FIRST STEPS TOWARD SPACE - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

198 SMITHSONIAN ANNALS OF FLIGHT
FIGURE 23.—Mockup of combustion chamber in micromotor
with spark gap.
iron (8) and platinum contact (9) was fixed to electrode
(5). The second platinum contact was fixed
to the electrode (6). The iron tips of an electromagnet
(11) were inserted into the plug case from
the side. This electromagnet was connected to the
anode circuit in series with the contact (9) and was
shunted with a 2-mfd electrolytic condenser. When
an electric impulse activated the electric fuel inlet
valves, the electromagnet attracted the core, opening
the contact, and simultaneously a spark ignited
the fuel mixture. By means of this circuit (without
transformer, inductor, etc.) the ignition of fuel was
assured. The lamps were fed from the 160-v, 5-ma
anode battery.
R-05 Rocket with Altitude of 50 km
Without waiting for the results of all the abovementioned
research and development, a stratospheric
variant of a rocket with 50-km altitude was
designed for the Geophysical Institute of the Academy
of Sciences of the USSR. Its director, Academician
O. Yu. Shmidt, showed keen interest in the
R-05 rocket. With direct participation on his part,
such questions were discussed as the rocket's parameters,
the instruments installed on board and their
characteristics, the pattern of performing the tasks
in developing the item, and so on. In this R-05
rocket (Figure 24), reduction in design weight was
achieved by delivering the fuel components (alcohol
and liquid oxygen) with the aid of a solid-reactant
gas generator.
In the first launches, the rocket's in-flight stability
was hypothetically assured by increasing its initial
emergence velocity from the ramp to 40-50 m/sec
by the additional operation, during takeoff, of two
solid-propellant launching engines which separated
from the rocket after completion of their work. Its
characteristics were: diameter, 200 mm; length,
2250 mm; initial weight without boosters, 55 kg;
payload (with parachute), 4 kg; weight of propellants
(alcohol and lox), 30 kg; thrust, 175 kg; time
of operation, 37 sec; full impulse of the two launching
boosters, 1250 kg/sec.
Equipment mounted on the rocket included the
FTI-5 unit, the DTU-I aggregate, and other instruments.
The FTI-5 was a miniature camera for
automatically photographing the earth's surface
during descent at specific time intervals. It had been
designed and manufactured by the Leningrad
Optical Institute on the order of KB-7.
The DTU-1 was a complex instrument assembly
consisting of two barometers (registering from 769-
15 and 15-0.5 mm/hg, respectively), a noninertial
thermometer, and accelerometer, a pressure gauge
for measuring pressure in the engine, a coding and
distributing device, a timepiece, an electrical supply,
and a miniature radio-transmitter. Readings of
the measuring instruments were coded with the
help of special mechanisms for periodic transmission
FIGURE 24.—R-05 rocket, designed to reach altitudes of 50 km: 1, device for opening the parachute;
2, parachute; 3, instruments; 4, fuel tank; 5, PAD; 6, oxidizer tank; 7, engine; 8, powder
launching rocket engines (can be jettisoned).