From NK №836, rough computer translations of two Mars-related news items. First, a manned Mars mission is not in current Russian plans, disappointingly. I would like to see one happen before 2020! Hopefully before China or other countries send a mission there.
11/02/2010/00:05 – A piloted flight to Mars is not yet included in Russian Space Department plans
A piloted flight to Mars is not included in the upcoming plans of the Russian Space Department and is not included in the space program of Russia, the head of department Anatoly Perminov said Wednesday on air at the radio station “Voice of Russia”.
“In the foreseeable future no flights to Mars are planned. New modern or future systems of power impellent installations are for this purpose necessary; as well as these, there may also be nuclear installations developed,” Perminov noted.
For a performance of such flight, he considers it necessary at first to solve a number of scientific problems. “The ground experiment Mars-500 will soon begin, and a number of the European countries are actively participating in it.”
For a flight to the Red planet, according to Perminov, new power impellent installations will be required.
“Perhaps, these will be nuclear installations. Are we working on this? Yes. There are no secrets. Because the president of our country has set us this task. In one of programs there is development of power impellent nuclear installation. With its help it will be already possible in the future to reach Mars in under a year and and a half, and in the shortest possible time,” Perminov stated.
The head of the Russian Space Department has also confirmed the readiness of the Russian Space Department to co-operate from NASA in developing such systems. “It would be desirable, that such large-scale projects were international, with faster results, and lessening costs. We are ready to co -operate. If for some reasons it does not turn out, we will develop in parallel,” Perminov said.
The spacesuits for Mars-500 are modified/recycled Orlan-DMA suits, an older version of the current Orlan-MK used in orbit on the ISS. They were successfully tested. There is a gallery at the Mars-500 site from early last year of a spacesuit being tested.
12/02/2010/00:05 – “Marsonauts” from experiment “Mars-500” will work on the surface of the Red Planet using Russian lunar tools
In the research-and-production enterprise NPP Zvezda situated near Moscow on Wednesday has passed a control “run” of a new spacesuit which will be involved in the “Mars-500” experiment, simulating a piloted flight to Mars.
Two testers for NPP Zvezda worked for hours in spacesuits on a surface imitating that of the Red Planet, carrying out various manipulations with special tools. One of the “marsonauts” broke up large chunks of rock, and then using the probe would pick up wooden blocks, simulating pieces of Martian soil, and put them in a pouch hanging from her utility belt. Another “pioneer” scooped up sand with a small shovel (the sand imitating loose soil) and dumped it in a special container.
“These tools were developed in the 60 years of the last century for a national lunar program,” explained one of the leaders of the Soviet lunar program from RSC Energiya, Oleg Tsygankov. After the program was canceled, the miraculously preserved instruments can now be used in the experiments on the preparation of manned flights to other planets, he said.
After collecting rocks, the space travelers imitated Michael Jackson’s famous moonwalk in their spacesuits and dropped to one knee, like a knight offering his hands and heart to his lady.
“The spacesuits are based on the old Orlan-DMA Russian suit,” which is different from the new Orlans which the ISS crews wear in space,” the chief of department NPP Zvezda, Gennadii Shchavelev, said. First of all, they are smaller in size: length and chest. As well, they weigh only 30 kg – four times less than the zero-g Orlans – as the testers on Earth are not helped by weightlessness. One more difference: the Orlans have a self-contained life-support system, while in the “Martian” spacesuits, air for cosmonauts moves through long hoses from special compressors.
The colour of the new “suits” is unusual also - unlike the white Orlans, their “Martian” colleagues are made of a brilliant peach-coloured fabric. “We could not decide on a color for the new spacesuits,” designer Galina Borisova said. “We looked at many fabrics – blue, steel, dark blue – but eventually settled on this color that is harmonious with the reddish Martian surface.”
“The spacesuits behaved impeccably, all systems functioned normally, no improvements are not required,” Shchavelev summed up the test run.
After drying, the “Martian” spacesuits will go to the warehouse, and then, after a fitting with the selected Mars-500 crew, the suits will be transferred to the “Martian spacecraft”, situated in the Institute of Biomedical Problems of RAS, which in April will begin the 520-day experiment.
