Foreword: I recently came across a photo of an unknown Russian "Black Rocket". In the end, we managed to find out incredible facts about this "Black Rocket" and what, in fact, this project is. It turns out that this was a working secret development of a combat space laser station. By the way, this development is considered the first and only one in the world that was successfully launched into Earth orbit (according to official information. But since such projects are in most cases classified and are being developed by many countries, it would not be surprising if such stations could be in orbit far from a single copy and perhaps not only Russians, and perhaps now they are flying over you, but these are thoughts out loud ...)
The "Black Rocket" shown in the photo is the largest Soviet spacecraft "Pole" (aka "Skif-DM" - the world's first combat space laser station).
Project "Skif"
As we managed to find out, the "Black Rocket" shown in the photo is the largest Soviet spacecraft "Pole" (aka "Skif-DM", aka 17F19DM, aka MIR-2, it's also the world's first combat space laser station). And moreover, this project is almost completely worked out and is considered very successful. Here are the space lasers! It turns out that all this was already in the years of the USSR. True, only now many developments have begun to be revealed to the public, but as they say, better late than never at all ...
What is known:
Laser orbital platform "Skif" aka "black rocket"
The laser orbital platform began to be developed in the USSR in the late 1970s. The Skif program was supposed to be a response to the SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative, also known as Star Wars).
At the same time, realizing the complexity of intercepting ICBM warheads, Soviet scientists developed the Skif primarily as a means of destroying American spacecraft in order to prevent them from intercepting our ICBMs. (But, of course, this is far from all the functions that the laser orbital platform was supposed to perform.)
It is known that a gas-dynamic CO2 laser GDL RD0600 with a power of 100 kW and dimensions of 2140x1820x680 mm was developed for the laser orbital platform at JSC Design Bureau of Khimavtomatika. It is worth noting that by 2011 this laser had gone through a full cycle of bench testing.
By the way, this suggests that the Peresvet combat laser, which Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke about, has a well-founded foundation, still made by outstanding Soviet scientists. It is worth treating Russian scientists with all due respect, because they continued the tradition of Soviet developments, and as a result, now we have a combat laser in service, which is pumped up by a nuclear reactor for an impulse.
combat laser complex "Peresvet" is capable of hitting enemy aircraft
An achievement that has become a sensation for the world astronautics.
Energiya booster before launch.
In May 1987, the whole world watched this launch, the launch became a sensation for the world astronautics. In its first flight, the Energia launch vehicle carried the same secret experimental apparatus "Skif" (aka "Black Rocket") as a payload. The mass of the space tandem is more than 100 tons, for comparison, the carrying capacity of the American "Shuttle" was 3 times less. There is even a small video fragment of the Energia rocket and the Skif apparatus:
The Energia-Skif complex successfully passed all the tests, both at the test sites and at the cosmodrome itself, namely ground and flight tests, but few counted on a successful launch. But the launch took place in normal mode with minimal errors. Those funds that were spent on this car, in fact, were not in vain. The arms race in space has stopped around the World, for example, satellites that would destroy other satellites, in other words, "star wars". By the way, after that, the Americans could not launch such a large payload. The maximum they were capable of was launching 30 tons on the Shuttle, says designer Alexander Markin.
Reason for creation.
Soviet Union lagged behind the Americans in the development of laser weapons in the late eighties. The United States had about 8 aircraft carriers that could hit any enemy target. The Skif project put an end to the arms race, the model of the spacecraft was equipped with a laser gun, which gave it the status of a strategic military fighter.
The Soviet Union faced the need to urgently create such a weapon that could take precedence over the enemy, but at the same time, the most important task was that these weapons could protect our territories in those years. Also, if necessary, the weapon had to be able to deliver a powerful retaliatory strike, says the chief dispatcher of the Progress TsSKB in 1987, Alexander Lunev.
Fuel tanks, frame elements, hull and other parts of Energia were made at Progress TsSKB. For the plant, this was the largest order in history, the scale of construction amazed even experienced rocket scientists.
The design is really very large, because only the diameter of the product was almost 8 meters. The fuel tank in total between the frames is 29 meters! This is a colossal structure, if we talk about missiles like that, explains the head of production of workshop No. 233 in 1987, Peter Pedchinko.
Launch vehicle Energia.
Petr Pedchenko in 1987 was the head of production, followed the technological process of manufacturing parts and the progress of tests: "water, fire and cold." Each test for the Kuibyshev factory workers was the development of the latest technologies that had to be mastered after the fact.
Now in shop 233 it is deserted, and 25 years ago, work here was in full swing in earnest. After all, the task was to get ahead of the Americans in a short time and declare space opportunities to the whole world. (Yes, the Soviet capabilities were still much greater than now, but imagine for a second? If the USSR had not collapsed and the space race continued? Where could we possibly be?)
All this was in this building until the very end, and it was sometimes very difficult to walk! Because you came here, and then you have to go there. And here, thank God, the building is almost half a kilometer, recalls Piotr Pedchinko, looking sadly at this building.
After entering the orbit, the "Skif" was regularly separated from the launch vehicle, but it did not have long to serve, the 80-ton apparatus in space could provoke other countries and unleash a war. Soviet specialists decided to flood the model of the spacecraft in the Pacific Ocean, and a year and a half later, the Energia launch vehicle launched the Buran reusable orbital ship into space. By the way, on November 15, 1988, he made his flight in automatic unmanned mode. And this is in those years!
But alas, this flight was the last, the collapse of the Soviet Union was the reason why the space program was closed. They decided not to invest in space any more. But still, it is worth noting that those two launches, first with the layout of the Skif spacecraft and then with the Buran spacecraft, brought the Soviet Union, and then Russia, to leading positions in space for many years. Of course, today's success pales in comparison to the scale that was in the years of the USSR. However, there is hope that Russia will still be able to regain its true title of "Space Power". According to Vladimir Putin, Russian scientists are working on developments that will finally allow manned missions to be sent to the Moon and Mars!
On this, the history of "Skif" could be considered complete, however, many experts agree that these developments continue to develop and improve, and no one has abandoned the space combat laser station. As the experts say right time and at the right time, these developments will become known to the general public, because as V. Putin said back in March 2018 about new types of weapons, "it's just not the time yet." But also no one believed when Putin made a statement back in 2004 that Russia was developing weapons based on new physical principles, but then we all remember the world's reaction to Putin's statements and the fact that Russia has hypersonic weapons. So there is something to think about!
Mindful45>> "Pole" is "Skif-DM"
volk959> Not. Skif is Skif, an ordinary Soviet combat orbital station, with a total weight of 90 tons.
Dear volk959, please do not swallow the "DM" index (demonstration layout) in the title.
These two letters drastically change the content loaded under the fairing.
I repeat: the real "Skif" weighed 18 tons, and its model, capable of only statically repeating the characteristics of the apparatus of NPO Energia, weighed 77 tons.
Well, it's like if you were given a layout mobile phone, then I'm afraid that you may not fit into a suitcase.
volk959> A "Polyus"-some misinformation, for external use.
"As you call the ship, so it will sail" (C)
I'm sorry, but this is the official name of the spacecraft.
Of course, you can rename "Ukraine" to "Bulgaria", Yuri Ligachev to Yegor Ligachev, "Julius Caesar" to ..., but this is not good enough. Ask any dog breeder about the benefits of a name change.
Mindful45>> And Philly engineers do not want to throw stones.
Mindful45>> Their bosses took away the laser defense theme from Podlipki and decided to launch a series of devices on the Energia launch vehicle to work out the principles.
volk959> What the hell. Until 1988, there were no laser workers in the Salyut Design Bureau. Since 1988, a department has been created there from scratch to develop a new space-based combat laser.
I hear this from you first, so I believe. Moreover, you do not contradict my message that there was nothing at the time of the launch of Polyus - Skif-DM, but planned to achieve everything after ...
Mindful45>> And I worked there, in that department. From 1988 to 1990. Me and a group of my laser colleagues were lured there from NIIKP, giving more high salary. Apart from this group of ours, there were no other laser workers in Salyut. There, in general, apart from us, no one was versed in lasers. Not a centime.
Here is a vivid example of the Soviet giant nanobuilding.
Instead of looking for the team that made the biggest breakthrough in a narrow industry, Soviet generals grabbed funding, grabbed places on the Energia launch schedule, built buildings for new units and hired bosses.
Well, at most for the flare, they hired a dozen or two eggheads who, working at the Salyut design bureau, did not even interrogate the name of the first satellite in the combat series that is being created at their enterprise. Sorry volk959, but I get the feeling that you are alienated from Filey's life.
Excuse the possible hint, but this is not a problem of employees, but of those who hired them.
By the way, when NPO Energia was engaged in "Scythian" (the real one), then a specialized enterprise was engaged in the laser head, which had an established team of talented scientists and developers of special systems.
And in order to adapt coherent sources to the loose design of the spacecraft, special units were created.
I have been working on alternative sources of laser consumables.
77 t (without modules)
length: 37 m, diameter: 4.1 m
"Pole" (Skif-DM, product 17F19DM) - spacecraft, dynamic layout (DM) of a combat laser orbital platform "Scythian", the payload used during the first launch of the Energia launch vehicle in 1987.
History of creation
Orbital platform "Skif"
"Scythian"- a project for a combat laser orbital platform weighing over 80 tons, the development of which began in the late 1970s at NPO Energia (in 1981, due to the heavy workload of the association, the Skif theme was transferred to the Salyut Design Bureau). August 18, 1983 General Secretary The Central Committee of the CPSU, Yuri Andropov, made a statement that the USSR unilaterally stopped testing the anti-space defense complex, but in connection with the SDI program in the United States, work on the Skif continued.
In particular, a gas-dynamic CO 2 laser GDL RD0600 with a power of 100 kW and dimensions of 2140x1820x680 mm was developed for the laser orbital platform at JSC Design Bureau of Khimavtomatika, which passed a full cycle of bench testing by 2011.
Dynamic layout Skif-DM
In the project's boundaries "Scythian" for 1986-1987, an experimental launch into orbit of a weight-and-weight model of the station (a spacecraft Skif-DM) using a booster "Energy".
Skif-DM had a length of 37 meters, a maximum diameter of 4.1 meters and a mass of about 80 tons. It consisted of two main compartments: a smaller one - a functional service unit and a larger one - a target module. The functional service block was a long-established supply spacecraft for the Salyut orbital station. It housed traffic control systems and on-board complex, telemetry control, command radio communications, thermal regime, power supply, separation and discharge of fairings, antenna devices, control system for scientific experiments. All devices and systems that could not withstand the vacuum were located in a sealed instrument-cargo compartment.
In the compartment of the propulsion system there were 4 main engines, 20 orientation and stabilization engines and 16 precision stabilization engines, as well as tanks, pipelines and valves of the pneumohydraulic system serving the engines. Solar panels were placed on the side surfaces of the propulsion system, which open after entering orbit.
flight program Skif-DM included ten experiments: four applied and six geophysical.
Launch of the Energia-Skif-DM complex on May 15, 1987
Initially, the launch of the Energia-Skif-DM system was planned for September 1986. However, due to the delay in the manufacture of the apparatus, the preparation of the launcher and other systems of the cosmodrome, the launch was postponed for almost half a year - on May 15, 1987. Only at the end of January 1987, the apparatus was transported from the assembly and test building at the 92nd site of the cosmodrome, where it was trained, to the building of the assembly and refueling complex. There, on February 3, 1987, the Skif-DM was docked with the Energia launch vehicle. The next day, the complex was taken to the universal complex stand-start at the 250th site. In fact, the Energia-Skif-DM complex was ready for launch only at the end of April.
The launch of the complex took place on May 15, 1987 with a delay of five hours. Two stages of "Energy" worked successfully. 460 seconds after the launch, the Skif-DM separated from the launch vehicle at an altitude of 110 kilometers. Reversal process spacecraft after separation from the launch vehicle due to a switching error electrical circuit lasted longer than expected. As a result, the Skif-DM did not enter the intended orbit and fell into the Pacific Ocean along a ballistic trajectory. Despite this, according to the assessment indicated in the report, more than 80% of the planned experiments were completed.
public message
On May 15, 1987, TASS published a message stating, in part:
| The Soviet Union has begun flight and design tests of a new powerful universal launch vehicle Energia, designed to launch both reusable orbital spacecraft and large-sized spacecraft for scientific and national economic purposes into low-Earth orbits. A two-stage universal launch vehicle ... is capable of launching more than 100 tons of payload into orbit ... On May 15, 1987, at 21:30 Moscow time, the first launch of this rocket was carried out from the Baikonur Cosmodrome ... The second stage of the launch vehicle ... brought the overall weight model to the calculated point satellite. Dimensional-weight layout after separation from the second stage was supposed to be launched into a circular near-Earth orbit with the help of its own engine. However, due to the abnormal operation of its onboard systems, the model did not enter the specified orbit and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean ... |
Write a review on the article "Pole (spacecraft)"
Literature
- Glushko V.P. Storming space with rocket systems // . - 3rd ed., revised. and additional - M .: Mashinostroenie, 1987. - S. 304.
Notes
See also
Links
- www.buran.ru/htm/cargo.htm
- www.astronautix.com/craft/polyus.htm
- www.buran.ru/htm/scr.htm - screensaver with a space station and other spacecraft.
| This is a stub article about rocketry, rocketry, or spacecraft. You can help the project by adding to it. |
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
An excerpt characterizing the Pole (spacecraft)
Two hours later the carts were in the courtyard of Bogucharov's house. The peasants were eagerly carrying out and stacking the master's things on the carts, and Dron, at the request of Princess Mary, released from the locker where he was locked up, standing in the yard, disposed of the peasants.“Don’t put it down so badly,” one of the peasants said, A tall man with a round smiling face, accepting the casket from the hands of the maid. She's worth the money too. Why are you throwing it like that or half a rope - and it will rub. I don't like that. And to be honest, according to the law. That's how it is under the matting, but cover it with a curtain, that's important. Love!
“Look for books, books,” said another peasant, who was carrying out the library cabinets of Prince Andrei. - You do not cling! And it’s heavy, guys, the books are healthy!
- Yes, they wrote, they didn’t walk! - a tall chubby man said with a significant wink, pointing to the thick lexicons lying on top.
Rostov, not wanting to impose his acquaintance on the princess, did not go to her, but remained in the village, waiting for her to leave. Having waited for Princess Mary's carriages to leave the house, Rostov mounted on horseback and accompanied her on horseback to the path occupied by our troops, twelve miles from Bogucharov. In Jankovo, at the inn, he took leave of her respectfully, for the first time allowing himself to kiss her hand.
“You’re not ashamed,” blushing, he answered Princess Marya to the expression of gratitude for her salvation (as she called his act), “every guard would have done the same. If we only had to fight with the peasants, we would not let the enemy go so far, ”he said, ashamed of something and trying to change the conversation. “I am only happy to have had the opportunity to meet you. Farewell, princess, I wish you happiness and consolation and wish to meet you under happier conditions. If you don't want to make me blush, please don't thank me.
But the princess, if she did not thank him more with words, thanked him with the whole expression of her face, beaming with gratitude and tenderness. She couldn't believe him, that she had nothing to thank him for. On the contrary, for her it was undoubtedly that if he were not there, then she probably would have to die from both the rebels and the French; that he, in order to save her, exposed himself to the most obvious and terrible dangers; and even more undoubted was the fact that he was a man with a lofty and noble soul, who knew how to understand her position and grief. His kind and honest eyes, with tears coming out of them, while she herself, crying, spoke to him about her loss, did not go out of her imagination.
When she said goodbye to him and was left alone, Princess Mary suddenly felt tears in her eyes, and then, not for the first time, she asked herself a strange question: does she love him?
On the way further to Moscow, despite the fact that the situation of the princess was not joyful, Dunyasha, who was traveling with her in a carriage, noticed more than once that the princess, leaning out of the window of the carriage, smiled joyfully and sadly at something.
“Well, what if I did love him? thought Princess Mary.
No matter how ashamed she was to admit to herself that she was the first to love a man who, perhaps, would never love her, she consoled herself with the thought that no one would ever know this and that it would not be her fault if for the rest of her life, no one talking about loving the one she loved for the first and last time.
Sometimes she remembered his views, his participation, his words, and it seemed to her that happiness was not impossible. And then Dunyasha noticed that she, smiling, was looking out the window of the carriage.
“And he should have come to Bogucharovo, and at that very moment! thought Princess Mary. - And it was necessary for his sister to refuse Prince Andrei! - And in all this, Princess Mary saw the will of providence.
The impression made on Rostov by Princess Marya was very pleasant. When he thought about her, he felt merry, and when his comrades, having learned about the adventure that had happened with him in Bogucharov, joked to him that he, having gone for hay, had picked up one of the richest brides in Russia, Rostov became angry. He was angry precisely because the idea of marrying a pleasant for him, meek Princess Marya with a huge fortune more than once came to his mind against his will. For himself, Nikolai could not wish for a better wife than Princess Mary: marrying her would make the Countess, his mother, happy, and improve his father’s affairs; and even—Nikolai felt it—would have made Princess Marya happy. But Sonya? AND given word? And this made Rostov angry when they joked about Princess Bolkonskaya.
Having taken command of the armies, Kutuzov remembered Prince Andrei and sent him an order to arrive at the main apartment.
Prince Andrei arrived in Tsarevo Zaimishche on the very day and at the very time of the day when Kutuzov was making the first review of the troops. Prince Andrei stopped in the village near the priest's house, where the commander-in-chief's carriage was stationed, and sat down on a bench at the gate, waiting for the Serene Highness, as everyone now called Kutuzov. On the field outside the village, one could hear the sounds of regimental music, then the roar of a huge number of voices shouting “Hurrah! to the new commander-in-chief. Immediately at the gate, about ten paces from Prince Andrei, taking advantage of the absence of the prince and the fine weather, stood two batmen, a courier and a butler. Blackish, overgrown with mustaches and sideburns, a little hussar lieutenant colonel rode up to the gate and, looking at Prince Andrei, asked: is the brightest here and will he be soon?
Prince Andrei said that he did not belong to the headquarters of his Serene Highness and was also a visitor. The hussar lieutenant colonel turned to the well-dressed batman, and the batman of the commander-in-chief said to him with that special contempt with which the batmen of the commanders-in-chief speak to the officers:
- What, brightest? It must be now. You that?
The hussar lieutenant colonel grinned into his mustache at the orderly, got off the horse, gave it to the messenger and went up to Bolkonsky, bowing slightly to him. Bolkonsky stood aside on the bench. The hussar lieutenant-colonel sat down beside him.
Are you also waiting for the commander-in-chief? said the hussar lieutenant colonel. - Govog "yat, accessible to everyone, thank God. Otherwise, trouble with the sausages! Nedag" om Yeg "molov in the Germans pg" settled down. Tepeg "maybe and g" Russian talk "it will be possible. Otherwise, Cheg" does not know what they were doing. Everyone retreated, everyone retreated. Did you do the hike? - he asked.
- I had the pleasure, - answered Prince Andrei, - not only to participate in the retreat, but also to lose in this retreat everything that he had dear, not to mention the estates and home... a father who died of grief. I am from Smolensk.
- And? .. Are you Prince Bolkonsky? It’s very cool to meet you: Lieutenant Colonel Denisov, better known by the name of Vaska, Denisov said, shaking Prince Andrei’s hand and peering into Bolkonsky’s face with especially kind attention. Yes, I heard, ”he said sympathetically and, after a pause, continued : - Here is the Scythian war. This is all hog "osho, but not for those who puff with their sides. And you are Prince Andg "she Bolkonsky?" He shook his head. "Very hell, prince, very hell to meet you," he added again with a sad smile, shaking his hand.
Prince Andrei knew Denisov from Natasha's stories about her first fiancé. This recollection both sweetly and painfully carried him now to those painful sensations of which he Lately I had not thought about it for a long time, but which were still in his soul. Recently, there have been so many other and such serious impressions as leaving Smolensk, his arrival in the Bald Mountains, recently known about the death of his father - so many sensations were experienced by him that these memories had not come to him for a long time and, when they did, had no effect on him. him with the same strength. And for Denisov, the series of memories that Bolkonsky’s name evoked was the distant, poetic past, when, after dinner and Natasha’s singing, without knowing how, he proposed to a fifteen-year-old girl. He smiled at the memories of that time and his love for Natasha, and immediately turned to what passionately and exclusively now occupied him. This was the campaign plan he had come up with while serving in the outposts during the retreat. He presented this plan to Barclay de Tolly and now intended to present it to Kutuzov. The plan was based on the fact that the French line of operations was too long and that instead of, or at the same time, acting from the front, blocking the way for the French, it was necessary to act on their messages. He began to explain his plan to Prince Andrei.
The laser orbital platform began to be developed in the USSR in the late 1970s. The Skif program was supposed to be a response to the SDI being developed by the Americans. At the same time, understanding the complexity of intercepting ICBM warheads, Soviet scientists developed the Skif primarily as a means of destroying American spacecraft (yes, yes, those very "Excalibur", discussed above) to prevent them from intercepting our ICBMs.
It was decided to install on the spacecraft (SC) a carbon dioxide gas-dynamic laser with a power of 1 MW, developed by one of the branches of the Institute of Atomic Energy. I.V. Kurchatov. and tested on the A-60 aviation laser complex.
Aviation laser complex A-60 (aka "IL-76LL with BL")
The spacecraft, designed to install a megawatt laser from the Il-76LL with BL, received the designation 17F19D "Skif-D". The letter "D" meant "demonstration". There is also information that the Skif was to be equipped with a continuous gas-dynamic carbon dioxide laser RD0600 with a power of not 1 MW, but 100 kW.
August 27, 1984 Minister of General Engineering O.D. Baklanov signed order N343/0180 on the creation of 17F19D "Skif-D".
The first launch into orbit of Skif-D was to take place in the second quarter of 1987.
"Skif-D" was primarily an experimental spacecraft, on which not only the laser, but also some standard systems of the following devices, created within the framework of the "Soviet SDI" program, were to be tested. These were separation and orientation systems, a motion control system, a power supply system, an onboard complex control system.
Estimated view of "Skif-D" on duty
The designers who created the Skif faced a bunch of new technical problems for them.
First, it was completely unclear whether a gas-dynamic carbon dioxide laser would be launched in orbit in vacuum and weightlessness. To deal with this problem at the Plant. M.V. Khrunichev, it was decided to create a special test bench. The stand occupied a huge area and included four 20-meter vertical cylindrical vacuum towers, two 10-meter ball tanks for storing cryogenic components, and an extensive network of large-diameter pipelines.
There were problems with the laser power supply system. The Skif-D motion control system turned out to be very complicated. After all, she had to aim the rotary head part and the entire device at the target, while compensating for disturbances from the operation of the generators, from the exhaust gases from the laser ( turbogenerators had large moving parts, and the gas was so hot that it needed to be bled off,affected the movement of the spacecraft, making the laser extremely inaccurate), and from the turns themselves of a very heavy, but at the same time very rapidly rotating head of the special equipment compartment.
Already in 1985, it was clear that one test launch of the spacecraft would be required just to test all these auxiliary systems. Therefore, it was decided to launch the Skif-D1 product into orbit without a combat laser, and only fully equip the Skif-D2 with a "special complex".
Skif-DM + Energy
The Skif was developed in parallel with the new Energia launch vehicle, designed to launch spacecraft weighing up to 100 tons into orbit.
In the middle of 1985, it was decided to remake the bench launch vehicle 11K25 "Energy" N6С in flight (carrier number changed to 6SL) and launched in 1986.
There was a question about the payload for this launch. We decided to use this launch in the interests of the "Skif" theme and demanded a weight-and-weight model (GVM) from the design bureau.
The Salyut Design Bureau decided to install on the ordered GVM all the systems of the regular Skif-D that were ready at that time for their testing in space. So the project of the apparatus "Skif-D mock-up" or 17F19DM "Skif-DM", which received another name - "Pole".
The flight copy of the KA 17F19DM "Skif-DM" received tail number 18201 after 17F19D "Skif-D" No. 18101, which, although it was conceived earlier, now had to start later. Outwardly, both vehicles had much in common, with the exception of the swivel head of the special equipment compartment. 17F19DM also consisted of two modules: a functional service unit (FSB) and a target module (CM), had a length of 36.9 meters, a maximum diameter of 4.1 meters, a mass of 77 tons, together with the head FSB.
The target module "Skif-DM" housed experimental facilities for applied and geophysical experiments (whereas the Skif-D CM was supposed to carry tanks with carbon dioxide and two turbogenerators that ensured the operation of the laser).
"Skif-D" was supposed to carry not one, but two laser.
Targeting the device on the target was carried out in two stages.
At first, an airborne radar station (BRLS) was used for rough guidance. Then precise guidance was carried out by the SNU, which used a low-power laser for this. The SNU was created by the Kazan software "Radiopribor" - the leading company in the USSR in identification systems. For processing data from radar and SNU and joint work of these systems with the executive bodies of the traffic control system in the Skif-DM CMS, the Argon-16 on-board computer was used, which is similar to the same on-board computer on the base unit of the Mir station.
It was decided to use separable targets (such as inflatable balls and corner reflectors) to test the LLS. Barium plasma generators were installed on inflatable targets to simulate the operation of ballistic missile and satellite engines. It was decided to officially announce the operation of the plasma generators as a geophysical experiment to study the interaction of artificial plasma formations with the earth's ionosphere, and the shooting of targets for the SNU as a test of a promising rendezvous and docking system. Although, the development of a new docking system, in which the device did not approach the targets, but, on the contrary, shot them off, would look very strange from the outside. It was already some kind of "promising undocking system."
:)
Perestroika was in full swing. She did not miss the orbital laser development program either.
Tagged M.S. Gorbachev began to promote himself on the topic of "peaceful space" and the State Commission for the launch of "Skif-DM", fearing to compromise the "peacekeeping statements" of the country's leadership, significantly cut the test program - all shooting targets, testing of radar and radar, release of xenon-krypton gas mixture were canceled through a momentless exhaust system (SBV).
On the basis of these political decisions, in February 1987 the State Commission for the launch of the Skif-DM canceled all target shooting, radar and radar testing, and the release of a xenon-krypton gas mixture through the SBV in the flight program of the device.
They decided only to launch the "Skif-DM" into orbit, and in a month to bring it into the atmosphere over the desert region of the Pacific Ocean. It's hard to say what the US would think of such a huge but silent apparatus. Perhaps there would be no less suspicion here than in the case of shooting targets and ejecting gas clouds.
Only ten of the most "harmless" experiments were left in the test program: four military-applied and six geophysical ones.
On May 15, 1987, the apparatus was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Two stages of "Energy" worked successfully. 460 seconds after the launch, the Skif-DM separated from the launch vehicle at an altitude of 110 kilometers. Testing a new Launch vehicle "Energy" completed successfully! But with the output device it turned out not so "smoothly".
The maneuver of turning the Polus spacecraft by 1800 in pitch and then by 900 in roll, as provided for by the spacecraft's orientation program, was performed normally. However, the calculation process of "turning over" did not stop, but continued due to an error in the flight program of the model. At the calculated moment, the marching propulsion system automatically turned on, which was supposed to inform the spacecraft of an additional speed of the order of 60 m / s, and put it into orbit at a height of 280 km.
As a result, "Skif-DM" did not enter the specified orbit and fell into the Pacific Ocean along a ballistic trajectory.
Despite this, according to the assessment indicated in the report, more than 80% of the planned experiments were completed.
Other "Scythians".
The Skif-DM layout was to be followed by Skif-D1 and Skif-D2 (the second one is already a full-fledged combat vehicle).
Further, the KA 17F19S "Skif-Stiletto" was planned. They were going to install the 1K11 Stiletto laser complex, developed at the Astrophysics Research and Production Association, on it.
"Stiletto" for 17F19S was a space version of the ground-based "Stiletto" (I mentioned it earlier), already created and being tested in the 80s. The ground "Stiletto" was not intended to destroy or destroy enemy equipment - the atmosphere and energy simply did not allow this. Lasers were intended to disable sights and sensors of optical devices. On Earth, the use of "Stiletto" was ineffective. In space, due to the vacuum, the radius of its action increased significantly. "Stiletto - space" could well be used as an anti-satellite weapon. After all, the failure of the optical sensors of the enemy spacecraft was tantamount to the death of the satellite.
To increase the efficiency of the "Stiletto" in space, a special telescope was developed. In September 1986, the Stiletto's electric operating model was manufactured by the Astrophysics Research and Production Association and delivered to the Salyut Design Bureau for testing. In August 1987, a bench prototype of the telescope casing was made.
In the future, it was planned to develop a whole family of various heavy class vehicles. A unified space complex 17F19U "Skif-U" was planned ... But "perestroika" put a bold cross on the program "Skif". The unsuccessful launch of the Polyus into orbit also played into the hands of the opponents of the Skif.
In September 1987, work on the topic 17F19D in the Salyut design bureau and the plant named after. Khrunichev were suspended, but never resumed. And by 1989, funding for the topic of heavy combat orbital stations was completely stopped.
In 1988, the Salyut Design Bureau proposed a project for a heavy production module (HMP) based on the backlog of the 17F19DM, 17F19D and 17F111 vehicles. With a launch mass of 101.9 tons, its mass in orbit would be 88 tons, of which 25 tons would be for technological equipment for the production in microgravity (10-5 - 10-6g) of expensive semiconductor materials and crystals with a geometrically perfect crystal lattice. It was planned to install thermoelectric furnaces of the Krater type, which had been tested on the Kristall module of the Mir orbital complex, on the spacecraft. It was planned to install large solar panels to power the furnaces at the TMP with total area 500 m2, borrowed from the apparatus 17F111 "Cascade". The delivery of consumable materials to the TMP was possible both by Soyuz and Progress spacecraft and by the MAKS reusable aerospace system. The TMP project was considered for a number of years, but was never approved.
P.S.
You can read more details (a lot of letters!) About the Skif program.
P.P.S.
On this, the story of "Skif" could be considered complete, but it can be assumed that it received some continuation in the 90s.
The first component of the upcoming launch international space station(ISS) was a Russian module called "Dawn", also known as a functional cargo block. The device was built in the mid-90s under a contract with NASA by enterprising engineers at the plant. Khrunichev, who met both the deadlines and the budget. Zarya's main purpose was to supply the station with electricity and perform its orbital correction - the same role that the Skif functional block was supposed to perform. Some Soviet researchers believe that the Zarya began its life as a reserve vehicle, originally created for the Pole program. All they had to do was dust off old but perfectly serviceable equipment, or even just blueprints, and that could definitely help keep the space station module on schedule during the economic chaos that reigned in Russia in the nineties.
Sources:
1. http://military.tomsk.ru/blog/topic-353.html
2. http://pvo.guns.ru/abm/a135-01.htm
3. Magazine "Popular Mechanics" No. 10 (No. 84) 2009.
The development of the Skif combat laser station, designed to destroy low-orbit space objects with an onboard laser complex, began at NPO Energia, but due to the heavy workload of the association, since 1981, the Skif theme was transferred to the Salyut Design Bureau. On August 18, 1983, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Yuri Andropov, made a statement that the USSR would unilaterally stop testing the anti-space defense complex. However, with the announcement of the SDI program in the USA, work on the Skif continued.
For testing a laser combat station, a dynamic analogue of the Skif-D was designed. In the future, for the test launch of the Energia launch vehicle, a mock-up model of the Skif-DM station (Polyus) was urgently created.
The Skif-DM station had a length of 37 meters, a maximum diameter of 4.1 meters and a mass of about 80 tons. It consisted of two main compartments: a smaller one - a functional service unit and a larger one - a target module. The functional unit was a well-developed supply spacecraft for the Salyut orbital station. It housed the traffic and onboard complex control systems, telemetry control, command radio communications, thermal conditions, power supply, separation and release of fairings, antenna devices, and a control system for scientific experiments. All devices and systems that could not withstand the vacuum were located in a sealed instrument-cargo compartment. The propulsion unit compartment housed four main engines, 20 orientation and stabilization engines and 16 precision stabilization engines, as well as tanks, pipelines and valves of the pneumohydraulic system serving the engines.
Solar panels were placed on the side surfaces of the propulsion system, which open after entering orbit.
A lot of work has been done in the bureau to create a new large head fairing that protects the functional unit from the oncoming air flow. For the first time it was made of non-metallic material - carbon fiber.
The target module was designed and manufactured from scratch.
At the same time, the designers focused on the maximum use of already mastered nodes and technologies. For example, the diameter and design of all compartments made it possible to use the existing technological equipment of the Khrunichev plant. The nodes connecting the launch vehicle with the spacecraft were taken ready - the same as for the "Buran", as well as the transitional docking block connecting the "Pole" with the Earth at the start. The system for separating the "Polyus" from the rocket also repeated Buranov's.
Since the functional module was essentially a previously mastered spacecraft, it was necessary for it to observe the same loads that it was calculated for when launched by the Proton-K launch vehicle. Therefore, of all the layout options, they were able to choose only one in which the block is located in the head part of the Polus.
And since it was unprofitable to transfer the propulsion system, which was in the functional unit, to the aft part, after separation from the launch vehicle, the Pole flies forward with sustainer engines.
Initially, the launch of the Energia-Skif-DM system was planned for September 1986. However, due to the delay in the manufacture of the apparatus, the preparation of the launcher and other systems of the cosmodrome, the launch was postponed for almost half a year - on May 15, 1987. Only at the end of January 1987, the apparatus was transported from the assembly and test building at the 92nd site of the cosmodrome, where it was trained, to the building of the assembly and refueling complex. There, on February 3, 1987, the Skif-DM was docked with the Energia launch vehicle. The next day, the complex was taken to the universal complex stand-start at the 250th site.
In reality, the Energia-Skif-DM complex was ready for launch only at the end of April.
The flight program of the "Skif-DM" orbital station included ten experiments: four applied and six geophysical ones.
The "VP1" experiment was devoted to the development of a scheme for launching a large-sized spacecraft using a containerless scheme.
In the "VP2" experiment, studies were carried out on the conditions for launching a large-sized apparatus, its structural elements and systems.
Experimental verification of the principles of constructing a large-sized and super-heavy spacecraft (unified module, control systems, thermal control, power supply, electromagnetic compatibility issues) was devoted to the "VPS" experiment.
In the VP11 experiment, it was planned to work out the scheme and technology of the flight.
The program of geophysical experiments "Mirage" was devoted to the study of the effect of combustion products on the upper layers of the atmosphere and ionosphere. The Mirage1 (A1) experiment was to be carried out up to an altitude of 120 kilometers at the launch stage; experiment "Mirage-2" ("A2") - at altitudes from 120 to 280 kilometers during pre-acceleration; experiment "Mirage-3" ("A3") - at altitudes from 280 to the Earth during braking.
Geophysical experiments "GF-1/1", "GF-1/2" and "GF-1/3" were planned to be carried out with the propulsion system of the "Skif-DM" vehicle operating.
The GF-1/1 experiment was devoted to the generation of artificial internal gravity waves in the upper atmosphere.
The purpose of the GF-1/2 experiment was to create an artificial "dynamo effect" in the earth's ionosphere.
Finally, the GF-1/3 experiment was planned to create large-scale ion formations in iono- and plasmaspheres (holes and ducts). To do this, the "Pole" was equipped with a large amount (420 kilograms) of a gas mixture of xenon with krypton (42 cylinders, each with a capacity of 36 liters) and a system for releasing it into the ionosphere.
The launch of the Energia-Skif-DM complex took place on May 15, 1987 with a delay of five hours. Two stages of "Energy" worked successfully. 460 seconds after the launch, the SkifDM separated from the launch vehicle at an altitude of 110 kilometers.
The test program for the Skif-DM apparatus was not fully implemented due to an unfortunate failure that led to the death of the station (I already wrote about this in Chapter 14). However, this flight also gave a lot of results. First of all, all the necessary material was obtained to clarify the loads on the Buran orbital vehicle in order to ensure its flight tests. During the launch and autonomous flight of the vehicle, all four applied experiments (“VP-1”, “VP-2”, “VP-3” and “VP-11”), as well as part of the geophysical experiments (“Mirage-1” and partially "GF-1/1" and "GF-1/3").
The conclusion on the results of the launch stated: “... Thus, the general tasks of launching the product, determined by the launch tasks approved by MOM and UNKS, taking into account the “Decision” of May 13, 1987 to limit the scope of target experiments, were completed by the number of tasks solved by more than 80%".
