TMK? Anyone?

[Salmon]

A few months ago, I came across a (cancelled) soviet crewed spacecraft known as the TMK. It was an interplanetary spacecraft meant for a flyby of either Mars or Venus. I can't find much information on it, but it seems to be either nuclear or ion engine-powered, designed to be assembled in LEO and launched by the N-1 rocket. Does anyone have a (preferably stock) replica of it? I have some more information here:

Wikipedia

Encyclopedia Astronautica

False steps

Apparently it was also called MAVR.

[DDE]

This is supposedly drawn from the description and surviving sketches of Maksimov’s key subordinate:

[Salmon]

2 minutes ago, DDE said:

This is supposedly drawn from the description and surviving sketches of Maksimov’s key subordinate:

Could you please explain what that is?

It certainly looks cool.

[DDE]

29 minutes ago, Salmon said:

Could you please explain what that is?

Because of the ECLSS, most TMK variants feature some kind of a solar concentrator instead of solar panels. They come either as two dishes or, seen here, a single large mirror woth one side hardened for a Martian aerobrake. You’ve got an encapsulated two-stage lander on the right, the ship itself to the left, “topped off” by an Earth return capsule wrapped in the oxidizer tank of its retrostage, and a conical Mars dearture stage. That in turn would mount an adapter for a cluster of five Earth departure stages.

The Mars orbit and landing does bloat this design quite a bit.

Many MAVR concepts I know of ditched that and could fit into one N-1 launch. But, again, if the author is to be believed, Korolev considered flyby worthless and all flyby hardware had to be prt of a landing design.

Also, they were still discussing a Venus landing, so don’t think about it too hard.

Edited March 1, 2019 by DDE

[DDE]

I’ve also checked Energia’s actual website. They’re ignoring the conventionally powered version of TMK I’ve just described, and focusing on electric. Their official architecture ditched nuclear power in the late 1990s - but the recent developments at Keldysh may suggest a return to a multipurpose tug with a nuclear reactor and droplet radiators.

Edited March 1, 2019 by DDE

[DDE]

Found another source that’s more systematized.

Here’s their take on the Maximov TMK (distinct from Theoktistov’s TMK) from above:

The switch to MAVR led to a drastically slimmer architecture:

Theoktistov’s original TMK required 24 (!) launches, but the electric TMK-E was shrunk to 75 t of IMLEO, which is one.

TMK-E eventually became TKE “Aelita” in early 1969, at two N-1M launches. It was the first to feature a telecoping cylindrical radiator with the reactors on its end. Reactors - 2 x 7.5 MW, which is why the design soon got TWO reactor booms and began looking like a Hiigaran flagship. The Mars lander got an unfolding heat shield, and was also split into two - whereas some earlier missions had a dual redundant lander.

Chelomei tried to edge in on that turf, first with a modified anti-ship cruise missile (!), and then with his UR-700 and even a single-launch architecture with a UR-900 and the Earth escape stage using an RD-0140 nuclear thermal rocket, but got nowhere.

Aaaaaand then you have Michail Burdayev, a cosmonaut who came up with his own Mars architecture - a Proton, a Block D and a regular Soyuz. This is sort of like a MAVR-style one-man mission this forum once designed for Dennis Tito - only we supplemented the Soyuz with a Cygnus.

 

[kerbiloid]

M.Kalashnikov's "Битва исполинов" and partially A.Pervushin's "Битва за звёзды" have something about it.

P.S.
The chlorella breathing illustrates well how much "close" this project related to reality...