Energia Corporation presents innovative project of lunar missions
KOROLYOV (Moscow region). May 26 (Interfax-AVN) - Energia Rocket and Space Corporation has elaborated a project of the Ryvok transport system, which will be cheaper than a lunar mission of the Federation manned spaceship.
"A mission of the Ryvok multi-entry manned vehicle will cost a third less than a mission of the Federation manned spaceship," Energia's Yury Makushenko said in his presentation of the project at the international scientific conference on manned space exploration.
According to his report, the Ryvok system would be based at the International Space Station (ISS) and would make shuttle flights to a near-Moon international platform to deliver cargo and cosmonauts who would reach the ISS onboard Soyuz spaceships.
A DM modernized booster unit, which would be transported by an Angara A-5 heavy-lift launch vehicle and would dock with Ryvok in a near-Earth orbit, would provide acceleration to escape velocity. While returning from the near-Moon orbit, Ryvok would open an 'umbrella' of 55 square meters for braking in the Earth atmosphere.
The maximal weight of the complex is 11.4 tonnes, and the travel time between the near-Earth orbit and the Moon is up to five days. The report did not mention the vehicle which would bring Ryvok to the ISS. Speaking of the Ryvok system's advantage over the Federation spaceship, Makushenko said that Ryvok would not need a super-heavy-lift rocket or a heavy-lift rocket using hydrogen fuel, the Angara-A5 rocket would not have to be certified for manned missions because it would not be lifting cosmonauts from the Earth, and the creation of the domestic transport system would take less money and time.