The rocket launch industry in Europe is following the example of SpaceX, developing rocket recycling and recycling technologies.
Editor’s note: This article is from “Tencent Technology”, review: Hey, authorized to reprint.
SpaceX, founded by Musk, has brought a huge disruption to human exploration of space and the global rocket launch market: SpaceX has enabled the re-use of launch vehicles, significantly reduced launch costs, and is gaining a dominant position in the satellite launch market. .
According to the latest news from foreign media, the rocket launch industry in Europe is following the example of SpaceX, developing rocket recycling and recycling technology. Among them, the important provider of European space launch, Ariane Space Company (the famous heavy-duty Ariane 5 rocket and the future manufacturer of the Ariane 6 rocket) – plans to make the future rockets fiercely competitive The launch industry is more competitive.
From the US SpaceX reusable Falcon 9 and heavy Falcon rockets, it can be seen that reusable rockets are also what Ariane wants to do.
As early as February, the Ariane Group and the French Space Agency (CNES) signed a memorandum of understanding on a new “accelerated R&D platform” that will focus on developing new rockets, including reusable Rocket.
This platform is called “ArianeWorks”, which integrates the relevant teams under one roof and provides all possible elements for innovation: “A highly flexible environment, open to new players, facing the international market .”
Some of the research and development results of this subsidiary will come out soon, including research on how to recover rockets through low-cost prototype rockets.
In May of this year, ArianeWorks announced that a Paris rocket prototype called MyCTO will build the first recyclable prototype of the Seamis rocket. Other partners include Planete Sciences, Polyvionics and Paris Sacramento. the University.
It is reported that the French Space Agency is also working with Ariane to develop a rocket engine called Prometheus that uses oxygen and methane as propellants for multiple rocket platforms.
According toIt is known that rocket fuel produced by methane and oxygen is more environmentally friendly than many other rocket fuels. The above-mentioned Themis recyclable rocket will land on the Prometheus engine.
This is not the first time that Ariane Rocket Space has studied reusable aircraft. Another reusable experimental rocket, Callisto, is also under development. The Callisto project is designed to test the performance of fuel in a variety of engine designs.
Ariane said in a YouTube video released earlier this year that some of Callisto’s basic research results will go into the development of the Themis recyclable rocket.
According to foreign media reports, in the rocket recycling, the Ariane rocket needs to catch up with the US SpaceX company, and the above-mentioned Simes rocket and SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket are very similar, including a single rocket engine. The thrust is consistent.
For the move of Ariane, SpaceX has already seen it. Earlier, the company responded to the other side’s research and development of rocket recycling technology, saying “we have no subsidies, you have.”
Subversion
SpaceX’s rocket re-use technology is a major disruption of human space exploration. Although Bezos’s blue origin company also achieved rocket recycling landing, the blue origin is far behind SpaceX in terms of repeated commercial and industrial influence.
Muske has said in the past that space launches should learn from the civil aviation company’s business model, that is, after the passenger plane flies to the destination airport, it will refuel and then re-launch a flight to the passengers to a new destination.
Muske said that the current rocket launch industry is equivalent to a civil aviation company throwing away a large passenger plane after completing a flight and repurchasing the aircraft to complete the next flight, which is a huge waste.
SpaceX plans to achieve more reuse of satellite components. In the launch of a recent heavy Falcon rocket, SpaceX not only successfully recovered two first-class rockets, but also recovered some satellite fairings.
The rocket’s reuse has significantly reduced SpaceX’s launch costs, and the company’s Falcon 9 rocket launch offer has dropped from more than $60 million to more than $50 million. Relying on highly competitive quotations, it is reported that SpaceX has gained more than half of the global satellite launch market.
Obviously, if other space launch companies continue to adopt the business model of “consuming one rocket for one launch mission”, they will not be able to compete with SpaceX.
In the re-use of spacecraft, NASA’s series of space shuttles have also created a milestone, repeated landings and flights to send a large number of astronauts to the International Space Station. However, the technical complexity affects the reliability and safety of the space shuttle. In several unfortunate accidentsAfter that, NASA terminated the space shuttle program.