credit: Russian Federal Space Agency / caption: The bullet shape is feintly reminiscent of Kliper
The above image is a cropped screencap from an animation embedded in a Russian Federal Space Agency "tvRoscosmos" webpage. It shows a very different concept, from what has been reported to be the craft, for the planned Advanced Crew Vehicle (ACV) that Russia wants to launch on its new Rus-M rocket in the second half of the next decade
The animation video shows a future Rus-M launch of ACV, also known as Crew Space Transportation System, and it can be found in the extended portion of this blog post
The video follows a surprise slide (see below - cropped again for space) from Roscosmos head Anatoly Perminov's presentation to the 17 June Review of US human spaceflight plans committee meeting that shows a basic capsule and something that looks like the European Space Agency's EXPERT re-entry technology demonstrator.
However Roscosmos has said that no ACV designs will be shown until next year. What makes Hyperbola wonder about this bullet shape design is that a very senior Energia designer and Soviet space programme veteran told it that Kliper had severe subsonic instability. Perhaps they are aiming now for something more like Lockheed Martin's Orbital Space Plane concept
credit: Russian Federal Space Agency / caption: is this accurate at all?
on July 20, 2009 1:03 PM | Reply
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no, it seems just a (wrong) conception of the artists who have made the animation
please note...
1. the rocket has two side-mounted stages that look like a "flyback booster" (never tested so far)
2. there is non separation between the 1st and 2nd stage that remains joined when the capsule SM engine burns
3. the "bullet" capsule hasn't any TPS for re-entry, also, this capsule hasn't any wings (not even the small wings of the Kliper concept) then, it MUST have the TPS all around the surface of the capsule (door and windows included) that could be VERY heavy
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on July 20, 2009 2:47 PM | Reply
There's a reason for that shape, but you won't hear it from me. Yet again the Ruskies stay a step ahead of us in space hardware.
on July 22, 2009 3:08 AM | Reply
Thank you, Robbie, for keeping us up-to-date on whatever is coming down.
The boosters are not fly-back like Khrunihev's Baikal - those are stabilization fins. They are Energia's RD180-based common core boosters (same at Atlas V) and have a 3.9m diameter,
The central core is wider, probably 5m. Perminov swore that the 2nd stage used crygenics . so he is calling the 2nd stage the central core which also files at lift-off. (Bearing in mind that all this may be just some fanciful artwork!)
The engine in this case should be the RD-0120 from the Energia big booster but instead it looks like a 4-pack of probably RD-0146s.
The open lattice-work is not between stages but between the Hygrogen tank and the Lox tank.
I have no idea what the fixtures are on the 'lox tank'. Look like folded solar panels but that wouldn't make sense.