The Keldysh Center, located in the Moscow Likhobors, has been engaged in space engines since its foundation. Now work is underway here on one of the most promising projects of Russian cosmonautics – a nuclear tug for interplanetary flights "Zeus". Vladimir Koshlakov, General Director of the Keldysh Center, told RIA Novosti correspondent Denis Kayyran about the state of work on the tugboat, instruments for satellites, developments in the field of materials science, as well as about what space technologies can be applied in the national economy.
– You have recently completed the preliminary design of an electric jet engine consisting of four Hall engines. When will the creation of the module and its testing begin?
– A new trend in the development of cosmonautics is the creation of heavy vehicles from hundreds of kilograms to several tons, capable of traveling long distances and carrying out reusable missions. We are developing more powerful engines for such vehicles. We are already starting to manufacture a module of four Hall engines with a total capacity of up to 250 kilowatts.
– When are the tests scheduled?
– The tests are scheduled for 2024, now work is underway to prepare the bench base.
There will be several stages. The first stage will take place on Earth, but in conditions close to outer space. During the testing, we will confirm the technical and resource characteristics, which is especially important for vehicles that must exist in orbit for a long time.
The next stage of testing the module will take place either as part of demonstrators of propulsion systems, or already on object spacecraft, or some kind of transport systems.
– Is it possible to scale this module?
– Yes, in order to take more cargo beyond the Earth's orbit for the exploration of Mars and other planets, more powerful engines are needed. Many vehicles were launched beyond the Earth's orbit, but they all had a small mass.
Probably the most efficient engines that have been created on Earth are liquid rocket engines, but their disadvantage is that they work for a limited amount of time. In just a few minutes, they exhaust all the fuel and fly on with the speed they have gained. Therefore, powerful electric rocket engines capable of operating for a long time are one of the priority areas of development.
– That is, you are developing far more than one engine?
– Our institute has developed a whole range of engines, ranging from a few watts to hundreds of kilowatts. Some of them are actively used as part of spacecraft already operating in orbit.
– What are your developments on ion engines?
– Ion electric rocket engines differ from Hall engines by a higher specific thrust impulse. That is, charged ions leave this engine at a higher speed. Thus, less fuel is required to achieve the same speeds. We have developed a whole range of ion-type engines in recent years, but work continues.
In our country, ion engines were tested in space back in the USSR period, but they were not widely used, since another domestic development – engines with closed electron drift (Hall engines) – provided an optimal ratio of parameters for spacecraft correction and orbit maintenance systems.
We have worked out ion engines on our bench base, received the required characteristics during resource tests. Due to the accumulated experience in the field of Hall engines, we managed to carry out these developments not in dozens, as in the whole world, but in several years. Therefore, we can confidently say that ion engines for providing reusable flights to Mars, to distant planets of the Solar system, will be more efficient than Hall engines.
– What Fourier spectrometers will you supply for the orbital grouping of VIS and Rosnedra?
– Infrared Fourier spectrometers are devices designed to obtain the spectra of thermal radiation of the Earth's atmosphere in the interests of operational meteorology, allowing to determine the distribution of temperature and humidity in height. The first such device, developed and manufactured by JSC SSC "Keldysh Center" with cooperation for the Meteor-M spacecraft No. 2, has been successfully operating in orbit for eight years.
Initially, we used them when testing liquid rocket engines on the stand. According to the spectral composition of the flare radiation, it is possible to assess what processes occur inside the engine, diagnose the occurrence of abnormal situations in turbopump units, gas generators, control the quality of mixing, the completeness of combustion.
We are constantly improving the Fourier spectrometers we are developing in terms of improving technical characteristics and expanding the range of information products, including the ability to obtain data on wind direction and speed, determination of concentrations of small gas components of the atmosphere, including greenhouse gases. In principle, the equipment allows you to monitor sources of methane, carbon dioxide, industrial sites, and not only in our country. It is to solve the problem of monitoring greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that our Fourier spectrometers were included in the grouping of survey satellites planned to be created by VIS Group and Rosnedra.
Work on the creation of hyperspectral IR equipment is very much in demand, especially in conditions of import substitution and limited access to data from foreign IR probes.
– Are you also developing spectrometers for the new generation of Meteor-MP satellites? How will the characteristics of Fourier spectrometers for Meteor-MP satellites change in comparison with similar devices on Meteors-M?
– For promising polar-orbiting Meteor-MP spacecraft, we are developing a new generation Fourier spectrometer - ICFS–3, which has an extended spectral range (3.6-15.5) microns and significantly improved spatial characteristics. For each of the three spectral sub-bands, its own lens and its own photodetector are used, while the photodetectors themselves are multi-site, which makes it possible to meet the requirements for a small step of the spatial grid of measurements. The informativeness of such a device increases several times in comparison with the ICFS-2.
– What are the characteristics of Fourier spectrometers for the Electro-L and Arctic-M series satellites? Is your Fourier spectrometer already on the first Arktika-M satellite, or will it appear only on subsequent devices of the series?
– At the moment, infrared Fourier spectrometers are not part of the target equipment of the Electro-L and Arctic-M satellites, however, the need to install such devices on satellites for geostationary orbit and high elliptical is beyond doubt. For geostationary satellites of the third generation of Electro-M, Roshydromet sets the task of creating an imaging infrared Fourier spectrometer with matrix photodetectors that provides scanning of the visible disk of the Earth at least once an hour. The equipment is complex, but being developed, it can also be installed on the Arktika-MP spacecraft for a highly elliptical orbit.
– Do you make any instruments for satellites other than Fourier spectrometers?
– Not yet. But we also make systems for providing thermal conditions for spacecraft. Together with RCC Progress and RSC Energia, we have developed a new type of contour heat pipes that are unique in their characteristics. We have a good research base and extensive experience in testing thermal devices, primarily with ammonia as a coolant. The Keldysh Center provides refueling of up to 30% of heat pipes used in domestic space technology. Now we are bringing contour heat pipes with an evaporator made of a high-heat-conducting alloy and on new devices, in particular, we plan to introduce them on Aist-2T.
A whole line of experimental work is being carried out on manned spacecraft systems. We are actively involved in the creation of a thermal regime system for the new ROSS modules (Russian Orbital Service Station) and an open-type evaporation system for the Orel spacecraft.
They also worked out the technology of manufacturing and testing thermoelectric moisture collectors from the atmosphere of habitable modules. After completion of all design work, we plan to start manufacturing standard devices that will replace less efficient compressor-type moisture collectors on board.
– Let's talk about diversification. What are the commercial prospects for your plasma waste incineration plants?
– We have been engaged in plasma-electron technology since the 60s, initially we used it for research purposes - to study the working processes in the combustion chambers of engines, where the same high temperatures. Plasma torches allow you to get temperatures up to five to six thousand degrees.
Now we are dealing with the use of these plasma torches in various areas of the civil sphere of the economy. The direction of disposal of harmful industrial waste is possible. At such temperatures, all harmful substances decompose, carbon monoxide, dioxins, furans are not released. Now we have developed design documentation for a pilot plant, its production is underway.
At the same time, these installations are very powerful, and the unit cost of recycling a kilogram of municipal waste will be quite high. Therefore, their use is most effective for especially hazardous waste – deposits of oil-bearing layers after processing, afterburning of active ash from waste processing plants. We held a number of negotiations with potential consumers, communicated with metallurgical plants, with representatives of housing and communal services of the Nizhny Novgorod region and in the Far East.
Another direction of this technique is the use of plasma torches in plasma chemistry. At such temperatures, it is possible to obtain substances with new characteristics, for example, decompose methane into hydrogen gas and solid carbon.
Today's technology for producing hydrogen by electrolysis, when water decomposes into oxygen and hydrogen, is very energy–consuming - it takes about 50 kilowatts to get a kilogram of hydrogen. Our technology requires from 15 to 17 kilowatts per kilogram of hydrogen.
We are currently negotiating with Gazprom, they are creating a hydrogen cluster on Sakhalin. They need to dispose of methane, which is released in large quantities in landfills. When disposed of through a plasma torch, we get carbon in solid form, in fact, neither CO nor CO2 is formed, because there is no oxygen in this chemical process. The resulting hydrogen can be integrated back into methane, and thereby increase the technological characteristics of the units that run on this methane due to the completeness of combustion, less soot formation, less CO2 emission. We get carbon in the form of an ultrafine powder, the powder size varies from 40 to 70 nanometers, that is, it is so pure that it can be used in medicine.
In addition, when disposing of methane, we can obtain acetylene. Methane is CH4, we can make C2H2 out of it – it's acetylene. Our country buys it abroad for use in the production of various plastics, in the chemical industry.
– Which regions are you working with on desalination plants?
– Our institute has been engaged in water desalination for a long time, since the construction of the Baikonur cosmodrome, where drinking water of special quality was needed for astronauts and technical purified water for the equipment of launch facilities.
We have implemented more than 30 projects for Russian and foreign customers, including in South Africa and the SAR. Our installations produce from several cubic meters per hour to several tens of thousands of cubic meters of water per day.
The largest project that we are currently implementing is in Kazakhstan. In 2004, we built a plant there with a capacity of 20 thousand cubic meters of drinking water per day. Now work is underway to double the productivity – up to 40 thousand cubic meters of water per day. The modernization of this plant should be completed this year.
This is not very relevant for our country, except for such arid regions as, for example, Kalmykia. We work most actively with foreign countries where there is a problem with water. This is the African region, the Middle East, India.
– Tell us about the self-healing materials that you are developing. Where can they be applied?
– Now the whole world is developing technologies of new materials. We want to improve our rocket and space technology, increase energy and efficiency, so the requirements for materials are also being tightened. First of all, it is ensuring the safety of manned flights, the reliability of various satellite subsystems. Self–healing is, I would say, a drop in the sea of materials, it's just beautiful and has recently appeared.
Our institute is actively working in the field of nanotechnology and nanomaterials. One of these materials has a fairly high healing rate – in less than a second we can eliminate defects with a dimension of one, two, three millimeters. At the same time, they work in various conditions, both in temperature and pressure.
Initially, we developed such materials for inflatable structures that could unfold in outer space, and if defects from micrometeorites occur, they could quickly overgrow. Currently, we are actively working together with NPP Zvezda to create sealing shells for spacesuits in which astronauts work in outer space.
Now the cosmonaut's spacesuit is a structure of several layers, it is a labor-intensive construction to manufacture. Using the self-healing property, it would be possible to reduce the number of layers.
In addition, we are currently working on the use of such materials in large-sized systems to ensure the thermal conditions of spacecraft.
– At what stage is the work on materials for spacesuits?
– NPP Zvezda gave us samples of materials used by astronauts, and from which a spacesuit is made. We were able to integrate self-healing material into the fabric, we were able to make multi-layered structures. Recently, a scientific and technical seminar was held at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, where all these issues were considered not only with designers and technologists, but also with the cosmonauts themselves.
– What are the cosmonauts' requirements and wishes for you?
– For them, the easier, simpler and more mobile, the better. The fact is that this material is not only elastic, it is very fluid, and keeping it on the surface is a whole problem. We have now come up with such a cellular structure with this material that would hold it and not allow it to flow somewhere.
– How is the creation of a nuclear tug going?
– This topic was originally born within the walls of our institute. The entire complex of research and development work was carried out first on small-sized products. We worked out the main technical solutions, created a schematic diagram of this installation, showed that it is possible to create a flight model, and transferred all our developments to the design bureau. The design bureau is creating a spacecraft as a whole. But the most difficult thing about this device is the heart of this device, it was developed here.
– When will the tests of the drip radiator-refrigerator on the ISS take place?
– The plans remain in force. Last year, the ISS included the module "Science". Everything that is needed for this experiment has already been integrated into its composition, the onboard network and the docking points of the equipment have been brought up. We also have all the documentation. Now, according to the plans, the shipment is for 2024, but we believe that we need to speed up this process, because it can give a qualitative leap in heat relief systems.
– How long does the experiment have to go?
– After delivery, the refrigerator only needs to be docked and you can immediately start the experiment. It will not last long, because we need to create a fundamental possibility of generating these drops and catching them in the receiver, that is, to show that this system works in a closed loop. After confirming the design characteristics, it will be possible to build a standard product.
– Dmitry Rogozin, who until recently held the post of CEO of Roscosmos, once said that Russia is seven years ahead of the world in this area. Do you feel pressure that someone is trying to catch up with you?
– At the moment, indeed, we have created a unique thing that is far ahead of many countries. But over the past two or three years, information has also appeared in the United States about the deployment of a program to create space assets based on nuclear energy. To do this, they need the same testing facility as we have, specialists who have been working in this field for many years. However, we and the Americans are concentrating on different power levels, different tasks in space. Potentially, we could complement each other, as it was when the ISS was created. To date, we have advanced further and are seven to eight years ahead of them, because the technology creation period is about the same. But the Americans are not sitting still, and the Europeans have also become more active. In no case should we be happy that we are ahead of someone, and stand still, we need to work, and we are working.
