China Academy of Carrier Rocket Technology (abbreviated as Rocket Academy) announced on July 2 that the institute has recently made a breakthrough in "low-temperature propellant evaporation control technology", which can extend the orbital time of Chinese low-temperature rockets to 30 It will provide feasible conditions for China`s deep space exploration and long-distance space transportation.
According to reports, low-temperature rockets are also called "ice arrows". The low-temperature chemical propellants such as liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen are non-toxic, non-polluting, economical, and highly efficient. Therefore, they have been widely used in domestic and foreign carrier rockets and above. application. China's Long March 5 launch vehicle and Long March 7 launch rocket are all low-temperature rockets. However, although low-temperature rockets are good, long-term flight is restricted. Prior to this, most domestic and foreign cryogenic rockets could only stay in orbit for tens of minutes to several hours.
Zhang Shaohua, a member of the Rocket Academy's "low-temperature propellant evaporation control technology" team member, said that the technology uses two advanced materials and an exhaust scheme to solve the problem of how to extend the low-temperature rocket on-orbit time.
These two advanced insulation materials, one is "new polyurethane foam insulation material", compared with traditional foam materials, its heat insulation capacity is increased by more than 50% under low temperature conditions; the other is "variable density multilayer "Insulation materials", compared with ordinary multilayer insulation materials, the insulation capacity is increased by more than 18%.
At present, the evaporation rate of the low temperature propellant of the Rocket Academy's active rocket is more than 2.5% per day. In the future, if the rocket uses the above two materials with significant thermal insulation effects, the daily evaporation of the low temperature propellant can be reduced to 0.5%. This means that the rocket carries the same weight of cryogenic propellant, and its on-orbit time can be greatly extended.
At the same time, the research team also adopted a "thermodynamic exhaust scheme", which can achieve effective exhaust with as little propellant discharge as possible while maintaining tank pressure while reducing the loss of propellant.
Zhang Shaohua said that the "low-temperature propellant evaporation control technology" has recently passed large-scale ground test verification and the scheme is correct and feasible. The breakthrough of this technology can enable Chinese cryogenic rockets to stay in orbit for up to 30 days and achieve long-term storage of cryogenic propellants, which is of long-term significance for future large-scale deep space exploration and long-distance space transportation tasks.