新型航天器发展对力学学科的挑战

Mechanical challenges in advanced spacecraft development

航天工程研制与力学学科发展关系紧密,相互促进.分析新型航天器研制所面临的工程难题及其对力学学科提出的新挑战,并对这些力学问题加以研究与工程转化,对促进我国航天科技的快速发展具有重要作用.本文针对重型运载火箭、大型空间飞行器、可重复使用运载器及临近空间高超声速飞行器4类典型新型航天器,在分析其主要技术特点和工程研制难题的基础上,总结归纳出对力学学科问题的挑战,提出了当前及未来在力学领域内需要重点关注的热点问题及相关建议,以促进新型航天器与力学基础学科的共同发展.

Space engineering research and developments in mechanics are closely related, and often serve to promote each other. Analysis of the engineering difficulties in advanced spacecraft development and the related mechanical challenges shows that it is very important to overcome the main mechanical problems to enable rapid development of aerospace engineering technologies. When compared with classical spacecraft, a series of new concepts and technologies have been proposed to satisfy the requirements of advanced spacecraft development. These advanced spacecraft, which must overcome the severe effects of the complex launching and space running environments, result in challenging problems of applications in fields such as structural dynamics and computational mechanics. In this paper, a heavy-lift launch vehicle, a large complex spacecraft, a reusable launch vehicle and a hypersonic flight vehicle are introduced as four typical advanced spacecraft to illustrate the reactive relationships between the engineering and mechanical disciplines. Based on descriptions of their technical features, the research difficulties related to these advanced spacecraft are shown. Then, ten typical challenging problems are summarized into research topics in the four classical mechanical subject fields. Two challenging problems of a mechanical nature are shown in each of the three classical mechanics fields of dynamics and control, solid mechanics and aerodynamics. When compared with the engineering problems in a single mechanics discipline, it becomes obvious that research into interdisciplinary mechanical problems is becoming a major trend for advanced spacecraft. To promote concurrent development of advanced spacecraft and the appropriate mechanical disciplines, the following two proposals are made：（1） The close relationships between the engineering requirements and the mechanical disciplines should be given greater attention. The research efforts for advanced spacecraft can be supported by mechanical theory to enable new technological challenges to be overcome.（2） The coalescent development of advanced spacecraft with the disciplines of fundamental mechanics can be guaranteed through joint innovation and development efforts between technical personnel and mechanical researchers, both in China and abroad.