Annotation: Over the past years, the leading space powers have been returning to the idea of expeditions to the Moon and actively designing and manufacturing components for inhabited lunar bases. Yuzhnoye State Design Office has its own concept of a lunar base and, of course, cannot stand aside from the solution of scientific and technical problems related to the Moon exploration. Specialists of Yuzhnoye SDO completed conceptual development of a significant range of technologies required for the Moon exploration: a space transportation system for lunar expeditions; landers to deliver payloads to the surface of the Moon and transport experimental equipment; mobile laboratories; a reconnaissance rover to provide reconnaissance missions on the surface of the Moon; vehicles to provide lifting and transport, assembly and construction, production and technological and soil extraction work on the surface of the Moon; habitat units and other elements of the lunar infrastructure. Taking into account the high costs of lunar exploration, it is clear that international cooperation is the most realistic scenario for Yuzhnoye SDO to participate in the exploration. The U.S. lunar program is the most attractive. Private companies that NASA selects for the lunar programs can become partners of Yuzhnoye. With a view to ensuring the participation of Yuzhnoye SDO in international programs, the current state of global technologies for the Moon exploration was analyzed and opportunities to promote technologies developed by Ukrainian specialists on the international market of space technologies were identified based on the analysis. Taking into account the high level of technologies developed by the potential partners, it is proposed for the first time to consider it advisable to promote Yuzhnoye’s technologies with TRL 6–9 which have already been successfully tested and the innovative technologies developed by the company which have no analogues in the world or surpass the world level in terms of their technological and economic performance. Based on the analysis of the Lunar Industrial & Research Base conceptual design, such technologies may include rocket propulsion, units and assemblies of liquid-propellant propulsion (TRL 6–9), as well as future designs such as a hydrogen energy accumulator and inert anodes made of ultra-high-temperature ceramics for electrolysis of regolith melts.

Annotation: The exploratory and experimental investigations were conducted into design of propellant tank made of composite polymer materials for work in cryogenic environment at operating pressure of 7.5 kgf/cm2 . When determining the configuration of a liner-free composite propellant tank, the main requirement was ensuring its leak-tightness at internal excess pressure and cryogenic temperature effect. The world experience of creating similar designs was analyzed and the requirements were defined imposed on configuration of propellant tank load-bearing shells. Before defining the final configuration, the types of materials, reinforcing patterns, and possible ways to ensure leak-tightness were analyzed, and preliminary tests were conducted of physical and mechanical characteristics of thin-wall samples of composite materials and tubular structures with different reinforcing patterns. The tests of carbon plastic samples were conducted at different curing modes to determine the most effective one from the viewpoint of strength characteristics and the tests for permeability by method of mouthpiece were conducted. The tests of pilot propellant tank showed that the calculated values of deformations and displacements differ from the experimental values by no more than 10 %. Using the parameters measurement results from the tests on liquid nitrogen, the empirical formulas were obtained to calculate linear thermal expansion coefficient of the package of materials of load -bearing shell. The empirical dependences were constructed of relative ring deformations at load-bearing shell middle section on pressure and temperature. The tests confirmed correctness of adopted solutions to ensure strength and leak-tightness of propellant tank load-bearing shell at combined effect on internal excess pressure and cryogenic temperature, particularly at cyclic loading. The materials used and propellant tank manufacturing technologies ensure leak-tightness of load-bearing shell at liquid nitrogen operating pressure of 7.5 kgf/cm2 and strength at excess pressure of 15 kgf/cm2 and allow conducting approbation of prospective stage of the integrated launch vehicle.

Annotation: The paper considers the TZS-U design developed by Yuzhnoye SDO specialists for windward part of reusable spacecraft with external metal three-layer panel, U-like joint and tiled thermal protection, in which the problem is solved of compensation of thermal expansions and sealing of gaps; for optimization of structural mass. The specially created dispersion-hardened powder alloy based on nichrome and aluminum with yttrium dioxide with decreased specific mass of 7500 kg/m3 and lighter felt of MKRF brand are used , and honeycomb filler of three-layer panel is replaced by the filler with square cell.

Annotation: The thermal analysis was made for external surfaces of a reusable high-altitude supersonic flying vehicle being a part of a space transportation system. The basic criteria were determined for selection of its heat-resistant and heat-protective structures.