On the way to space. Stratostats

    Today we’ll see what the ancestors first took off from the Earth at a distance of 20 kilometers in the 1930s.


    The nacelle of the stratospheric balloon "USSR-1": chain mail aluminum , insulation made of deer felt, shock absorber from willow rods.


    1. Background. What for?

    One of the main scientific goals of travel to the stratosphere was to measure the intensity of cosmic rays . The best conditions for this were far from the surface of the Earth, the farther the better. And since people were supposed to serve the then equipment, flights naturally should have become manned.

    At the same time, in view of the impending great war, the idea of ​​super-high-altitude aviation with unprecedented speeds and beyond the reach of anti-aircraft fire flashed before the military.

    The interests of scientists and the military coincided. Multiplied by the romance of discoveries and the pursuit of records, these factors resulted in a brief boom in the stratonautics of the 1930s.

    There were three players in the stratosphere: Swiss Auguste Piccard, the USSR and the USA. From 1931 to 1935, these participants built a dozen stratostats and set six world altitude records.


    2. The device of the gondola

    Since the pressure in the stratosphere is extremely low, a person there needs an airtight capsule or spacesuit. In the 1930s, they settled on the first, simpler version.

    They developed the gondolas very carefully - for example, they made a full-size wooden mock-up for the cockpit of the record stratosphere “USSR-1”, worked out layout solutions on it, performed the nacelle in metal, tested it with pressure, and only then allowed to fly.

    The gondolas of the first Soviet stratostats were equipped with a shock absorber made of willow rods located under the cockpit (see the first picture).

    At a speed of more than 5 m / s, the “basket” was supposed to break, absorbing the impact energy. Auguste Piccard’s




    first “real” stratosphere balloon “FNRS-1” only had personal shock absorbers, so to speak:


    Americans went no further - Explorer II teamIt was equipped only with helmets for American football.


    Carbon dioxide in the gondola was absorbed by cartridges with sodium hydroxide (sodium hydroxide), oxygen was added manually from cylinders with liquid or gaseous O2.

    The air humidity in the gondolas was often not regulated at all, quickly reached 100% and fell in the form of dew or frost on the walls. In one of the flights, the Soviet stratonauts barely managed to finish the parameter measurements before the condensate rivers washed away the risks on the instrument scales made by ink. Later, moisture absorbing sorbents appeared. There was an interesting idea with draining the air by cooling it until condensate precipitated, but it was not tested, as far as I know,.

    The next question is thermoregulation in the cabin, because the temperature in the stratosphere is -50 ...- 60 degrees.

    The FNRS-1 gondola was the most original of all:

    On the one hand it was painted white, and on the other black. According to the creator, the rotation of the sphere in one direction or another towards the Sun was supposed to regulate the temperature in the gondola.


    4 - propeller for rotation of the nacelle.
    In practice, the device did not work, the sun shone from the “black” side and the internal temperature in the first flight of Piccard rose to +38.
    In the next flight, the fan was removed, and the entire capsule was covered with silver. Inside it became minus 16.

    American designers did the same, but in their own way:


    It was assumed that the upper half of the sphere will reflect solar radiation, and the lower half will absorb heat from the Earth. The idea worked better than the previous one, but also not brilliant: during the flights in the gondola were cheerful +5 degrees.

    Soviet stratonauts simply insulated metal gondolas, covered them with cloth and painted in gray or blue. As practice has shown, this solution was the most successful.


    The designer FNRS-1 Piccar solved the problem of sealing the maneuvering valve control rope at the exit of the nacelle by passing the valve rope through a U-shaped tube filled with mercury. With its weight, mercury compensated for the pressure difference and was a liquid sealant, without hindering the passage of the valve rope.
    Top view of the inside of the gondola; the U-shaped tube is visible in the upper part of the image:

    (this is the image of “Osoaviahima-1”, on which the U-tube was “copied” from FNRS-1)

    Instruments for taking air samples were placed outside the cab. So, on the slings of the "USSR-1" glass vessels are suspended from which air is pumped out. By a signal from the cockpit, a small weight released the electromagnet, it beat off the end of the neck, and air from the stratosphere entered the vessel. Upon subsequent supply of current, the platinum wire was heated and sealed the neck back.

    ("USSR-1" was built under the auspices of the Red Army Air Force - remember the interest of the army - therefore, the starting team consists of Red Army soldiers).

    USA. Explorer And then the military:


    3. Hydrogen and ballast

    The theory and practice of aeronautics stated: a balloon is reduced from its maximum height at an ever-increasing rate. They took a lot of ballast - up to 30% of the lifting force - and dropped it during the descent so that the speed did not become too high.

    The importance of the ballast is evidenced by the fact that “Osoaviahim-1” during the record climb to 22 km retained so little ballast that it no longer had a chance to go down safely, and therefore crashed (see Documents on the disaster of the stratospheric balloon “Osoaviahim-1” " ).

    However, the stratostat's nacelle is not a balloon basket, it is airtight. In emergency cases, the crew could throw out low-value equipment such as oxygen cylinders and batteries or throw themselves with parachutes, but this is already possible at a relatively low altitude when you can open the hatches. To reset the ballast at height, a technical solution was needed.

    On FNRS-1 and Osoaviahime-1, the weight load in the form of a lead fraction was inside the gondola. If necessary, the pilot scooped up a shot with a scoop, poured it into the receiving funnel, closed the top valve, opened the bottom one - the shot spilled out, leaving the gondola airtight.

    9 - ballast discharge device



    At the USSR-1 stratospheric balloon, the fraction in the bags was under the gondola, inside the shock absorber we already knew.


    The bags were held by pins; the stratonaut twisted the handle (in the figure, pos. 22), the cable wound around the drum and sequentially pulled out the pins. The bags, tied to the cushion basket by the lower end, toppled over, pouring a fraction through its upper end. This eliminated accidents that could have occurred if the shot had fallen in bags. The cable length was chosen so that with one half-turn of the shaft one pin was pulled out. If the pilot wanted to drop, say, three bags of ballast, he had to turn the handle 1.5 turns.


    The whole ton of ballast could be dropped in a minute, therefore such a scheme was considered more advanced.

    To give the pilot the opportunity to control the supply of ballast, two mirrors were mounted outside two windows of the USSR-1 gondola, with the help of which the pilot saw bags suspended under the capsule.
    Inside the gondola. Visible: ballast relief handle, oxygen cylinders, flipped emergency plug on the porthole:


    To compare the inside of the “American”:


    Americans suspended ballast bags and batteries from the outside of the gondola, but also dropped them from the inside, pulling out the corresponding pins.


    Actually, dumping the ballast and opening the exhaust valve at the top of the shell are all tools for controlling the stratostat. We want up - we drop the ballast, down - we release gas from the shell.
    Exhaust valve:

    The valve is opened by pulling the corresponding rope in the gondola.

    Immediately upon landing, the stratonauts pulled another rope, marked with a red shred - a rope of a bursting cloth. Upon landing, this large piece of fabric at the top of the casing made it possible to quickly release the casing from hydrogen.
    The black circle is the exhaust valve, the black triangle is the bursting plate.


    Sometimes the bursting plate did not work:

    The balloon began to approach the ground quickly. By throwing the ballast we reduced the speed of descent. Finally, the hydropod touched the tops of the trees. The ball eased and for some time we walked on a guide, the end of which dragged along the tops of the trees, ripping off, thanks to the speed of movement, the branches. Soon a river appeared before us. We crossed it on a guide. A few more minutes, and we anchor, he hooked, and we rush into the thicket and grab the slings to facilitate the first strike. To stop the ball, we try to break the bursting plate. But to our misfortune, it turned out to be so firmly attached that the two of us cannot tear it off. Then I grabbed the valve rope to open the valve.
    Meanwhile, the ball held by the anchor begins to make huge leaps. Either it rises to 100, and then again, with a sweep, rushes into the forest. Throwing the tear tape, we both grabbed the valve rope and kept the valve open, hoping that at least a little gas would come out of the ball ...


    The shell was made of rubberized cotton or silk, the upper part is denser than the lower. Here you can clearly see:


    4. Go to the start!

    Starts of stratostats were carried over as often as the shuttle launches will be postponed after 50 years.

    They waited for the weather for months. The height of the record stratostats was more than a hundred meters, and calm was needed for the start, because otherwise the wind would blow the filling shell. In particular, this is why the Americans launched their vehicles from the canyon, and much later from the deck of an aircraft carrier, which could compensate for the wind under its own power.

    For the same reason, at the start, the lower part of the huge shell of the USSR-3 stratospheric balloon was tied to the upper one, reducing its height. After climbing a few hundred meters, the “brackets” were released, but the lower part of the shell touched the rope of the tearing cloth, it opened, and the stratostat collapsed from a height of 700-800 m:

    I was in the editorial office of Prilutsky today. It still looks cheerful, strong, only the speech has become a little hasty. He told some details about the accident "USSR-3".
    - We rise. Suddenly a push. Semenov says: "we are going down." I looked at the variometer: -4 [speed of descent 4 m / s]. Well, I think this is a local phenomenon. Threw off a little ballast. Nothing, the Americans also had. I look: -15! Uh! As I twisted the handle, I immediately threw off a ton. “Hold on, Yuri Georgievich !!! Earth !! ”shouted Semenov.
    I heard nothing more. Woke up in a hospital. I was without a parachute, removed, so as not to interfere, Semenov in it.
    “So why did the accident happen?”
    - Too much humidity. When they dismissed the second start, it was explosive and touched. [ from here ]


    Just like the wind, fog was also unacceptable. At the first launch on September 23, 1933, “SSSR-1” collected half a ton of moisture on the shell and simply could not take off - hydrogen was vented, the launch was postponed.

    Usually, the start took place in the warm season, early in the morning. At night, the shell was filled with gas through the main appendix (sleeve), which was then tied. Additional appendixes, through which the ropes of the valve and the bursting plate passed inside the shell, remained open: through them the interior of the shell freely communicated with the atmosphere.

    Refueling Explorer:




    There were nuances too. Filling "USSR-2":

    At the central Moscow airfield, a giant shell is laid out, around 1000 cylinders of compressed hydrogen. A command is given, the cylinders open, and hydrogen through the hoses, first of a small diameter, then connecting and increasing, went into a pipe with a diameter of more than half a meter connected to the shell. The shell began to rise, swell. It grows higher and higher before our eyes ... The upper dome is already at an altitude of about 100 m. And filling continues, part of the shell still lies on the ground, swells with a hump, hydrogen forms these humps and bursts upward with noise. And suddenly ... at one such breakthrough, a dull thunder sounded inside the shell, flames of fire appeared at the top. All rushed in all directions. And the shell with the flame above slowly sinks to the ground. The team - "close the cylinders", began to cut the hoses. The panic subsided. The shell burned to the ground,
    Then it turned out - the workers of the Kauchuk factory, preparing the shell, could not walk on it barefoot, it “pricked”, the mass of silk rubberized fabric was charged with electricity when moving.


    Hydrogen in general, due to its explosiveness, caused a lot of problems. Only one of the record stratostats - the American Explorer II flew helium.

    In parallel with the filling of the shell, the gondola was weighed, weather instruments were sealed, and weather reconnaissance radiosondes, if any, were launched.

    Pre-launch inspection of the SSSR-1 shell from jumper balls :

    When the Silence at Start! Command was issued, a jumper climbed to the top of the shell, the stratonauts pulled the rope of the exhaust valve, and the jumper made sure by ear that the valve had opened.

    As can be seen, the shell was not completely charged with hydrogen. Since at an altitude of 20 km the air density is 0.09 kg / cubic meter versus 1.2 kg / cubic meter at sea level, the volume of the shell with a rise increased by 10 ... 15 times:


    20 kilometers is exactly that height around which there was a struggle of records. The situation for 1934 (Explorer II put the final point here with the result of 22066 m):

    In a black frame - the dead Fedoseenko, Vasenko and Usyskin from Osoaviahima-1.

    In general, stratostats fell variously and regularly, especially, unfortunately, Soviet ones. So Explorer I (shell rupture) “sat down”:


    For the same reason, but not so swiftly, the Soviet “USSR-1 bis” fell. In both cases, people were saved by parachuting, but in general the stratosphere took more human lives, perhaps more than space.

    5. Epilogue

    After the Second World stratospheric balloon was used to test space suits and rescue systems, they triedlaunch rockets, used for espionage and space observations , and tomorrow they promise to distribute the Internet from the stratosphere .

    6. Applications

    a) FAQ: Why does each stratospheric balloon have its own “ceiling”? What time of year is it better to fly to the stratosphere? Why do they usually release a long rope (guide) during the descent of the stratosphere, which drags along the ground? etc. - Pryanishnikov V.I. "An Interesting World Studies in Questions and Answers" (1939) .

    b) Newsreels can be seen in films about Osoaviahim-1 and about Explorer II .

    c) Pictures and technical descriptions are taken mainly from Martens books . Technical Encyclopedia. Supplementary Volume (1936) andProceedings of the All-Union Conference on the Study of the Stratosphere (1935) .

    d) The latest in time, ahem, a manned flight on a stratospheric balloon - the project "Tail" with a muscle man on board.

    Also popular now: