At 11:30 pm on January 19th, Beijing time, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was launched into the air, and then successfully carried out the “manned version of the Dragon spacecraft” in the air escape test. This means that SpaceX is one step closer to the goal of launching a manned Falcon 9 rocket for the first time. By then, SpaceX will become the first private aerospace company to conduct a manned launch, and the Mars colonization plan that Musk once promised is one step closer.
The disintegration of the rocket in the air is part of the planned test flight, which aims to verify SpaceX’s ability to cope with a catastrophic rocket accident. This test, called the aborted flight test, is one of the last important milestones for SpaceX to meet NASA’s commercial manned program.and3D printingAt the key technical level, it becomes a strong guarantee for strong and high-performance engine parts.
Source: SpaceX
Predictable success
NASA’s project aims to develop a new type of American-made spacecraft to re-send NASA astronauts into space. For the past six years, SpaceX has been developing a spacecraft for the project called “Dragon 2”, which is launched by Falcon 9 and can send NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, or Take back the earth. As part of the development process, SpaceX must conduct multiple tests to prove that its spacecraft is not only safe, but also capable of completing missions.
The facts have proved that SpaceX fulfilled its mission and successfully completed the flight suspension test. And behind this predictable success,3D printingTechnology plays a key role.
Source: SpaceX
3D printingTechnology has become an important “bargaining chip” for aerospace manufacturing organizations to seize the next generation of economical and reusable rocket engines.These international commercial aerospace companies are boldly trying in the manufacture of high-performance rocket engine components3D printingTechnology.about3D printingOn the revolutionary role of the rocket manufacturing industry, SpaceX chief designer and CEO Musk has an insightful view:3D printing, It is possible to manufacture strong and high-performance engine parts with a fraction of the cost and time of traditional manufacturing methods.
Video: Musk’s explanation3D printingDisruptive to aerospace manufacturing
pass through3D printingTo create high-performance rocket parts, SpaceX is pushing the limits of additive manufacturing to make the Falcon 9 rocket, Dragon spacecraft, and Starship rocket more reliable, powerful, and efficient than ever before.
SpaceX successfully passed EOS Metal in 20133D printingMachine-made SuperDraco rocket engine engine room, using nickel-chromium superalloy material. Compared with the traditional engine manufacturing technology, the use of additive manufacturing can not only significantly shorten the delivery time of the rocket engine and reduce the manufacturing cost, but compared with the cost of the traditional manufacturing engine, it can also achieve “high strength and ductility of the material”. , Fracture resistance and low variability and other excellent properties. This is a very complex engine in which all the cooling channels, fuel injection heads and throttling systems are difficult to manufacture. EOS can print very high-strength advanced alloys, which is the key to creating SuperDraco engines.
EOS Metal3D printingMachine-built SuperDraco rocket engine engine room
The SuperDraco engine powers the Dragon spacecraft’s launch and escape system and enables the vehicle to land on the earth (and possibly another planet in the future) with precise precision.Laser melting of metal by selection area3D printingProcess manufacturing, nickel-chromium superalloy material provides high strength, toughness, and reliability.The Falcon 9 rocket used for launch has3D printingThe main body of the oxidizer valve (MOV), the valve successfully operates under low temperature and high vibration conditions. Compared with traditional casting parts,3D printingIt is used to make rocket oxidizer valve body with excellent strength, ductility and fracture resistance, and the variability of material properties is low.Compared with a typical casting cycle in months, the MOV valve body’s3D printingIt took less than two days.Since then, the valve’s extensive testing procedures include a series of rigorous engine ignition, component-level qualification testing and material testing, so that3D printingThe MOV valve body can be used on all Falcon 9 rockets.
Image: SpaceX 3D printingOxidizer valve body
According to Musk, landing on Mars requires two keys: “BFR Super Rocket” and “BFS Super Spacecraft.” After the rocket sends the spacecraft out of the earth, it will return to earth like the Falcon 9 rocket, leaving the spacecraft to wait in outer space. Quoting the report of “qubit”, the rocket speed exceeded 1,600 km/h in about 1 minute and 24 seconds, the engine was turned off, and the eight propellers on the space capsule were ignited at the same time and reached their maximum thrust, and the space capsule ejected.
In the process of falling downward, Falcon 9 completed its historical mission-exploding as planned.
After 2 minutes and 25 seconds, the space capsule separated from the propeller and fell into the Atlantic Ocean in a free fall.
After 4 minutes and 45 seconds, the two parachutes were deployed:
At 5 minutes and 36 seconds, 4 parachutes were thrown, and they were fully deployed after 20 seconds.
After 9 minutes and 02 seconds, the capsule landed perfectly in the Atlantic Ocean.
According to Musk, when the spacecraft is flying to Mars, it will unfold the solar panels to generate 200kW of continuous electricity at a speed of 62,000 mph, and the surface temperature will rise to 1,650 degrees. Then the recoil engine will be turned on and it will land on Mars. Surface, complete the Mars landing mission. In order to send more people to Mars, efforts must be made to reduce costs. In addition to achieving the reuse of rockets, the reusability of manned spacecraft is also a very important part of Musk’s ambitious low-cost space map. As a result, Musk had the idea of an escape tower. You must know that in order to ensure the personal safety of astronauts, escape towers are standard equipment, but as far as the actual situation is concerned, the frequency of use is extremely low, and one escape tower has to be discarded during each launch, which is a waste of cost. As a result, Musk once again chose not to take the usual path and made a series of major changes. To achieve repeated use, SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is the first step to abandon the escape tower. It is equipped with 8 SuperDraco engines around the spacecraft to achieve a “self-contained escape system” that can be activated at any time when it escapes or even returns to the ground.
Each SuperDraco engine can generate 15,000 pounds of thrust. The thrust generated by the simultaneous ignition of 8 SuperDracos can accelerate the spacecraft from 0 to 100 mph in 1.2 seconds, with a top speed of 345 mph. At the same time, the Crew Dragon spacecraft is equipped with a replaceable heat shield. When other spacecraft enter the atmosphere on their return journey, they must use the heat shield to frictionally slow down and ablate to cool down, which makes the spacecraft unusable; while the Crew Dragon spacecraft has redesigned the spacecraft heat shield, achieving modular replacement, and reusing the spacecraft. lay the foundation.
In addition, in order to reduce costs, the Crew Dragon spacecraft has also made breakthroughs in material technology to allow the spacecraft to have sufficient protection capabilities when flying in the atmosphere, and get rid of the dependence on the fairing.
Image: Tesla Model X becomes the new official vehicle for transporting NASA astronauts on SpaceX missions
As the two companies in charge of SpaceX and Tesla, Musk has not forgotten to make a clever connection between the brand image of Tesla and SpaceX. In the rehearsal part of the suspension test of this flight, the Tesla Model X also replaced NASA’s previous transportation bus and became the new official vehicle for transporting NASA astronauts in SpaceX missions.
In addition to the escape test on January 19, Beijing time, on January 7, SpaceX, founded by Musk, used a fourth-time core-level Falcon 9 rocket to successfully integrate the third batch of Starlink (Starlink) projects. 60 broadband communication satellites were sent into space, plus the 120 Starlink satellites launched two times before, and the number of satellites in orbit under Musk’s name is already about 180, making him the person with the largest constellation in space.
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