Zhang Xiaoping ,Zhang Guitian, Liu Zhanguo ,Chen Jianhua
(Shaanxi Power Machine Design and Research Institute ,Xi’an 710100,China)
2006,07,25.
Abstract
The moon is the nearest celestial body to the earth. The resources, energy and special environment on the moon will contribute greatly to sustainable development of human being. Exploration of the moon will be the main task of aerospace industry in 21’st century.
The long-term scheme of Chinese lunar mission consists of three steps which are lunar exploration, manned lunar landing and base construction on the moon. The first step includes three stages which are lunar satellite launching, the moon vehicle landing and sample collected returning. The first stage project has developed smoothly up to now and will be accomplished in 2007. LM-3A will be the launch vehicle. The second and the third stage project will be processed in 2012~2017. The new generation rocket now under developing will be used as the launch vehicle.
However, the payload of Chinese existing and in developing rocket can not meet the mission of manned lunar landing and base establishing. Therefore, the scheme of developing heavy carrier and its propulsion system is proposed in this paper.
China manned lunar rocket can employ a 3.5 stages concept, with a launch mass about 2800 tons, maximum diameter of 8m, and the payload capability of lunar transfer orbit of 50 tons. For the manned lunar rocket, the second stage and the third stage can use 1200kN LOX/kerosene engine and 500kN liquid hydrogen/LOX engine respectively. Booster stage and the first stage use newly developed large thrust liquid rocket engine.
Large thrust engine is the key to manned lunar rocket propulsion system. The engine is suggested to use environmentally friend, cheap and high performance LOX hydrocarbon propellant. The performance of staged combustion cycle is about 20% higher than the gas generator cycle, therefore the staged combustion cycle is the best choice for the engine.
The project of manned lunar mission in China is largely depended on rocket and its propulsion system. Key technique development of manned lunar rocket should be performed in advance.
Key words：Lunar Rocket；Propulsion；Engine；Power Cycle