Author Topic: Korolev's revenge, part III: Fly me out of Gaia's reach.......by way of Moscow!?  (Read 1792 times)

Offline Galactic Penguin SST

Welcome to the final part of "Korolev's revenge", "The Return of the N-1". Today's guest is ICPS-DM2.

"ICPS-who?"

Yup in the last two installments of Korolev's revenge, we have put out the random discussion by the Russians of the what-if scenarios of replacing the upper stages of the Antares and the Atlas V with one of the most used cryogenic upper stages ever, the Block-D family. So if we have discussed Atlas-DM and Antares-DM, why not put it on the................................

.......

....... SLS?

Oh yes, the SLS, specifically SLS Block I. We all know that the DIVHUS is almost certainly chosen as the basis of the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage. But let's say that in the parallel time-space, we have NASA/Congress trying to save the Godzilla from certain death, and someone pull out the "International Co-operation" ( ::)) card and ask for other to put an international element on the SLS.

The Russians apparently think that they got a pretty solution with two Block DMs stacked in series. Somehow they think that with a little shaving on the lower part adapters and a slight change in the parking orbit, they can substitute the ICPS with two Block DMs while still meeting the following requirements:

1. TLI capability of 24224 kg
2. Total mass less than 71400 lbs (32387 kg)
3. Total stage length less than 12.7 meters / 500 inches

The details are a bit messy (especially with me looking at a translated page!), but it seems to be just viable for a stage that will only be used twice. And who knows what will happen to "the-rocket-who-must-not-be-named" when NASA asked ESA to build the Orion SM just to save it from possible cancellation! I think this proposal is a 200% no-no from a political perspective (especially when it may turn out to be costing even more money than let Boeing build the stage), but....... are there any TECHNICAL problems that bars this wildest dream of all from happening, from a Lego rocket (TM) perspective?

Anyone who got a rocket performance calculator to do the calculations?  ;)

GPS

Original source and discussion: http://novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/forum13/topic11360/
« Last Edit: 11/06/2012 05:42 pm by Galactic Penguin SST »
Astronomy & spaceflight geek penguin. In a relationship w/ Space Shuttle Discovery. Current Priority: Chasing the Chinese Spaceflight Wonder Egg & A Certain Chinese Mars Rover

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