Nukes in space and other news

Andrei Kislyakov opinion pieces:

• “Russian Space Program Needs To Change”, 12/8
• “Outside View: Space industry confusions”, 13/8
• “What’s the outlook for the ISS?”, 14/8.

Two-part article on “Nuclear Power in Space” by Yurii Zaitsev: Part 1 (RIAN/SpaceDaily, 13/8) and Part 2 (RIAN/SpaceDaily, 15/8). For an interplanetary mission (e.g. to Mars) a small nuclear reactor would provide a more efficient power source than solar panels (which are increasingly ineffective the further away from the Sun a spaceship gets). Russia developed a unit called “Topaz” during the Soviet era, which has been flown in space on satellites. (I first saw mention of the Topaz in the Stephen Baxter novel Titan).

Unfortunately, with current technology only nuclear fission (splitting an atom) is used with its unpleasant side-effects of radiation; fusion (combining atoms) would be ideal. There is also the environmental problem of how to bring a reactor back to Earth!

• “Obsolete space industry”, Space Daily, 15/8: Andrei Kislyakov opinion piece.

  For Russia, the ISS is all that is left of its once stupendous manned program. Its loss would shake the industry to its foundations. But the question arises: If Russia is to stay on, which is beyond discussion, then what is to be done and, most importantly, how?

• FP Space posting: “Soyuz/Progress upgrades”, 20/8. Summary of a Novosti Kosmonavtiki article about planned upgrades to the spacecraft.
• “Bold New Projects Critical To Future Of Russian Space Exploration”, Space Daily, 20/8. Interview with former Energiya president Nikolai Sevast’yanov.
• “Russian, European Space Agencies To Develop Manned Spaceship”, RIAN/Space Daily, 22/8. Announcement at the MAKS-2007 Airshow.
• “Russian space agency to form three space holdings by 2015”, RIAN/Space Daily, 22/8.
• “50th Aniversary Of The Russian ICBM Rocket”, Space Daily, 23/8.
• “Mars-500 Experiment Could Be Extended To 700 Days”, RIAN/Space Daily, 23/8. Pity this can’t be a real mission, even just one going around Mars (not landing on it).
• “Russia’s space guru opts for evolution”, RIAN/Space Daily, 23/8. Andrei Kislyakov on the dismayingly limited plans for Russia’s space program – just upgrade some old designs.

And why can’t the Russian space program do something similar to this: “NASA and Internet Archive Team to Digitize Space Imagery”, SpaceRef, 23/8. There must be a lot of things in the Russian archives that the public hasn’t seen; it would be a great way of getting their attention.

Where’s Sergei?

After the restructuring of Energiya’s top management on 6 August, Sergei Krikalyov seems to have vanished from the Top Management page (he was elected Vice-President of Manned Flights on 5 February). (First noticed by Olaf.) Has he been removed from his position there after 6 months, or did they just neglect to mention him?

The interviews with Nikolai Sevast’yanov that were at the top of the Energiya website for some time were removed; here are links to all 4 of them at the site:

• “The mission to Mars is to be international”, 24/11/2005
• “Manned spaceflight to be cost-efficient”, 1/2/2006
• “Concept of Russian manned space navigation development”, 1/7/2006
• “MoonGasTransport Inc.”, 12/2/2007

Progress M-61 launches

Progress M-61 launched on 2/8 at 17:33:48 and docked with the Pirs module on 5/8 at 18:40:25 UTC.

The Progress M-59 cargo ship undocked on 1/8 at 14:07 UTC, deorbited at 18:42 and the remains entered the ocean near Christmas Island at 19:27.

“Russia’s space effort: one step forward, two steps backward”, RIA Novosti opinion piece, 2/8. (Same article at SpaceDaily)

“By 2014, Russia may drop behind the United States, China and the European Union in manned flights unless it continues developing a new spacecraft. By 2014, the U.S. is planning to complete a new ship, the Orion, which will put up stiff competition against our Soyuz craft on the international market. We may seriously fall behind in technologies by that time,” a worried Sevastyanov said.

[…]

Of course, one can take it easy and continue taking pride in the number of annual launches and link research plans with the number of tourists wishing to have a ride on the ISS. But then it is not clear whether the Russian space effort has any future prospects worth pursuing.

“Soviet Space Art,” Metafilter, 2/8. Links to an article at GlobalSecurity.org, “Pop Culture Materials Highlight Soviet Commitment to Manned Lunar Flight, Provide Hints of Actual Plans” with lots of illustrations of propaganda cards, postage stamps, and so on.

There was a post about a miniseries called Race to Mars at the Uplink forum. Synopsis:

In the year 2030, the race to be the first to reach the Red Planet is on – and China is leading the way. China has stunned the world by leapfrogging over America’s long-term plans and has landed a series of advanced rovers and robotic landers in their quest to make the most important discovery in history – extraterrestrial life on Mars. Once again, America and its partners, including Canada, are thrust into a winner-take-all space race – but the stakes are higher than the race to the Moon nearly seven decades earlier.

The international team accelerates its plans – when China prepares to send its final wave of rovers, this consortium will surge ahead and at last launch a human crew. Six extraordinary individuals from Canada, the United States, Russia, France and Japan are selected for this gruelling two-year mission. These four men and two women must work together as a team, rise above their secret fears and struggle with the sacrifice of leaving friends and family behind. Training and determination will get them only so far, and when this crew sets out on humanity’s first expedition to another world, nothing can prepare them for the unexpected danger and staggering wonder of what they will experience.

Note how Russia has been reduced to a “bit player” (though at least they don’t seem to be the bad guys), but China is now where Russia used to be in the public consciousness. (I would like to see Russia “stun the world” by putting the first humans on Mars, but realistically that doesn’t seem likely to happen. Would like to be proven wrong, though!)

New Energiya president

A new president of Energiya was elected, Vitali Aleksandrovich Lopota. The company also seems to be in financial trouble. [According to this post at FP Space, the “bankruptcy” statement was a slight mistranslation.] The Klipper spaceship won’t be displayed at the upcoming MAKS 2007 airshow. The deputy head of Roskosmos, Vitali Davidov, informed journalists on Tuesday that in the Federal space program of Russia, no flights of Russian cosmonauts to the Moon are planned until at least 2012.

Other news tidbits:

• “Oxygen Generating System activated onboard ISS”, NASASpaceflight.com, 12/7. The OGS in the Destiny module has been turned on, so it will be interesting to see how this performs over time! The cantankerous Elektron seems to have been behaving itself the last few months (at least, there have been no reports of any trouble).
• “The 1st Russian Space Tourist?”: NASASpaceflight.com forum thread about a rumor that a Russian tourist will be going up in spring 2008 (autumn in the Northern Hemisphere). Hope they are not an obnoxious oligarch or the equally obnoxious Sergei Polonskii.
• Clayton Anderson (EV1, EMU No.3008) and Fyodor Yurchikhin (EV2, EMU No. 3006) successfully completed their spacewalk on 23 July, taking 7h 41m (10:24-18:05 UTC). Some photos start from this page at the ISS-15 Gallery.
• An article by Asif Siddiqi: “Russia’s Long Love Affair with Space”, August 2007.

From Novosti Kosmonavtiki news №640:

20/07/2007/10:42 – Scientists will contact the ISS from the bottom of the ocean at the North Pole

The participants of the expedition of the Russian “Mir” deep-water manned devices – who, for the first time in history, will make a dive at a point of the North Pole – plan to communicate from the bottom of the Arctic ocean via TsUP (Moscow Mission Control) with the crew of the International Space Station. The special representative of the president of the Russian Federation – State Duma Vice-President Artur Tchilingarov – announced this in connection with the third International Polar Year.

According to Tchilingarov – who will head this expedition – the beginning of the immersing of the devices Mir-1 and Mir-2 in an area of the North Pole is planned for 29 July of this year.

The “Mir” submersibles appeared in the 1997 Titanic movie. A test dive was made on the 29th.

Progress M-61 is to launch on 2 August.