zenit with new parts.

Since the whole point of PTK is to fly beyond Earth orbit at some point, it kind of needs an SHLV to get it there. So they've now proposed this bizarre rocket that uses asymmetric Sunkar first stages clustered in groups of either 3 or 5, and an utterly ridiculous number of upper stages:

http://russianspaceweb.com/superheavy-2017.html

The smallest version uses a cluster of 3 Sunkar first stages, a URM-2 second stage, and two stacked Block-DMs as third and fourth stages, delivering 50 metric tons to LEO. The medium version uses a cluster of 5 Sunkar first stages, a URM-2 second stage, a KVTK third stage, and a Block-DM fourth stage, delivering 88 metric tons to LEO. The largest version uses a cluster of 5 Sunkar first stages, a TBD hydrolox second stage, a KVTK third stage, and a block-DM fourth stage, delivering 108 metric tons to LEO. 

Sunkar is planned to fly by 2022 from Baikonur. The first two iterations of the SHLV require little to no new technology to build and are expected to fly by 2028. The 108 metric ton version is expected to fly by 2033, but seeing as it's not necessarily needed for a lunar landing I doubt it'll ever fly.

To land on the Moon, two medium version SHLVs would be launched, one carrying the PTK and the other carrying a lunar lander. They'd rendezvous in lunar orbit.

 

 

Asparagas?  Life imitating fantasy. I actually like the design. Think I might create a rocket myself. The boosters partially tucked under the second stage, sears-haack +Mach shape on the bottom, shows some modern sophistication.

[kerbiloid]

Happily, Proton still hasn't gone.

Edited November 20, 2017 by kerbiloid

[NSEP]

Cool, something to do in RO.

Now all we do is wait and see.

[DDE]

They’re gonna get sued by SQUAD and LEGO.

[Ultimate Steve]

Asymetry? That will be interesting... If it flies... It seems like they choose one plan, spend a year or two (and lots of money) on it, and then scrap it and move to something else... I really hope they can settle on a plan...

[sh1pman]

Not to mention that it looks ugly as hell.

[Mikki]

...It looks beautiful. And safe. Looks like the guys got "editor extension". 

[kerbiloid]

And "Joint Reinforcement."

[sh1pman]

And a ton of autostruts!

[Canopus]

Looks horrendous.

[regex]

Ah, yet another "common core" strategy. How many "common cores" does the world need?

I guess you could say they're ...

pretty common.

[Ultimate Steve]

57 minutes ago, Canopus said:

Looks horrendous.

 

2 hours ago, sh1pman said:

Not to mention that it looks ugly as hell.

 

I could think of worse looking rockets.

[sh1pman]

5 minutes ago, Ultimate Steve said:

 

 

I could think of worse looking rockets.

My KSP rockets look better than this.

I mean look at Soyuz-5. It’s a freak of nature, looks nothing like Soyuz.

Edited November 20, 2017 by sh1pman

[DDE]

21 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

I mean look at Soyuz-5. It’s a freak of nature, looks nothing like Soyuz.

C'mon, it's just a fat Zenit.

[NSEP]

2 hours ago, Canopus said:

Looks horrendous.

 

3 hours ago, sh1pman said:

Not to mention that it looks ugly as hell.

Why you hatin. Don't judge a book by its cover.

[PB666]

50 minutes ago, DDE said:

C'mon, it's just a fat Zenit.

Zenit enlargement therapy?

 

[Scotius]

So, basically a kitbash, eh? I will be very surprised if it ever fies. If Russia can't get Angara to fly in a timely fashion, i doubt they will manage to put this Frankenstein's monster in space faster and with decent reliability.

[ChrisSpace]

5 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

 

Asymetry? That will be interesting... If it flies... It seems like they choose one plan, spend a year or two (and lots of money) on it, and then scrap it and move to something else...

 

4 hours ago, sh1pman said:

Not to mention that it looks ugly as hell.

 

3 hours ago, Canopus said:

Looks horrendous.

Hate, haters will.

 

So, to recap, here's all the space programs that are developing heavy-lift rocket systems:

Blue Origin (New Glenn)

SpaceX (Falcon Heavy, BFR)

CALT (Long March 9)

Rokosmos (This new system)

[sh1pman]

1 hour ago, NSEP said:

 

Why you hatin. Don't judge a book by its cover.

But I’m only judging its cover, not the book itself.

Edited November 20, 2017 by sh1pman

[regex]

1 hour ago, ChrisSpace said:

So, to recap, here's all the space programs that are developing heavy-lift rocket systems:

Blue Origin (New Glenn)

SpaceX (Falcon Heavy, BFR)

CALT (Long March 9)

Rokosmos (This new system)

Also, Vulcan (ULA) may apparently do a triple hull like Delta-IV (Wiki sez 23 tons to GTO which is pretty damn heavy, cited from Tory Bruno)

Interesting. I was under the impression that without a payload there would be no reason for a super heavy lifter.

Maybe there's some payloads out there...

Edited November 20, 2017 by regex

[sh1pman]

13 minutes ago, regex said:

Also, Vulcan (ULA) may apparently do a triple hull like Delta-IV (Wiki sez 23 tons to GTO which is pretty damn heavy, cited from Tory Bruno)

Interesting. I was under the impression that without a payload there would be no reason for a super heavy lifter.

Maybe there's some payloads out there...

Is there a payload for FH? 

[regex]

Just now, sh1pman said:

Is there a payload for FH? 

Four months from now I'm sure one will show up.

[sh1pman]

Just now, regex said:

Four months from now I'm sure one will show up.

That’s kind of a backward way to make rockets...

[regex]

15 minutes ago, sh1pman said:

That’s kind of a backward way to make rockets...

And yet we have here no less than five organizations proposing to build rockets that, at a minimum, put 13 tons into GTO (most of them much more). Of them New Glenn and Vulcan make about the most sense with Falcon Heavy being the most unicorn of almost-ready unicorns to ever exist (I personally doubt it'll ever fly but don't quote me). Meanwhile China and Russia have aspirations for the moon, with China IMO being the most likely to make it happen. Why POCKOCMOC isn't sticking with Angara and trying for -7 with the KVTK-A7 is beyond me, they'd be within reach of New Glenn's payload from Plesetsk (quite a feat) and they already have the tooling.

E: Also, have we forgotten SLS? Yeah, it'll probably get cancelled.

Edited November 20, 2017 by regex