Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Here is the video of the new rocket booster test
Oct 19, 2021
China’s most powerful solid rocket motor tested
962 viewsOct 19, 2021
I think one is for crewed ship and one for unmanned vessel.Does anyone know of the nature of these:
Inter-planetary probe project
Outer Solar system probe project
I believe there was a pair called Interstellar Express, but did this probe get split into two mission profiles now?
An integral solid rocket booster developed by China for engineering application completed a test run at the Fourth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation on Tuesday.
With a thrust of 500 tonnes, the booster is the most powerful of its kind in the world, China Central Television (CCTV) reported.
The booster, which is 3.5 meters in diameter, uses technologies, such as a high-performance fibrous composite shell and an extra-large nozzle, which puts its overall performance reach at the world's leading level.
The success of the test run exemplifies China's improved solid carriers capacity. The booster will support the future development of heavy-lift carrier rocket technology.
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If you're wondering, "its kind" refers to the fact that this is a carbon fibre casing solid fuel rocket motor. The much bigger SRBs you're imagining like the Shuttle SRB, SLS SRB, Titan IV SRB all of those use steel casing. In comparison the is less than half the diameter of this beast and only 40% of the thrust.the booster is the most powerful of its kind in the world
Great post, but the DF-41 is 2m, not 2.25m.If you're wondering, "its kind" refers to the fact that this is a carbon fibre casing solid fuel rocket motor. The much bigger SRBs you're imagining like the Shuttle SRB, SLS SRB, Titan IV SRB all of those use steel casing. In comparison the is less than half the diameter of this beast and only 40% of the thrust.
Carbon fibre is obviously much lighter than steel, but while steel is uniformly strong in every direction carbon fibre is only strong in the direction of the fibre, so the trick is to wound up the fibre in such a way that it can resist being stretched in multiple directions. The ability to do this on a 3.5m diameter scale is impressive.
Space program aside, I should also point out that just about all ballistic missiles use solid rocket motor. Having your rocket stages being lighter (particularly the 2nd stage) would all else equal result in a lot more range. DF-41 is 2.25m in diameter while DF-5 (liquid fuelled) is 3.25m in diameter. A 3.5m diameter ICBM using this motor as the second stage would be a monster of a rocket and can throw a huge amount of payload into a suborbital trajectory, or as per the news in recent days a huge amount of payload to low parking orbit.
This thing is very nearly as fat as the space shuttle / SLS SRBs, and that's constructed in segments out of steel sections. I've seen a video of the fuel being poured into the SRB segments and it looks a lot like pouring concrete and waiting for it to set. I wonder how they they fill up this fat boy. Turn it over and pour through the nozzle vs doing it from the top and apply the dome later?A few more images of the monolithic solid rocket motor test article. The last image shows the meeting celebrating its successful ground test firing.
I dug the news on this engine a little bit:This thing is very nearly as fat as the space shuttle / SLS SRBs, and that's constructed in segments out of steel sections. I've seen a video of the fuel being poured into the SRB segments and it looks a lot like pouring concrete and waiting for it to set. I wonder how they they fill up this fat boy. Turn it over and pour through the nozzle vs doing it from the top and apply the dome later?
by78's photo shows >2500N.S/10kg (high altitude) which would be 25000N.S/kg.I dug the news on this engine a little bit:
It seems it has 150 tons of propellant in total. The entirety of the engine shouldn't be heavier than 190 tons in total. This means its N.S/kg is around 3090. Insane! For example, the SRB on the new SLS achieves 2780.
A few more images of the monolithic solid rocket motor test article. The last image shows the meeting celebrating its successful ground test firing.