Air and sky flight is no longer far?
Academician experts talk about the development of aerospace vehicle technology
Xinhua News Agency, Nanjing, April 24 (Reporters Hu Zhe and Jiang Fang) What kind of power is used to achieve efficient flight from the ground to the orbital space?
What kind of aerodynamic shape can be adapted to fly at full speed from Mach 0 to Mach 25?
This is the thought raised by Wei Yiyin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and deputy general manager of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, in the invited report at the main forum of the China Aerospace Conference held on the 24th.
What is an aerospace vehicle?
Wei Yiyin explained that the aerospace vehicle is a reusable space transportation system that can fly back and forth in dense atmosphere, near space, and orbital space. It will help humans achieve free entry and exit and efficient use of space. According to the form of power, it can be divided into rocket power and combined power. class.
Looking internationally, in view of the need to improve the launch flexibility, ease of use, and preparation cycle of the rocket-powered space transportation system, the United States and Europe are also simultaneously promoting the development of combined-powered horizontal takeoff and landing aerospace vehicles.
Wei Yiyin said that the advantages of aerospace vehicles are mainly reflected in: first, it is "cheap", can reduce launch costs through repeated use, and improve delivery efficiency through high specific impulse; second, "safe", no projectiles, autonomous emergency return, and emergency landing The scope is greatly increased; the third is "convenience", the airport level takes off and landing to achieve rapid response, the ground assembly and maintenance support is more flexible; the fourth is "maneuvering", maneuvering near space to expand the launch window, lift-type reentry and return to improve landing opportunities.
At the same time, aerospace flight faces many technical challenges, such as: what kind of power is used to achieve high-efficiency flight from the ground to the orbital space, what structure meets structural lightweight and high-temperature thermal protection, and what aerodynamic shape is suitable for 0-25 Mach Flying at full speed...These are the key issues that need to be resolved in the development of aerospace vehicles.
Wei Yiyin believes that along the development path of "from overcoming the basic mechanism to breaking through the technological system, and then to the application of aerospace flight engineering", there are difficulties one step at a time.
After the wide-area flight technology verification and near-space wide-area flight test are successively completed, the air-to-sky transportation capability can be formed.
"The rapid development of aerospace technology since the 21st century has set off an upsurge of aerospace flight research, which will promote the realization of revolutionary aerospace flights, rapid global transportation and other engineering applications." Looking forward to the future, Wei Yiyin said, accelerating the development of aerospace vehicle technology. Mankind’s dream of freely entering space, building a space information port and an extraterrestrial celestial body base is no longer far away.