There we get to the 200-th album (round number)! Five
years of working (not very tough!) has been passed away with 5 000 pictures
and comments.
Today we are visiting the Museum of Rocket Production and
Cosmonautics.
The Museum is located at the Ioannovsky
ravelin in St. Peter and Paul Fortress (if we cross the closest to the
subway station Gorkovskaya bridge to the fortress, we'll have the
entrance to the museum on the right hand).
Formerly in the 30-th there
were a gas-dynamic workshop and laboratory, where liquid-propellant
rocket engines were developed by V.P.Glushko. 12.04.1973 the museum was
opened here.
First room is devoted to the founders of
domestic rocket production - K.E.Tsiolkovsky (who was born in 1857 in
Izhevsk), N.I.Kibalchich, F.A.Tsander, S.P.Korolyov, N.I.Tihomirov,
V.P.Glushko and others.
The books in the showcase:
"Stardrifter" by K.E.Tsiolkovsky.
"Flight in the outer space" by Max Valye (1926)
"K.E.Tsiolkovsky 1857-1932. To the 100-th anniversary."
"Dreams of the Earth and Sky" by K.E.Tsiolkovsky.
This little room is mainly devoted to the
orbital injection of the first Russian space satellite in 1957 (the
model is hanged above).
Newspapers that was printed that day. Here is the article from one of the
papers.
Engine with spray injectors EJE-8
("ORM-8" in Russian).
EJE means "Experimental Jet Engine"
Workshop interior.
...JE-2 ("RD-2" in Russian) engine's
accessory.
One of the earliest experimental liquid-propellant rocket engines.
As a lyrical digression:
There are two kinds of rocket engine - liquid-propellant rocket engine
and solid- propellant ones. Solid propellant ones are cheaper and
simpler. They are mostly used in fireworks and in several kinds of
missiles. Their main problem is the high rate of combustion and also
their activity is uncontrolled. By this reason such engines are not
used in outer space rockets and satellites (with the exception of
solid-propellant rocket boosters, which are used in orbital injection
of the Shuttles).
Because the liquid-state engines are free of such disadvantages,
they are mostly used in piloting spaceships and several types of
missiles. But they are hard to servicing and expensive, and also their
fuel is highly explosive and even toxic. In USSR such engines were
developed for the first time in gas-dynamic laboratory in 1930-1931.
By the year 1933 more or less stably
working engines had been created. The kerosene was used as a fuel and
the nitric acid as an oxidant.
These are several rocket-propelled vehicle, developed in 1930-1933. Some
of them and their models you saw in the album devoted to the Museum of Artillery.
The next room presents some weighty
rocket engines, intended for orbital injection, spaceship's scale models
and even one real landing capsule.
Liquid-propellant rocket engine РД-0110.
Developed by Design Office for Chemical Automation,
Voronezh. Ministry of Basic Engineering Industry.
Chief Designer - S.A.Kosberg.
It was used as a third stage in carrier rocket "Soyuz" by Chief Designer
S.P.Korolyov, in artificial Earth satellite "Cosmos", in spaceships
"Vostok", "Soyuz-T", "Soyuz-TM" and in spacecrafts "Progress", "Luna",
"Prognoz", "Molniya", "Zond", "Mars", "Venera" and others.
Specifications:
Thrust in space - 30380 kg(f) 298kN
Specific thrust impulse - 326 kg(f)/kg 3195 m/sec
Operation time - 240 sec
Weight - 412.5 kg
Fuel components:
Oxidant - liquid oxygen
Fuel - kerosene
Made by Voronezh Mechanical Plant, Design Office for
Chemical Automation.
Spaceship "Vostok" scale model.
Engine РД-108 "Vostok".
This liquid-propellant engine was developed by Experimental Design
Office that raised from the Gas-dynamic Laboratory. With the engines of
this type many successful space flights were provided (among them:
Earth, Moon and Sun artificial satellites launching, launching the space
stations to the Moon, Venus and Mars and piloting spaceships "Vostok",
"Voshod", "Soyuz", "Soyuz-T").
The purpose: carrier rocket's second stage.
Developed in 1954-1957.
Thrust in space - 942 kN
Specific thrust impulse - 3089 m/sec
Fuel components:
Oxidant - liquid oxygen
Fuel - kerosene
Gas pressure in the main combustion chambers - 5.1 mPa
Gas expansion ratio in the main combustion chambers - 150
Highly scaled down model of automatic
interplanetary probe "Mars-5" with landing capsule. Under the model one
can see the picture of the Mars surface taken by this probe from the
orbit. First landing on the Mars surface was carried out in 1971 by
"Mars-3".
As far as I remember, this is the
automatic interplanetary probe with landing capsule "Venera-9" (or
"10"?). It for the first time transferred the picture of another planet
to the earth.
The interesting thing - USSR realized the program for exploring the
planets with automatic stations. USA on the contrary realized more
expensive and complicated (and more effective too) project with man's
landing on the moon.
Later they followed the USSR path.
Extra-vehicular space suit and
anti-loading factor chair (maybe).
Real landing capsule from spaceship
"Soyuz-16".
The capsule landed on 7 of December 1974
and later it was given as a gift to the museum from rocket's designers.
It's intended for the spaceship crew disposal during orbital injection,
piloting at the orbit and landing.
Weight - 2.8 tons.
Maximum diameter - 2.2 meters.
Length - 2.16 meters.
Free space - 2.5 cube meters.
The case of the capsule made of aluminum alloy and
hermetically sealed. It contains two closed parachute containers with
shooting out covers. Four engines for soft landing are located at the
forebody. The capsule can land on the solid surface and open basins in
every season.
In Russian it says: "Exit through the
entrance".
The whole phrase haven't exactly translated into English so that
foreign tourists wouldn't be perplexed.
