[AR] separation (was Re: Radian One spaceplane)
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2022 16:23:23 -0500 (EST)
On Sat, 22 Jan 2022, Ben Brockert wrote:
Generally normal springs and gas springs or pneumatic pistons. Even for
stage separation where you have RCS on one or both sides it's usually
preferred to use springs to get initial clearance.
If nothing else, because it's cleaner. The Shuttle SRBs had small solids
to push them away from the rest of the stack at separation, but their
exhaust tended to crud up the orbiter windows! (Eventually somebody had
the bright idea of firing the upward-pointing jets of the orbiter forward
RCS system during SRB separation, using their plumes to fend off the
separation-motor exhaust.) Even liquid-motor exhaust can mess up windows.
If you're rushing or Russian, just light the engine before stage separation.
Scout also did that for its second and third stages, and originally its
fourth too. It's another technique that's now considered weird and risky
but used to be taken much more calmly. :-)
Henry
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