Science
ACTUAL PROBLEMS OF AVIATION AND AEROSPACE SYSTEMS
Kazan Daytona Beach


Scientific Conference

XXXI-st Academic Conference on Astronautics

dedicated to Academician S.P.Korolev's 100th Anniversary

Analytical Survey

(Moscow, Russia, January-February, 2007)

Е.I.Alexeeva

A.A.Dorodnitsyn Computing Center of RAS

40, Vavilova, Moscow 119333, Russia

A.K.Medvedeva

Institute of Natural Sciences and Technique History of RAS

Moscow, 103012, Russia

From 30 January 2007 to 2 February 2007 the XXXIst Academic Conference on Astronautics Dedicated to Academician S.P.Korolev's 100th Anniversary took place in Moscow with participation of foreign scientists. Russian rocket-space community was represented by a significant number of participants (more than 1650) from over 150 organizations. Reports were made by 1005 scientists and specialists, including 420 of them who read their papers at plenary and section meetings.

The Conference were opened with a plenary meeting and traditional speech of Organizing Committee Chairman Academician B.E.Chertok. He spoke about S.P.Korolev, about main events and style of work of the Chief Designer of rocket engineering.

N.S.Koroleva, S.P.Korolev's daughter, spoke about life and creative work of the great Designer. Members of the first group of cosmonauts P.R.Popovich, B.V.Volynov, V.N.Kubasov and S.P.Korolev's companion V.D.Vachnadze shared their impressions of personal contacts with Sergey Pavlovich.

President and General Designer of Rocket and Space Corporation (RSC) "Energiya" N.N.Sevastyanov made a report and said that the Corporation had developed some suggestions on progress concept of Russian Astronautics up to 2050. He also stressed that available technological reserve enables to implement manned moon flight by 2015 and found a permanent Moon base starting commercial development by 2030. According to preliminary plans, manned Mars flight will be realizable by 2030.

The second plenary meeting was dedicated to creative work of Academician V.P.Mishin, who was S.P.Korolev's closest companion and his first deputy in the field of scientific-research and design works. Dean of Aerospace faculty of MAI and Corresponding Member of RAS O.M.Alifanov made his report "Academician V.P.Mishin: life and creative work (dedicated to his 90th Anniversary)".

General Designer and General Manager of S.A.Lavochkin Association Professor G.M.Polischuk made his report "Promising Automatic Spacecrafts Produced by S.A.Lavochkin Association for Fundamental Research (Dedicated to the 70th Anniversary of S.A.Lavochkin Association)" on behalf of the author group. As is known, since 1965 S.A.Lavochkin Association has been a central factory of rocket-space industry on development of automatic space complexes for fundamental scientific research. Their sphere of research includes: planets (Mars, Venus) and the Moon; asteroids; the Sun; solar-terrestrial relations; space plasma physics; minor celestial bodies of Solar system.

Within the framework of the Conference three circular tables were held on the following topics. Circular table "Promising Aerospace Missions and Technologies". Presenters: Academician B.E.Chertok, space pilot A.P.Aleksandrov. Discussed areas: Moon strategies of Russia and the USA; Moon research mobile base "LIMB"; small multifunctional Earth satellites and nanosatellites; space tourism: from suborbital rocket gliders to circumlunar cruise.

Circular table "Application of Products of Space Activities to the interests of industrial sectors and regions of Russia". President of S.P.Korolev's RSC "Energiya" General Designer N.N.Sevastyanov presided over the meeting.

Circular table "Commercial Perspectives of Space Activities: Scenarios of Real and Potential Requirements in Innovative Products of the Sector". In discussion participated representatives of: State Duma of Russian Federation, Roscosmos, Ministry of Defense, leading aerospace corporations, aerospace universities. The following topics were discussed:

-         real state and perspectives of commercial space activities market;

-         economic-organizational support and personnel of commercial space activities;

-         application of products of space activities as a way of innovative development of potential consumers;

-         conversion and commercialization as the replication tools of products of space activities.

The XXXIst Academic Conference consist of two tens of sections. Therefore it is reasonable to structure them according to their subjects and form some units. Five units can be formed.

The first one includes three sections: "Aircrafts. Design and Construction", "Automatic Spacecrafts for Planetary and Astrophysical Research. Design, Construction, Tests and Calculation", "Ground-Based Infrastructure Units of Rocket Complexes".

The second one is devoted to rocket engines and includes four sections: "Astronautics Development and Fundamental Problems of Gas Dynamics, Combustion and Heat Transfer", "Founders of Aerospace Propulsion Engineering and Problems of Theory and Construction of Aircraft Engines", "Space Power Engineering and Space Electric Propulsion Systems as Current Problems of Quality Ensuring, High Tech", "Combined Propulsion Units for Hypersonic and Air-Space Vehicles".

The third one is dedicated to the problems of navigation and consists of three sections: "Applied Celestial Mechanics and Motion Control", "Space Navigation and Robotics", "Control Systems for Space Vehicles and Complexes".

The forth one concerns industrial aspects and includes three sections: "High-End Technologies in Rocket Engineering", "Ground Development of Jet Engines and Thermovacuum Tests of Spacecrafts", "Production of Rocket Engineering Constructions".

The fifth one is dedicated to the aspects of humanities in the field of Astronautics and consists of five sections: "Economics of Space Activities", "Astronautics and Steady Progress of Society", "Aerospace Education and Young People's Problems", "Space Biology and Medicine", "Astronautics and Culture". Sections named "Research of Scientific Creative Work of the Pioneers in Space Exploration" and "History of Rocket Engineering" are rather special and thus can not be related to any of the listed units.

At the meeting of the first unit section "Aircrafts. Design and Construction" research and development issues were traditionally discussed representing pioneer works with 5-10 year perspective. The latter varies from adoption of new design decisions and materials to global programs like renovation of concepts of space communication, navigation of Earth remote sensing, creation of lunar bases.

At the meeting of the section the following problems were considered this year:

-         program developments of M.V.Khrunichev Research and Production Space Center and RSC "Energiya" on carrier rockets operating on pure components for launches at Plesetsk ("Soyuz-2-3", "Angara");

-         projects of new powerful rockets operating on methane-oxygen fuel which are being actively developed abroad; program of Russian space shuttle "Clipper";

-         development program of small and microsatellites for communication systems, Earth remote sensing, navigation, needs of emergency and natural resources control.

According to the opinion of participants, these problems, associated with technological leap of aerospace branch and related fields, demand some special State Program. Besides that, all participants approved of the idea that Korolev's Conference could become a place for open-minded and just discussions being free of market aims of organizations and their private interests. Some constructive remarks were made concerning: a dead work of establishing our Moon program with financing of less that 3% from the corresponding American program; "Energiya" scheme on the basis of existing boost modules with a large amount of dockings or S.A.Lavochkin Association's scheme which repeats G.N.Babakin's vehicles, at the best only copy 37 years old "Apollo" and do not make a long-life "zero cycle" of manned lunar base.

At the meeting of "Automatic Spacecrafts for Planetary and Astrophysical Research. Design, Construction, Tests and Calculation" section a large variety of papers were presented and discussed. The following areas could be highlighted:

-         discussion of space systems projects for promising areas of planetary and fundamental astrophysical research;

-         modern scientific and design developments, new methods for calculation of main parameters of systems and devices, test and operation experience of existing space engineering;

-         Earth remote sensing from space.

-         Another group of problems discussed at this unit of sections was associated with "Ground-Based Infrastructure Units of Rocket Complexes". The main scientific trends of this area are the following:

-         development and application of automated resource-saving and information technologies in launcher building;

-         research of characteristics of gas-dynamic, acoustic, dynamic and thermal processes in launching equipment during the period of preparation and launching of rocket systems;

-         development of diagnostic techniques of operating conditions of launching and engineering complexes' technological equipment, modeling and optimal control of launching equipment operation.

Participants of the second unit's sections meetings on fundamental problems of gas dynamics, combustion and heat transfer discussed the following problems:

-         theoretical and experimental (including full-scale) research of exhaust emission problem of modern spacecrafts;

-         latest results of combustion processes and combustion knock of homogeneous and heterogeneous fuel blends research aimed at development of promising air-breathing jet engines for modern flying vehicles;

-         research of physical-chemical processes in the flows containing fine-dispersed particles of condensed phase; latest results of research of cluster formation model, nucleation speed and phase transfer for certain substances;

-         new software products, methods and computational models development aimed at expanding of computational experiments potential in the framework of new space programs, including numerical simulation in the problems of radiation gas dynamics;

-         review of the latest results in computational and experimental research of operation processes in the circuits of promising engines for high-speed flying vehicles (including hypersonic combustion in ducts).

The subject of "Aerospace Propulsion Engineering and Problems of Theory and Construction of Aircraft Engines" was considered by the participants of the corresponding section on the vital issues of liquid-propellant engine construction:

-         design and development of solid fuel rocket engines;

-         results of fission-type propulsions and rocket-ramjet engines;

-         conversion application of liquid-propellant engines.

The subject of "Combined Propulsion Units for Hypersonic and Air-Space Vehicles" included the following urgent issues:

-         creation of hypersonic air breathing engines for aerospace and artillery application with gas-dynamic (instead of geometric) flow control in circuits of air-gas channel. Results of these studies include an idea of creation of thermogasdynamic fairing aimed to reduce head resistance and to develop thermal protection of spacecraft landing capsules;

-         creation of aerospace engines of a new type: pulsating detonating engines;

-         formation of optimal appearance of propulsion units with Mach numbers of 4..5.

The listed issues were also considered at the previous Conference. At the XXXIst Conference they acquired deeper theoretical justification and practical orientation.

The third unit included the subject "Applied Celestial Mechanics and Motion Control". It was presented by the following aspects:

-         research of natural celestial bodies (asteroids) motion and observation over the latter, flight dynamics and motion control of artificial spacecrafts in outer space and in the atmosphere, systems of satellite orientation and stabilization, etc.;

-         results concerning "Photon M-2" satellite and "Mirazh" magnetometer;

-         creation of active magnetic control system for TNS-0 nanosatellite; investigation of 99942 Apophis (2004 MN4) asteroid discovered in 2004 which is approaching the Earth, consideration of collision risk and orbit correction.

Two main problems were discussed in the framework of "Space Navigation and Robotics" section:

-         space navigation and ballistics-navigational support of the flights;

-         robotic sensing complex and instruments for navigation measurements.

The third unit also included the subject of "Control Systems for Space Vehicles and Complexes". At the meetings of corresponding section the following problems were discussed: concepts of development, calculation and design methods for automatic and automated control over various objects of RST; promising directions of development and creation of intelligent control systems for such objects. Special attention in reports was given to the problems of information processing in control systems and increasing of their operation accuracy, latest computational and design technologies, problems of simulation and ground-based tryout of these systems. Production-related issues of rocket engineering were represented at the meetings of the forth unit of sections.

The subject of "High-End Technologies in Rocket Engineering" was aimed at discussion of actual problems of rocket engineering creation and operation:

-         reliability and environmental safety of rocket engineering operation while researching near and deep space for national economy needs and for global progress of terrestrial civilization;

-         global informatization of aerospace industry, creation of corporate geographically distributed informational telecommunicational control systems for enterprises, introduction of interactive electronic technical manuals and other elements of IPI-technologies, which provide information support for rocket engineering products at every stage of life cycle, into day-to-day practice, restructuring of business processes, creation of computerized integrated industries to enhance integration of Russian aerospace sector with international economic community;

-         introduction of high-end resource saving and energy efficient environmentally safe technologies into production process of aerospace engineering, entry of Russia to the international market of high-end technologies.

The subject of "Production of Rocket Engineering Constructions" included the problems of production and industrial arrangement of rocket engineering. Reports depict developments in the field of the whole spectrum of high-end rocket engineering technologies: procurement processes, machining, physical-chemical processing methods, assembling, part sensing and testing of construction units, details and systems. At the meeting special attention was given in particular to the problems of producing constructions of composite materials. Promising technological methods were represented in papers on ultrajet, magnetic-impulse processing technologies and on traditional machining. The latter included in particular the problems of improving the surface layer and surface condition diagnostics. Major part of the reports was devoted to the problems of blank production, e.g. moulding, sheet stamping, heat-resistant alloy doping, commonly used in rocket engineering. Innovative methods of functional coverage laying were submitted in the papers. Essential part of reports was traditionally devoted to the problems of assembling and control of large-size, low-rigid constructions e.g. reflector with 12 meter diameter, three-layer panels for airframes. Attention of the audience was particularly attracted to the paper on radio-wave method of three-layer metal construction control as it is a pressing problem of the industry. Urgent issues of test bed design and application for rocket engineering were considered.

The subject of "Ground Development of Jet Engines and Thermovacuum Tests of Spacecrafts" included the following problems discussed:

-         heat pipe application for the systems of thermal conditions securing in spacecrafts; research of continuous service of insulating polymeric materials in spacecraft constructions and new technique for accelerated tests of thermal and mechanical properties of polymeric materials using predictive modeling;

-         bench tests on diagnostics and dynamic parameter definition for fuel tank system using specially developed software-mathematical support which enabled to reveal some system characteristics of new quality;

-         comparative result estimate of full-scale tests of spacecraft thermal conditions providing system at launch position and at the orbit with tests in thermovacuum chamber.

Various aspects of humanities were depicted in papers of the fifth unit's sections. Reports and messages represented at the section of "Economics of Space Activities" were devoted to diverse problems of development and improvement of space economics in our country and in conditions of global space market. The following problems should be highlighted: development of Russian space activity strategy, nationally-oriented space projects and programs, industry reformation strategy and restructuring concepts of industry, enterprises and organizations; aerospace industry marketing and management system creation and development, problems and prospects of aerospace innovative and investment projects, research of different level space project development and realization financing; aspects of space activities of the leading countries at the global space market; personnel training in the field of engineering and economics for rocket-space industry. Actively discussed problems considered at the section meeting of "Astronautics and Steady Progress of Society" were the following: space activities in Russia, development prospects, international law and space activities; development prospects of space and Moon exploration techniques; planning and management problems, problems of economic protection, system engineering of RKD, RKD environmental safety; asteroid protection with help of rocket engineering means. Section's main task is to discuss and draw attention to the problems of interdependent development of Astronautics and society, to investigate objective laws of this development for nowadays and future, to reveal the promising trends of Astronautics development.

"Aerospace Education and Young People's Problems" section held four meetings. The first one was devoted to the problems of higher aerospace education. It is generally accepted to divide these problems into objective, associated with economic growth problems, and subjective, concerning reforms of education system. The latter ones are the most urgent and pressing at the moment. At the second meeting Conference' participants discussed methods for engineers training for hi-end technology industries and first of all for aviation and rocket engineering. Special attention was given to pre-university training of students and their professional orientation. At the section's third meeting different directions in satellite technologies in education were considered. At the forth meeting papers from students, post-graduate students and young scientists were submitted, concerning the prospects of domestic carrier rockets modernization, solid-propellant rocket control engines development, "Spirit" Mars rover's wheels and suspension construction improvement, creation of simulation methods for numerous spacecraft constellations interactions in conditions of conflict situations, design of aerospace vehicle able to reenter the Earth atmosphere after completing Mars expedition, etc. As always, subject of "Astronautics and Culture" section attracted attention of scientific and cultural society. The section concentrates on the problems of interconnection and interference of Astronautics and culture in various spheres and arouses interest in different scientific, cultural and engineering groups of specialists. The papers were represented by: scientists, historians, art specialists, museologists, journalists, space pilots, composers, engineers. Astronautics is considered not only as a scientific production branch but also as a cultural phenomenon which qualitatively changes the essence of our civilization. The section's program includes discussing the prospects of Astronautics development by means of literature and arts (music, painting, sculpture, and architecture), scientific and cultural organizations (museums, archives, libraries) and mass media. The authors hope that this will help the further development of Astronautics, culture and society on the whole. The subject of "Space biology and Medicine" was considered at the corresponding section. Main attention was given to biomedical support of manned space flights. The majority of reports were devoted to development of promising life support systems for long-duration space flights. Different technologies were considered which allow a person to exist in pressurized volume being isolated from the Earth for a long period of time. The submitted results prove high efficiency of life support systems based on biogenic methods of environment regeneration. Critical appraisals were given to the prospects of various environment regeneration methods and their applicability for interplanetary missions of the nearest future. Critical issues were discussed which need to be thoroughly considered nowadays during preparations for manned interplanetary missions. Results of promising technologies were represented which allow safety level improvements for space flights. The majority of submitted conclusions result from long-term fundamental research aboard "Mir" orbital complex and Russian segment of International Space Station (ISS). These results are also of application significance for preparation and realization of the future interplanetary space flights (Moon, Mars). As the XXXIst Academic Conference on Astronautics were dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of Academician S.P.Korolev, two thirds (six out of nine) of the papers submitted at the section of "Research of Scientific Creative Work of the Pioneers in Space Exploration" were timed to coincide with this date. V.E.Bugrov's report devoted to S.P.Korolev's creative development and to the destiny of Mars manned mission was accompanied by presentation showing both the documents of the past and up-to-date computer models. Much attention was drawn to the paper of one of space exploration Pioneers and participants of American Space Program, W. von Braun's companion Dr. Puttkamer from NASA. American scientist made an extensive report dedicated to S.P.Korolev's 100th Anniversary, gave S.P.Korolev his due in space exploration, drew parallels between Soviet and American space programs, and concluded by examples of today's cooperation of Russia and the US in this field. The second NASA representative was A.Siddiki who covered life and creative work of S.P.Korolev submitted by Western publications and stressed some grand problems still left in that area. According to the speakers from RGANTD (L.V.Uspenskaya with colleagues) the problems can be solved using up-to-date Internet-technologies for popularization of scientific heritage of space exploration pioneers. Site-exhibition dedicated to S.P.Korolev's 100th Anniversary (www.rgantd.ru) was demonstrated to the participants right in the lecture-hall. P.N.Grunberg's report contained new publications from RGANTD collection concerning life and creative work of S.P.Korolev. An extremely interesting paper on K.E.Tsiolkovskiy's personality and work and their influence on S.P.Korolev was given by Yu.V.Biryukov. In the framework of "Research of Scientific Creative Work of the Pioneers in Space Exploration" section meeting presentation of the second revised and supplemented volume of B.E.Chertok's Memoirs  "Rakety i lyudi" ("Rockets and People"): "Podlipki - Kapustin Jar - Tyuratam" took place. The opening speech was delivered by Academician V.P.Legostaev. Boris Evseevich spoke about the process of volume revision. Rocket engineering historical aspects considered at the meeting are rather urgent for modern Astronautics because they serve as objective source for description and analysis of events and achievements of domestic Astronautics' past times and for its development. The section for the first time worked in form of books presentation including the first book of "History of Sensing-Control Complex for Spacecraft Control: from the Origins to G.S.Titov Head Test Center". Specialists described the book as a fundamental work in this field. It is stressed that in this book a concept of domestic Astronautics history general development in one of the main directions of space activities is realized. Besides the papers of "History of Rocket Engineering" section, similar reports were represented almost at all other sections.

 



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