To carry and assemble large structures in orbit, European launchers will have to be beefed up. So the ESA is launching Protein! Within the project, ArianeGroup and Rocket Factory Augsburg are working on new designs for a heavy, high-performance rocket that is as inexpensive as possible.
No question of expecting to see them before the next decade, that’s for later.
Super heavyweight champion
The world again entered, last year with the take-off of the SLS rocket, an era of “super heavy” launchers capable of carrying 70 or even more than 100 tonnes of payload to Earth orbit. Technological showcases as much as industrial challenges… which are expensive, very expensive and which must therefore be justified by their objectives. SLS is an essential brick today to take the Orion capsule around the Moon in the Artemis project. Starship, another “super-heavy”, will be used by SpaceX for its commercial strategy (deployment of Starlink) but also for lunar missions, manned missions and even, if the long-term objective is met, for Martian missions of huge proportion. The United States is not the only one with this kind of rockets. The CZ-9 and 10 in preparation in China will support their lunar projects, the Lenisseï project in Russia the same, if it sees the light of day.
And in Europe? Until now, the needs of the ESA could not really push the expenditure, while Ariane 6 already promises adapted capacities. But in the decade to come, these needs are rightly called to evolve… towards heavy projects, with large payloads. Should ESA acquire a heavy launcher? Is it possible to develop one within our budgetary constraints, and taking advantage of our existing industry? With the NewSpace? How much could it cost, and for what result?
Fats, carbohydrates, proteins
To answer these questions upstream, but also to get a better idea of what manufacturers could offer, ESA launched (without much fanfare) its project called PROTEIN. an acronym for euroPJohn Rusable and cOsThEavy lift transport IinvestigationNOT, You will notice in passing that as the ESA imagines a heavy launcher which will have to take off regularly, the study will focus on a reusable solution. It so happens that Europe is considering large-scale projects such as the construction of orbital solar power plants (Solaris), or sovereign data storage (Ascend), but also the putting into orbit of service vehicles (ISTV, In- Space Transportation Vehicles), or even missions to deep space. A study on a reusable super-heavy launcher, especially since there are others in development around the world, therefore does not seem superfluous.
Oldspace and Newspace
The ESA has entrusted the task to two manufacturers, who will have to submit a thick dossier next September. And the choice is interesting. It includes ArianeGroup, the prime contractor for the Ariane 6 launcher. When it will be in operation, ESA had already entrusted a first phase to the European group to improve its capabilities… It is therefore possible that the proposed solution is based on a “protein” mix with what the ESA is already financing in terms of short and medium term technologies. But the agency also trusted a younger group and spearhead of the European “NewSpace” with RFA, Rocket Factory Augsburg. The young shoot from Munich will no doubt come up with a more disruptive concept, since the “One” launcher on which it is currently working has no heavy capacity. However, we bet that with their ambition and their desire to shake up the European market, the concept of RFA will be cut out to dream!
However, be careful not to excite yourself too much, PROTEIN is above all a study… For the moment.
Source : air-cosmos.com
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