Mars and magic curtains

Energiya has a brief report at its site (also at Roskosmos) on the cause of the Progress M-06M docking abort last month: due to interference over a communication channel, a cosmonaut accidentally pressed one of the buttons on the control panel.

“Difficult rebirth for Russian space science”, BBC News, 29/6/2010. Article by Anatoly Zak on the difficult task facing Russian engineers trying to relaunch their country’s long-dormant unmanned space exploration program.

“Russia to kick off construction of a new spaceport”, BBC News, 20/7/2010. Восточный, Vostochnyi (“Eastern”) cosmodrome, an alternative to Baikonur, is to be constructed in Russia’s Far East, intended to be finished by 2015.

“Magic Anti-Radiation Curtain to be Installed in the ISS”, RK, 6/7/2010. An anti-radiation curtain developed by IMBP was delivered on M-06M:

Progress M-06M cargo supply vehicle has delivered a so-called “magic curtain” to the International Space Station. Flight engineer Fyodor Yurchikhin will install the curtain in the starboard’s cabin of the Zvezda module. The curtain designed by IBMP has special pockets for special wet hygienic towels used by cosmonauts onboard the station. The towels are saturated with hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, which mitigate space radiation effects. The curtain is equipped with the radiation doze meters. Additional anti-radiation crew protection may be provided by three-layer wet towels on the walls of the cabins, thus mitigating radiation effects for cosmonauts, scientists believe.

Result of Matreshka experiment carried out in the station since 2004 show that the radiation is about two times weaker in the center of the station then near the walls. Phantom Matreshka-R is to monitor anti-radiation effectiveness of the wet towels. Experiment Matreshka is to study and to analyze radiation dose distribution in cosmonaut's body during long-term mission aboard the International space station (ISS). Dose from ionizing space radiation was determined with the help of thermoluminescent dosimeters mounted in conditional depths of critical organs in human body modeled in a dosimetric device, i.e. a ball-like tissue-equivalent phantom designed and manufactured in Russia for international space experiment Matreshka-R.

“Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov: Mission to Mars is to Take Place after 2035”, RK, 7/7/2010. More disappointing confirmation that there won’t be a Russian Martian attempt for some decades. I hope circumstances alter this! (Perhaps discovery of an alien artifact somewhere in the Solar System…)

Roscosmos Head Anatoly Perminov stated that the mission to Mars is planned after 2035, answering the questions of the students at the opening ceremony of International Students Science School “Space Exploration: Theory and Practice” in Russian Federal Space Agency. “Russia, Europe, the USA are interested in Martian missions today. India and China also have similar projects. There are more talks about human space missions to Mars. Russian Government have approved Federal Space Program which clearly defines sequence of automated space missions, as well as future human missions. The basic strategy implies Martian program to be implemented after 2035,” Perminov stated.

He also explained that there are no engines and propulsions systems capable to deliver humans to Mars in 2-3 months. “This is feasible only with nuclear propulsion. Many countries are trying to develop engines of new type, which can make mission time 20 times less- to reduce it from 1.5 years to 2 months,” Roscosmos Head said.

He added that there is another issue – human protection against solar radiation and radiation of the nuclear propulsion (if it is used). “This leads us to increasing mass of the launcher. No country is able of reaching Mars or other planets quickly. We are facing the energy problem. That’s why 2035 is defined in our plans,” Perminov said. “There is another option proposed by Russia and negotiated with heads of other space agencies. Interplanetary vehicles could be assembled in LEO. This approach can help us making the interplanetary missions sooner. Young generation will work with it, develop a new propulsion with a brand new operation principle,” Roscosmos Head concluded.

The Mars-500 crew are now over 2 months into their mission. They are no longer in real-time contact with TsUP:

25/07/2010: Today is important crucial point in the life and work of the crew because voice communication sessions will be completely ceased since the 26th of July. We change over to batch communication with gradual (stepwise) increment of the delays of communication. Batch communication means video-voice messages to the crew and similar answers. It can be used for the implementation of difficult experiments, for regular medical control and for psychological support. In addition to this the communication with the crew via electronic messages will be kept.

Blogger/Google have at last instigated comment spam filtering, so perhaps I can block my persistent Chinese spammer!

Future directions

Anatolii Perminov gave some indications of the future directions of the Russian space program when he answered the questions of Russian and foreign students:

Answering one of the questions, Anatolii Nikolaevich said: “Designs of this type are not carried out in Roscosmos entities. On the other hand, these issues are studied in some R&D institutes. My opinion, not as a manager, but as a specialist, is that it is necessary to search for new energy-generation forms and ways based on different principles for space exploration. However my personal point of view may differ from the views of scientists…”

Foreign students were interested in development of the lunar habitation.

“Currently, we carry out an outstanding international project Mars-500. It intends to test feasibility of human spaceflight to Mars and return back to the Earth. Roscosmos and ESA researchers are involved in the project. The experiment is controlled from the Mission Control Center. NASA’s lunar base project has been approved. But now some changes may occur in their program due to changes of NASA Administration. We discussed it with NASA representatives in Paris. Today it is unclear if the USA will build the lunar base on their own, or involve some international partners. Lunar projects on different development stages exist in China, India, Japan, and Russia as well,” Mr. Perminov said.

Roscosmos Head also explained about perspectives of the Vostochnyi space port construction in Amurskaya region:

“Russian Government defined that up to late 2011, design and research on-site activities are to be completed and Vostochnyi construction plan is to be prepared. That is, what we are doing now on the funding appropriated. This funding is not so big, but still sufficient to accomplish this objective. Then, we will report to the Government which is to make the decision about the date to start the construction. Roscosmos believes that the construction shall start in 2012. This is in line with the space exploration strategy approved by the Russian Government, which intends maiden launch of the first cargo vehicle from Vostochnyi in 2015, and the first human spacecraft launch in 2018.”

“Aldrin thinks U.S. should set its sights on Mars”, MSNBC.com, 6/7. Apollo astronaut/Moon Man №2 Buzz Aldrin, who is outspoken on space matters, is of the opinion that:

• the U.S. “oversee” an international team of lunar explorers, which includes China.
• While other countries are occupied there, the U.S. sneaks off to Mars and gets there first.

I would, of course, like to see a Russian manned mission get to Mars first! Would be compensation for missing out on the Moon.

Phobos-Grunt on schedule

According to Anatoly Zak who was at the Paris Air and Space Show on 15 June, and who spoke to the head of NPO Lavochkin Georgii Poleshyuk, the components of the Phobos-Grunt, «Фобос-Грунт» probe were being integrated, beginning 20 June. The probe’s main propulsion unit is the most complex and critical element. Everything will be transported to Baikonur Cosmodrome in September of this year.

Progress M-02M undocked from the ISS (Pirs docking module) on 30/6 for autonomous flight tests of its systems; it will redock on 2/7.

From NK №789:

19/06/2009 / 08:46 – The economic crisis could derail the creation of a new Russian cosmodrome

The economic crisis could prevent modernisation of the Russian space-rocket industry, and also disrupt the establishment of our own “window” in space – the Vostochnyi, Восточный cosmodrome, Vitalii Davidov declared on Thursday.

According to him, last year’s re-financing of the industry has dramatically increased.

“Before it was one per cent, and in order to re-branch had about 70 years, starting this year, especially for the next year we have planned investments in retooling the industry, which should have been raised by 15% -20% of the overall funding level,” said the official, speaking at a meeting of the working group on innovative legislation in the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation.

He noted that the same magnitude of re-financing was needed during the implementation of programs for the Soviet space shuttle Buran in the late 1980s.

But Davydov fears that the crisis could disrupt plans for re-equipment: “What happened at the end of last year, this crisis, we thought it would not affect our plans, but today we realize it is not possible. This is a significant impact on our plans, especially in terms of security, including independent access to space, the development of the new cosmodrome on the territory of Russia,” said the Roscosmos Deputy.

Sergei Krikalyov’s photo has at last appeared on the Gagarin Cosmonauts’ Training Center website (the Russian version so far), so he must now have officially assumed command. According to Anik, he left the Cosmonauts’ Group of RSC Energiya on 27 March 2009.

Grim City

“Russia’s cosmonauts prepare for letdown”, LA Times, 10/4. A rather gloomy account by a reporter who was given a (paid) tour of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, portraying it as a mordant and run-down place. Cosmonaut Yurii Baturin had some pointed remarks about the space program:

Yuri Baturin is the only cosmonaut authorized to speak with reporters. He has cotton-white hair, tinted glasses and the calm presence of a man who, after two voyages into space, has lost the capacity to worry over details. You ask him about the Russian program and prepare yourself for exuberance.

Instead, Baturin pauses and sighs.

“This is a very difficult and painful question, because it’s not very proper to criticize your own government, especially in a foreign newspaper,” he says. “But our politicians who talk about the space program don’t understand a thing about it. I state today that Russia does not have a real space program.”

You remember when you’d just gotten to Moscow and your Russian-language teacher mentioned Yuri Gagarin. She stared, stupefied, at your blank face, as if contemplating whether she could teach her language to a cretin who didn’t recognize the name of the first man to soar into space.

And now here you are, eyeball to eyeball with an heir to Gagarin’s heroic legacy, and the more he talks, the more disappointed he sounds.

“Our space agency for several years is not calling the tender for a new ship,” he says. “They don’t know what for and where to fly.”

And: “The politicians don’t understand the complexity of the task. They announce Russia will land on Mars by 2030, which creates the illusion that Russia has a mission to Mars… [but] the government should not just try to be the first to put a flag on Mars.”

Finally: “Space tourism is only harmful to the Russian space program, in my opinion. In the corridors here you can find dozens of cosmonauts who would have accompanied a flight in the past seven years but didn’t because their seat was occupied by a tourist. It leads us into a dead end.”

[…]

Later, you’ll try to figure out whether what he said was true: whether, behind the screen of extravagant political statements, high-rolling space tourism junkets and U.S. dependence on Russia for lifts to the space station, there is a vacuum of purpose and projects. You ask around, and others agree.

“Unfortunately, we can’t say right now that Russia has a powerful space program,” Igor Marinin, editor in chief of Space News magazine, says when you call. “For a very long time we simply lived on the verge of extinction.”

“Russia to start flight-testing new cargo spacecraft in 2016-17”, 13/4, RIAN/Space Daily. Announcement by Energiya chief Vitalii Lopota on the spacecraft-rocket transport system to be designed by Energiya for Roskosmos’ Advanced Crew Transport System (PPTS). The spacecraft is to be launched at the Vostochnyi, Восточный space center (near Uglegorsk in the Amur region of eastern Russia), this to be completed in 5 years and operational in 2015.

Monkeys to Mars?

“Russia tests monkeys for Mars trip”, BBC News, 14/4. Poor monkeys! I thought this sort of experiment belonged in the past; it won’t help Russia’s image. They should find some human volunteers and send them – I’m sure there would be plenty who would volunteer, despite the risks! Also, how do they think the monkeys would cope with the months of confinement? Unlike humans, the monkeys would have no understanding of why they were being enclosed for so long, and would probably be insane when they got back.

“Russia To Create Manned Assembly Complex In Orbit”, Space Daily, 14/4. Will this come true or is it another empty promise, as grumbled about in my 16/4 entry?

“Russia To Build New Space Center In The Far East”, RIAN/Space Daily, 15/4. Andrei Kislyakov opinion piece. The financing for the project seems doubtful as there could be cost overruns.

“In last Soviet outpost, space pioneers cling on”, Space Daily, 15/4. Many people in Baikonur prefer to stay there rather than return to Russia.