At that rate though wouldn't it make more sense to simply update the Energia?
They can't redo Energyia for many reasons. First, what they did had was the side load design for the Buran shuttle. They would have to redo everything for the inline. Second, they had the N-1 pads, MIK, etc. at Baikonur. Now they have to start from scratch, at East. Third, they had lots and lots of Ukrainian and other countries suppliers (remember the An-225, among other assets). They would have to redevelop them in Russia.At last, the transport constraints for Baikonur are different than East. You could do 4.1m to Baikonur, albeit at some extra expense. Current Zenit cores are 3.9m, but East requires 3.8m.Basically you you'd have to redevelop the whole ground infrastructure, the core, the boosters, the avionics, the GNC system, the support stations, etc.There's no point of redoing Energyia without Kazakhstan and Ukraine, at least.
Quote from: baldusi on 02/11/2013 10:35 pmThey can't redo Energyia for many reasons. First, what they did had was the side load design for the Buran shuttle. They would have to redo everything for the inline. Second, they had the N-1 pads, MIK, etc. at Baikonur. Now they have to start from scratch, at East. Third, they had lots and lots of Ukrainian and other countries suppliers (remember the An-225, among other assets). They would have to redevelop them in Russia.At last, the transport constraints for Baikonur are different than East. You could do 4.1m to Baikonur, albeit at some extra expense. Current Zenit cores are 3.9m, but East requires 3.8m.Basically you you'd have to redevelop the whole ground infrastructure, the core, the boosters, the avionics, the GNC system, the support stations, etc.There's no point of redoing Energyia without Kazakhstan and Ukraine, at least.Is there any reason why they couldn't build the HLV out at Vostnochny and solve their transport problems that way? I know this wouldn't work for the big Angaras and Soyuz rockets, but if Russia's building an HLV with Zenit-like boosters, why not build it on-site?
Russia today lacks the HLV capability of its Soviet predecessors in the form of the Energia rocket. But that hasn't stopped some Russian firms from dreaming big as the Russian economy has rebounded and Roscosmos has seen its funding steadily improved. We can see the effects already in Russia committing itself to the first inter-planetary missions in 25 years, or since the august years of the USSR. But will Russia ever commit itself to an HLV, and what form will such a vehicle take?
its fun to have dreams......but sadly don't think someone has gotten the memo.
Is there any reason why they couldn't build the HLV out at Vostnochny and solve their transport problems that way? I know this wouldn't work for the big Angaras and Soyuz rockets, but if Russia's building an HLV with Zenit-like boosters, why not build it on-site?
Did you mean An-124?
Quote from: Hyperion5 on 02/12/2013 03:03 amIs there any reason why they couldn't build the HLV out at Vostnochny and solve their transport problems that way? I know this wouldn't work for the big Angaras and Soyuz rockets, but if Russia's building an HLV with Zenit-like boosters, why not build it on-site? Or you could use dual RD-162 and use CH4/LOX to get even better high energy solution.But anything that you design should be transported by railroad to Vostnochny (that's 3.8m x 35m, I believe). If you need to go bigger I think it would actually be cheaper to develop an indigenous An-225...
Wow, this has turned into a "design your own Russian HLV" thread.
Quote from: Danderman on 02/15/2013 11:29 pmWow, this has turned into a "design your own Russian HLV" thread. Well that was just some momentary guesstimating on how to do it. I brought that up mainly because there's some fundamental issue with nearly every prospective HLV design that's been proposed by Russian firms. The big Angara 7 would require an all-new pad at Vostnochny or Plesetsk and a new 3.8 m kerolox core, neither of which are necessarily going to be funded. There's talk of the RD-0120 engine being revived for a 4.1 m hydrolox core for it (with one RD-0120), though that'd cost even more. The easiest of all of them to build, the Sodruzhestvo (a 5-core Zenit), is dogged by the fact that it'd involve the Ukraine and require launching it at Baikonur, also a sore spot given Russian-Kazakh relations.