European Space Travel: presented Suzie, the shuttle project destined to end up like Hermes. Here’s why

Today the German newspaper Die Welt presents with triumphal tones the project of a manned capsule presented by Ariane Space just yesterday and which, at least theoretically, should allow the EU to send man into space. The concept, dubbed Susie (Smart Upper Stage for Innovative Exploration), recently unveiled at an International Space Congress (IAC) in Paris, is essentially a completely new rocket tip designed to accommodate up to five astronauts and / or cargo. The carrier should be Ariane 6 and possibly its successor. Ariane 6, which has been in development and design for 10 years now and which will not fly until 2023.

Susie is expected to bring six astronauts and is presented at the forefront because it applies a concept of recoverability that has been used for some time by American commercial carriers such as Space X. The real big news of the European project is the fact that it does not use parachutes in re-entry, but rockets. of slowing down. A solution that, in reality, had also been proposed by Space X for its spacecraft, but which was rejected by NASA because it was deemed too dangerous. Instead a new project like Susie applies it without problems. The upper stage of the reusable capsule would be 12 meters long, five meters in diameter and weigh 25 tons. Remarkable is the relatively large hold of 40 cubic meters.

The range of uses for manned or fully automated missions would be very diverse. There is talk of the release of satellites, the provision of space stations with fuel or food, or even as a space taxi for the exchange of crews. Susie could also be used to collect satellites at the end of their lives and carry payloads of over seven tons to Earth.

The rupture of relations with Russia has left ESA in the hands of American commercial carriers, such as Space X or Boeing, and the "Ambition" would be to overcome these projects. Mirrored that Space X is preparing to launch Spaceship the same year in which Ariane 6 will be launched and Spaceship is truly something innovative, if it does not explode on launch or return: oxygen and liquid methane engines, 100 tons or 100 passengers on board, it will truly be the first mass transit "spacecraft" capable of supporting a large orbiting base. The real step towards the colonization of space.

Susie appears the re-edition of the Hermes project, started in the 80s which was concluded, without any result in 1993. When Europe was a community of independent nation states, this project was made, which was about to become a reality, and when the Union bases this project was canceled. Austerity required the cuts that have led us to current technological subjection. After Hermes came Hopper, which was never launched, and after Hopper the Kliper project started, developed with Russia and therefore defunct. The approach to the European space is the face of the EU: very expensive (We are third, after the USA and China, in space spending), “Ambitious” and absolutely inconclusive. In the end, the usual Vega rockets developed by Alenia Finmeccanica are now launched, but those too will run out. The rest are projects that devour public funds but produce nothing tangible and generate very little scientific advancement. In the end, ESA combines less than what the single space programs combined, also because it looks like a hybrid: it is not a national program, like NASA, the Chinese or Japanese one, it is not a competition between different projects like the one that happens in the USA. The results are visible.

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The article European Space Travel: presented Suzie, the shuttle project destined to end up like Hermes. That's why it comes from ScenariEconomici.it .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/viaggi-spaziali-europei-presentato-suzie-il-progetto-di-shuttle-destinato-a-fare-la-fine-di-hermes-ecco-il-perche/ on Tue, 20 Sep 2022 08:00:56 +0000.