Haven’t felt much like posting; just don’t feel much interested, so here is some collected news as remarked on in my other journal.
As-yet unconfirmed reports say that a Russian businessman-politician, Vladimir Gruzdev, looks set to be a space tourist in September 2008 or in 2009. I bet the cosmonauts won’t be happy about that! Especially those who have spent years waiting for their first flight (e.g. Dmitri Kondrat’ev – selected 1997, Oleg Kononenko – selected 1996, Roman Romanenko – selected 1997), only to have someone with loads of money “jump the queue”.
Energiya changed some of the links at their site, so I had to redo most of the links to them on my site (and blog), rather annoyingly! I think they are all working.
Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa!
S.P. Korolev RSC Energia, Korolev, Moscow region. Cosmonaut tester of the S.P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation cosmonaut team Mikhail Borisovich Kornienko, upon his return to Moscow after climbing mountain Kilimanjaro (5895 meters high) as a member of a team of three mountaineers, was received by the Head of the Federal Space Agency A.N. Perminov.
M.B. Kornienko accomplished this climb while being on vacation. On the highest peak of Africa he left one copy of the Roskosmos commemorative badge and planted the flag of S.P. Korolev RSC Energia. The second copy of that badge that had been to the top of Kilimanjaro, M.B. Kornienko handed over to the Head of Roskosmos.
A.N. Perminov pointed out the high level of preparedness of the cosmonaut tester for working in extreme conditions, which allowed him, the only one of the whole team, to overcome the difficulties of the climb in its final phase.
Russian Federal Space Agency: Космонавт вышел на «малую» орбиту – покорил Килиманджаро (Cosmonaut has reached a “small” orbit – he conquered Kilimanjaro).
A Russian Proton-M rocket with a Japanese satellite onboard crashed on launch on 9/9.
“Russia To Get A New Space Port”, RIAN/SpaceDaily, 11/9.
On the last day of summer, the Russian Space Agency made a sensational announcement. Its head Anatoly Perminov painted an epic picture of Russia’s immediate future in space, specifically its manned part. A week and a half ago, during a final news conference with journalists at the MAKS-2007 International Air Show, to the surprise of many, he spoke modestly about the evolutionary path to be taken by the space industry. “Our primary objective,” he said, “is to stick to existing reliable systems already used in manned flights.” Evidently they found the air show to be the wrong place to disclose the Agency’s truly revolutionary ambitions.
“Female commanders set for landmark mission”, MSNBC.com, 13/9. Two female NASA astronauts will command the ISS (Peggy Whitson) and Space Shuttle (Pamela Melroy, STS-120 Discovery) next month. No Russian woman has been in space since Elena Kondakova in 1997, and none will for a few years yet (assuming the only current female cosmonaut, Elena Serova, successfully completes her candidate training). Russia are now dismayingly far behind in this area.
A Soyuz-U rocket successfully launched yesterday with an unmanned Foton spacecraft carrying various experiments (listed in Russian and English at the FKA site). Some fish and Mongolian gerbils (small rodents) are getting a ride into space as part of the experiments. A space tether experiment will also be performed (James Oberg’s comments about it at FPSpace).
“Mice and men: space gerbils blaze trail for humans to Mars”, Space Daily, 14/9. More on the gerbils getting their first and only spaceflight; unfortunately some of the hapless creatures will be dissected after landing. (A brief RIA Novosti news item on the creatures the Foton is carrying.)
From Novosti Kosmonavtiki news №653:
18/9/2007/00:01: Russian manned spacecraft will fly to Mars, possibly in 2020, Aleksandr Kaleri thinks
A Russian spacecraft with the crew aboard will fly to Mars, possibly in 2020. About this stated the chief of the flying space center of company Energiya, airman-cosmonaut Aleksandr Kaleri, at the All-Russian astronomical conference the “Space Boundaries of the 21st Century”, that was opened on 17 September in Kazan. “The flight duration will be two years with a one-month stay on Mars,” noted the cosmonaut. It is assumed that aboard the ship with a weight of up to 600 tons will fly the crew of 4-6 people. To put this ship immediately into orbit is impossible, therefore they will assemble it in orbit from the modules, said Kaleri.
According to him, the dimensions of modules and subsistence maintenance system are developed, the methods of creating the large constructions now are selected: so the length of each of two solar batteries will compose 700 meters. Studies with respect to the guarantee of reliability of flight are conducted. For example, for the protection from the solar radiation it is proposed the walls of crew quarters for the cosmonauts are to be filled with inert gas.
According to the most optimistic forecasts, the flights will begin in 2020, with the most pessimistic beginning in 2025. In the first flight only the circling around the “red planet” will be undertaken. The second flight will carry a full-scale landing module, but also without the embarkation of cosmonauts. And only in the third flight half of the crew will land on the planet, the cosmonaut concluded.
