Soviet Moon rocket secrets revealed

BBC News ^ | 3/20/02 | Dr David Whitehouse

[Brett66]

Wednesday, 20 March, 2002, 12:02 GMT

Soviet Moon rocket secrets revealed

An engineer shows the vast scale of the rocket

Previously unseen pictures of the giant rocket the Soviets hoped would help them put a man on the Moon before the United States have been revealed on a Russian website.

The Soviets hoped it would get them to the Moon

The images appear on the site of the Russian Strength Research Center. They show new views of the mighty N1 rocket, the Soviet equivalent of America's Saturn 5 booster.

The images show early test versions of the booster's first stage.

Nine or 10 N1's were built at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The giant rocket was launched just four times; each one was a disaster ending in abrupt and catastrophic failure.

They are interesting photographs because they reveal some previously unseen detail in the structure and construction of N1's first stage, Soviet space expert Edwin Cameron told BBC News Online.

Fatal flaw

Designed to lift the Soviet Moon lander into space, the N1 was a titanic feat of engineering. Its first stage involved a cluster of 30 high-powered rocket engines using kerosene and liquid oxygen as fuel.

A big failure: The N1 rocket
Courtesy Edwin N Cameron, former US Department of Defense Analyst/Instructor

The large number of engines was the rocket's fatal flaw. Engineers could not find a way to effectively balance the thrust of them all, meaning that control of the booster was impossible.

Pumping fuel to each rocket motor also proved to be a major problem.

When the N1 project was cancelled in 1976, the Soviet space chief Valentin Glushko ordered all the remaining N1 hardware to be destroyed. However, despite his orders, much of the equipment survived.

In 1997, 94 leftover N1 engines were sold to the American company Kistler for refurbishment and incorporation into a new rocket.

[The Great Satan]

That looks a lot bigger around than a Saturn V. Any stats?

[11B3]

Very interesting - thanks for posting this.

[jrherreid]

Sure they didn't sell it to Grand Fenwick? Radioactive wine goes a long way, you know.

[Brett66]

Interesting ping

[Askel5]

Dreamy Russian self-esteem bump.



(I loved the "from whence Mother Russia" lyrics, btw.)

[Regulator]

Having had the good fortune to get a tour of Khrunichev's factory where they build Proton rockets, I can tell you that the effort put into the Russian rocket program resulted in some incredibly robust and capable vehicles.

It's too bad both the N1 and the Saturn V have become relics. If there was one thing good that came out of the Cold War, it was these monsters.

[RoughDobermann]

N-1 Stages

(1) 30 NK-33 LOX/kerosene engines; 10.1 million lb. total thrust.
(2) 8 NK-43 LOX/kerosene engines; 3.1 million lb. total thrust.
(3) 4 NK-39 engines; 360,800 lb. total thrust.
(4) 1 NK-31 engine; 90,200 lb. thrust; trans-lunar boost stage.
(5) 1 engine; 19,200 lb. thrust; lunar orbit insertion & initial lunar descent stage.

[Brett66]

Here's some more detailed info:

The N1 Story

[RoughDobermann]

The N1 stood 105 meters (344 ft) tall and weighed 2788 metric tons (6.1 million lb) fully fueled. This compares with 110.7 meters (363 it) and 2913 metric tons (6.4 million lb) for the American Saturn V. The first three stages of the N1, blocks A. B, and V. each took the form of a truncated cone containing a spherical kerosene tank above a larger liquid oxygen (LOX) tank. The first stage, Block A, was powered by 30 NK-33 engines, together producing 4620 metric tons (10 million lb) of thrust. This far exceeded the 3469 metric ton (7.65 million lb) thrust of the American Saturn V Moon rocket. The N1's "KORD" (Russian acronym for control of the work of the engines) system steered the rocket in pitch and yaw by throttling the 24 fixed outer engines. Roll control was maintained by routing engine turbine exhaust through six swivelled nozzles. Arrayed around the base of the N1's first stage were four grating stabilizers, each consisting of a cross hatched array of metal strips (acting as fins) held in a horizontal frame After a first stage burn of 110 seconds. the second stage was to ignite its eight NK-43 engines for a 130-second burn. Finally, the third stage would insert the L-3 complex into orbit with a 400-second burn of its Four NK-31 engines.

[RightWhale]

As young teens impressed with Sputnik, the rocket club used to make gunpowder rockets. They would each go about 48 feet along their chosen flightpath before exploding.

Then one day we glued 30 of them together in a bundle and fired that one. It covered the 48 feet so fast we couldn't measure the speed; straight up, too. Then it exploded.

[Lunatic Fringe]

30 engines?! Talk about over-engineering...

[Regulator]

Kistler's original design was just as wild. I think they had like 50 low thrust engines for the first stage.

So, then they got real, bought the NK-33's and they're down to 3 in the first stage.

Kistler Performance

[The Great Satan]

Thanks for the info. Got to admire the Soviets for their heroic achievements in space, if for little else.

Here's a pic from the 1959 East German space opera, Der Schweigende Stern, just for fun:

[Brett66]

Some N1 variants:

[MeekOneGOP]

Interesting bump!
Thanks!

[NormsRevenge]

That IS one Big Summobitch

[MeekOneGOP]

I don't know if this might be of any use to anyone (with the caption included) - I'm no Rocket Scientist!................

N1 Predecessors - Predecessors to the N1 - From left: YaRD nuclear powered
ICBM; YaKhR nuclear launch vehicle; SuperRaket; R-9 ICBM; N-III; N-IIGR; N-I of
1962; N1-L3 of 1964