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.

Space nukes

From NK №788:

12/06/2009 / 00:05 – Russia will create a nuclear tug for interplanetary travel

Russia will revive a program to develop nuclear power plants for space purposes, the director of the RRC Kurchatov Institute, Mikhail Kovalchuk, said at a press conference in Moscow on Thursday.

“We need to create an atomic tug,” Kovalchuk said, recalling that in Soviet times there was a program to develop nuclear power plants; in particular the “Topaz” reactor was designed by the Kurchatov Institute.

“Using an atomic tug, you can save money for the future Russian lunar and Mars programs,” said the head of the institute. “This is a cheap way.”

According to him, the program was discussed with the management of RSC Energia, and a number of other space and nuclear institutions.

“We will reanimate these topics. We consider it as possibility to create not only engines, but also as energy sources (for spaceships).”

The Topaz reactor featured in Stephen Baxter’s Titan novel as a power source for the Space Shuttle on its mission to Saturn.

Energiya has another news report featuring ISS crews familiarizing themselves with the MIM-2 module, the next Russian module to be launched. A Buran – defunct Russian space shuttle – analog can be seen in the background of this photo. (It is the 3M [or OK-KS] full-size test model as seen on this page at Vassili’s Buran site, according to Anik.)

MIM-2 photos

Energiya has some photos online of the next Russian module due to be launched, MIM-2, МИМ-2 (to make things more confusing, referred to in English as MRM-2, Mini-Research Module-2). It is currently due to be launced on 10 November, propelled by a modified Progress cargo ship. The last Russian module launched was Pirs in 2001, so another one is long overdue!

A very short (12 minutes!) internal spacewalk was carried out on 10/6 inside Pirs to change over a hatch in preparation for the docking of MIM-2.

• Gennadii Padalka (EV1, Orlan-MK №5)
• Michael Barratt (EV2, Orlan-MK №6)
• 12m (06:55-07:07 UTC)
• ISS Daily Report
• NASA
• TsUP

Paranoid silliness

The next space tourist is to be the founder of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberté. He has a mini-site and blog, Guy Laliberté’s Poetic Social Mission in space (I have to admit the title makes me roll my eyes cynically, but idealism has that effect on me – yes I am disillusioned). He will launch on TMA-16, currently set to launch on 30 September. His backup (not yet confirmed) is Barbara Barrett, who has a training blog; unfortunately its viewing is currently restricted.

A Russian artist called Sergey Krainev, Сергей Крайнев, does nice space-themed paintings (found this while browsing the NK forum through an online translator).

Astronaut Leroy Chiao was soliciting opinions on his blog for the Augustine Human Space Flight Review Commission. I have no interest in this, therefore no opinion. But I found one comment that was somewhere between unintentionally amusing and exasperating as it was of the “Paranoid Patriot” variety (I might note that Leroy Chiao is of Chinese descent), so it’s worth reproducing (with minor editing as some paragraphs were repeated):

The United States, as a nation and leader of the Free World, needs to be the guardian of the Lunar Future. The last thing I want to see on a full moon is a future Chinese Territory and have to have that countries approved visa for future visits, explorations and permission for development.

By our leadership we will make sure the Lunar Future will be a free and democratic society. Sure, we will invite other nations to participate, but through U.S. leadership we will ensure it is a just system for future resource development. It may look like a large rock in the sky at the moment, but as soon as commercial development finds a way to make money there, it becomes real estate. The question will be who gets to control the distribution of the best sites, who decides future taxation of resources, etc.

We have a unique situation that we have not seen for couple hundred years, and history is about to repeat itself. We need to claim this stepping stone now, and the Liberation points, then Mars. We can do it with international participation, but it must be with bold U.S. leadership for a democratic future. The investments we make now do not just effect the next couple of decades, but the next several hundred years.

For a fraction of what we are now spending on bailouts, we could have a very aggressive infrastructure on the Moon, then on to Mars. NASA must lead the way, then get out of the way, and let private companies find a way to make money and spur further development. Once lunar surface operations can be economically self-sustaining, then NASA can concentrate on Mars and beyond.

As Ronald Reagan said in his speech to console a grieving nation during the space shuttle Challenger tragedy; “The Future Belongs to the Brave, not the Faint Hearted, Now’s the time to be brave, there will only be one opportunity for Lunar Leadership, we need to make it ours.”

There is a reason why God put us in the position of being the first nation there [WTF???]. By our leadership we will make sure the Lunar Future will be a free and democratic society.

I still have a copy of the earlier Augustine Commission’s report after Challenger. I for one do not want a Red Moon Rising.

That’s why I find the space community such a turnoff generally – too many anti-enviromentalist Libertarians/Conservatives who have overdosed on Heinlein (whom I have never read, incidentally) and who think (or hope!) that colonizing space will be a re-enactment of the founding of the USA. (I have a related rant, “Space cadet growthists”, on my overpopulation blog.)

First Orlan-MK EVA

Gennadii Padalka (EV1, Orlan-MK №5, red stripes) and Michael Barratt (EV2, Orlan-MK №6, blue stripes) performed the first EVA in the new spacesuits on 5/6 for 4h 54m (07:52-12:46 UTC). The spacewalk was successful, aside from an initial delay caused by a faulty sensor reading saying there was excess CO₂.

• ISS Daily Report
• MSNBC: “Delayed spacewalk ends successfully”
• NASA
• NASASpaceflight.com: LIVE: Expedition 20 first spacewalk – June 5, 2009
• Spacewalk Briefing Materials
• TsUP

“Esther Dyson, Space Tourist in Training”, IEEE Spectrum, June 2006. Interview with the backup for space tourist Charles Simonyi.
A novel way of protecting ISS occupants from radiation is to use damp napkins! From NK №784:

22/05/2009/00:05 – Damp napkins will reduce the risk of adverse effects of space radiation

A special screen, which will serve as additional protection against radiation for the crews of the ISS, should appear on board the Station in early 2010.
“We have been successfully producing prototype draft-screen curtains and by the end of this year, the Rocket and Space Corporation Energiya specialists will put the product in a Progress cargo ship to be launched to the ISS in early 2010,” said Vyacheslav Shurshakov, Head of the Laboratory at the Institute of Biomedical Problems, part of the Russian Academy of Sciences, where the screen was developed.
The screen is equipped with curtain-pockets, in which will be inserted plastic packaging with wet towels used for personal hygiene and cleaning crews of the station.
The packaged napkins are impregnated with a material containing hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen, which effectively weaken the cosmic radiation, the scientist explained. Sensors are installed outside and inside the curtains to monitor radiation doses.
Additional protection for the ISS crew is provided by securing three layers of polyethylene packaging with wet towels on the walls of the cabin which, in the opinion of scientists, will further reduce the risk of the adverse effects of space radiation.
According to Shurshakova, the first results of the “Matryoshka”, «Матрешка» experiment on the ISS showed that the dose of radiation received by the vital organs decreases almost twice when you remove the person from the walls of the station to its center. “The Matryoshka-R with sensors installed on the ISS will allow us to test the effectiveness of the radiation protection provided by the sanitary napkins delivered to the Station,” he said.
It is anticipated that the experimental screens will be fitted in the cabins of the ISS Service Module Zvezda. If the effectiveness of the new protection is confirmed, future orbital stations and interplanetary ships will be equipped with similar screens.
The sanitary napkins can be used not only for radiation protection, but also to reduce noise in the cabin from constantly-operating machinery and devices, added the scientist.

“The Phantom Torso Returns”, Space Daily, 28/5, has more about the Matryoshka experiment.
The Kazbek-UM seats in the Soyuz are to be made reusable:

26/05/2009/00:05 – Seats for the Soyuz Russian spaceships will be made reusable

The Research-and-production enterprise (NPP) Zvezda is working on prolonging the life of the Kazbek seat. “Whereas it was previously a single-use device, in connection with the increase in the number of manned launches a series of modifications is being made in order to enable its re-use,” said an interlocutor in the Russian space industry.
According to him, after the return of the ship from orbit, the seats will be returned to NPP Zvezda to evaluate their condition. Specialists will do a range of repair work, after which the seats can be used repeatedly.
The speaker recalled that the last major change in the design of the Kazbek seats were made during the development of the Soyuz TMA variant, calculated for the flight to the International Space Station of both Russian and American astronauts.
The requirements of the anthropometric parameters of NASA astronauts were greater than for the selection of cosmonauts in Russia [in other words, the Americans were better-fed :-)]
. In order to accommodate the Americans in the Soyuz, the seats had to be lengthened and increased in size, explained the interlocutor.
The Kazbek seat allows a cosmonaut to endure g-forces during launch and re-entry into the atmosphere, cushioning the blow when the Descent Module hits the ground.

Digital Soyuz and other news

My main website, SuzyMcHale.com, is still not online (server failure). Hopefully back soon…?

“Russia’s Dark Horse Plan to Get to Mars”, James Oberg, Discovery Magazine, 21/5. On the Phobos-Grunt mission. Another article at IEEE Spectrum by Anatoly Zak is “A Russian Return to a Martian Moon”, June 2009. The Chinese microsatellite that will ride onboard is to be delivered to the probe manufacturer, NPO Lavochkin in Russia, on 17 June.

Soyuz TMA-15 launched last week (27/5) with Expedition 20, so there is now a crew of 6 onboard the ISS for the first time, all from the different space agencies involved.

Contradicting earlier media reports, Roscosmos representatives said that there are no plans to disconnect the Russian segment of the ISS from 2015 and turn it into an autonomous space station. Instead, there are plans to extend the lifetime of the ISS as much as its technical capabilities will allow.

From NK №786:

02/06/2009 / 00:05 – Russia has no plans to disconnect its segment of the ISS after 2015

Roscosmos has no plans to disconnect the Russian segment of International Space Station from the U.S. and create an autonomous station from 2015. “There are no plans for disconnecting us from the ISS. On the contrary, we have a plan for extending the operation of the Station, as far as its technical capabilities will allow,” said Aleksei Krasnov, the supervisor of manned programs at Roscosmos, on Friday at a news conference at TsUP mission control center.

“There is no reason to have the segments of the ISS partner countries taken apart,” added, in turn, the president of Rocket-Space Corporation Energiya, Vitalii Lopota.

They commented on reports by some Russian and foreign media that Russian specialists are discussing the possibility of removing the ISS Russian segment in the event that other participating countries of the project did not prolong the operation of the station until 2020. According to current plans, the ISS is planned to be in use up to 2015.

At the same time, A. Krasnov noted that even before the deorbiting of the station Mir, the possibility of using part of its modules as part of the International Space Station was explored. It is a similar situation in the case of the ISS.

“We do not exclude that we will explore the possibility of using the modules of the ISS assembly, consisting of orbital research complex in low orbit that would allow the Russian space program to develop further,” said Aleksander Krasnov.

Earlier, representatives of Roscosmos has been reported on the possibility of construction in orbit from 2020, a new space station that would become an orbital plant for the production of unique materials, as well as a trans-shipment base on the way to the Moon and Mars.

A ceremony was held for the lowering of the TsPK flag, but it attracted little official or media interest (the translation is a bit incoherent):

02/06/2009 / 00:05 – In Star City the unit banner has been farewelled

On 29 May 2009 in the town of Star City a farewell ceremony was held for the banner, writesYurii Baturin. The famous Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, established in 1960 as a military unit, was eliminated in accordance with a governmental order (№1435 from 1/10/2008). In its place there will be a new organization to train cosmonauts, but as a civilian federal government budgetary institution.

A monument to Yuri Gagarin Cosmonauts Alley to put members of the part. There were present family members of the military and the center, many with children. We cosmonaut veterans shed copious tears. And now, the last solemn march. Then the photographs of the flag. The standard-bearers probably have, as expected, began packing the banner for shipment, and the assembly did not disperse, but remembered, remembered… The mood for all was sad.

Representatives of NASA and the European space agency paid a tribute of respect to the banner and TsPK. But no-one from the Military-air forces command attended the farewell ritual. And after all the military unit as the Center of preparation of cosmonauts of the Air Forces was formed and for half a centur has made considerable glory for this kind of Armed forces of the country. There was nobody from the Ministry of Defence, nor from the Joint Staff, as if only an ordinary battalion of air field service was being disbanded. And this is a unique military division. It was not counted a significant event and in Russian Space Agency, under whose command TsPK now falls. Usually, generals from the Air Forces, and the management of the Federal Space Agency liked to address Star City from a podium and say high words to the heroes of space. Now words for some reason were not found, probably, it was difficult to look in the faces of the gathered. Probably, such a general lack of official attendance was an indirect recognition of the inaccuracy of the decision to reform TsPK.

Unfortunately, the press, except Novoi, «Новой» and Cosmonautics News, «Новостей космонавтики», has not been interested. There was no TV (possibly because there were no space tourists – a favourite central theme of space reportings).

Maybe this was for the better: no hypocrisy, had only their own flag.

Cosmonaut Aleksandr Kaleri will be the first to command the new digital Soyuz in September 2010, along with Cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and the American astronaut Scott Kelly. (Sergei Krikalyov was at one time to be the first to pilot the digital version, but he now has other duties.) From NK №785:

28/05/2009 / 17:15 – Cosmonaut Kaleri will test the new Soyuz version

Flight tests of the “digital” piloted ship Soyuz are entrusted to the experienced Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri.

“Flight of the first ship in the new Soyuz series, which is equipped with a digital control system, is scheduled for September of next year. Cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri has been entrusted to pilot the ship, having had experience of four space flights,” the space-rocket industry interlocutor said. According to him, the appointment of the flight commander was preceded by a long dispute about who to entrust the management of the new machine.

Experience in piloting of the Soyuz ships was the basic requirement during selection of candidates. “On the list were many surnames, but eventually Kaleri was appointed as the commander of the ship,” the agency interlocutor said.

In the crew of the “digital” Soyuz, the Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and the American astronaut Scott Kelly are appointed as flight engineers.

In April, 2008 the president of Rocket & Space Corporation Energiya, Vitalii Lopota during a scientific conference in Moscow said that the first “digital” Soyuz would go to space in the spring of 2009. But the launch did not take place in the announced time. In connection with necessity of carrying out of additional tests of the ship, the launch was delayed to autumn of 2010.

According to V. Lopota, installation of digital systems on the piloted ship Soyuz will require a crew of one professional cosmonaut, instead of two, as now. In that case, two nonprofessional cosmonauts can fly at once.

The modernisation of spaceships, according to V. Lopota, will bring Russian astronautics to a new technological level and to raise the safety of space flight. For the docking of the new ship to the International Space Station it is planned to use the standard scheme of docking. “We cannot afford to risk anything. Even though the ship systems were analogue, and are now digital. In no event will use of the new modernised systems change the planned algorithm,” said V. Lopota. The docking of the ship to the ISS will continue under the standard scheme, that is on the second day of flight, he has added. Visually, the president of RSC Energiya admitted, the digital Soyuz will not differ from previous versions of the ship.

The basic difference of the new ships is in the digital control systems. The control system of movement and system of onboard measurements has undergone modernisation. Innovations have allowed to increase speed and to lower weight of equipment. In contrast with the previous version, the digital cargo ship is capable to take aboard on 80 kg of more cargo, than its predecessors.

Loss of dignity

“Past and future of ‘New Space’ ”, Cosmic Log, 21/5. This entry concerns a documentary, Orphans of Apollo, on the attempts to privatize the Mir space station.

An earlier article from the New York Times, “American Megamillionaire Gets Russki Space Heap!”, 23 July 2000, is a curious and somewhat discomforting article on the eccentric millionaire who founded the short-lived MirCorp.

According to the Russian philosopher Grigori Pomerants, his country has slipped into “a state of mass disorientation” since the collapse of the Soviet empire. MirCorp’s presence here, surely, does not help. Anderson’s company comes with its fat wallets, its precocious grandmasters of capitalism, buying at deep discount the detritus of the space race, the Soviet Union, the cold war.

Cosmonaut Sergei Krikalyov gets a brief mention:

In Korolev, the morning of the docking, television crews trail muddy tracks as they push through the command-and-control center’s drab marble foyer. Everyone’s in a hurry – who are these rich investors? – and no one is wiping his feet. Upstairs, the control room proper resembles an aging 1950’s college lecture hall – rows of concentric half-circles, a projection screen up front. Old men fill the back landing, clasping hands and taking pictures. The engineers and cosmonauts of years past are on hand: Boris Chertok, 89 years old, who commanded the first space docking ever; Sergei Krikalev, still young and mustached [?], who in 1991 orbited overhead in Mir while the Soviet Union dissolved below, asking, “Is it true that Russia is going to sell the Mir space station, together with us?’’ All have seen communism, perestroika and failed capitalism; all regard Anderson’s impassioned, impertinent largess with irresolute, blank stares.

My own feelings on these attempts at privatization: has the Russian space program really come to this? Yurii Gagarin and Sergei Korolyov (if they were still alive) would have an apoplectic fit.

“Russia ‘to save its ISS modules’ ”, BBC News, 22/5. This report by Anatoly Zak says that Russian officials are speculating on the possibility of detaching the ISS Russian segment and keeping it going as an independent station/launching port for 20 or 30 years. Is it possible the detached Russian modules could be utilized as a basic spaceship to Mars, say with a module containing a nuclear reactor on the end added (to power electric engines)? This page from a 1987 book at Astronaut.ru features a spaceship design that looks a little like the Russian ISS segment, with a propulsion module and lander added.

Past glories

“Can a Space Museum Help Russia Get Its Glory Back?”, TIME, 17/5. The Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow reopened after 3 years of renovations. (Its website still is not online yet, though.) There is a relevant thread at NASASpaceflight.com. I found this comment by a visitor insightful:

Wandering past model rockets, orange cosmonaut suits emblazoned with red U.S.S.R. emblems and a diorama of happy cosmonaut mannequins sitting around a campfire next to a crashed space capsule waiting for pickup, Lynn Nordstrom of Albuquerque, N.M., and her two sons – in Moscow for the Eurovision song contest – say they are enjoying their visit. But “after looking at this, I’m afraid of the Egypt syndrome, where all you do is talk about how great you used to be,” Nordstrom says. “The museum is terrific, but you need to look to the future. My whole youth was spent hearing about the U.S.S.R. making advances in science and us always feeling like we were behind.” Now, with a revamped museum, a new rocket program and possibly a new space base, it’s Russia that’s trying to catch up.

This comment, in a scene from a story I’m writing, makes much the same point:

“Our space program has endured much since the Fall,” the General Designer continued with passion – they all knew what he referred to: the disastrous and traumatizing collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. “Our once-great space program is now reduced to providing Soyuz taxi rides for foreign astronauts and bored wealthy space tourists! The first General Designer, Sergei Korolyov, would be horrified. We get little mention in the foreign media – all attention is on NASA, and also China as the next upcoming space power.” The others nodded and murmured in agreement.

“This is our chance to regain some of that glory before we fade into obscurity, looking back nostalgically at the greatness that once was.”

From NK №782 – another assertion that the Phobos-Grunt, «Фобос-Грунт» probe really will launch this year:

12/05/2009/20:15 – There are no doubts as regards the date of the launch of the “Fobos-Grunt” probe, says Roskosmos

There are no doubts as regards the date of the launch of the “Fobos-Grunt” probe. The assistant to the head of the Federal Space Agency Roskosmos, Anatoly Shilov, asserted this today at a press conference.

He has reminded that according to the plan, Fobos-Grunt should start in the second half of October 2009. Another similar launch window will open only in 2011. Earlier, some in the mass-media reported about possibility of carrying over of the launch date to then.

“We are making all efforts to ensure that this launch will take place according to plan,” Shilov said. “While all turns out. Today such fears are not present.”

The Russian automatic interplanetary station is intended for researching Phobos, the companion of Mars , and delivery of soil samples back to Earth.

Some in the NSF.com Phobos-Grunt thread feel that it is better for the launch to be delayed and thus ensure everything is working right, rather than rush for a launch this year. It would be extremely disheartening for the first Russian probe launch in 13 years to end up like Mars-96!

Future Russian spacesuit

A selection of items from Novosti Kosmonavtiki №781, including details of the spacesuit to follow the Orlan-MK: the Orlan-MKS.

08/05/2009/00:05 – Cosmonaut Romanenko is happy with the new Orlan-MK spacesuit

Hereditary Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, flight engineer of the ISS-20/21 crew, was satisfied with NPP Zvezda’s new computerized spacesuit Orlan-MK while training in it in the Hydrolab at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.

“It is different from the previous model – in fact, somewhere in between the American EMU and Russian Orlan-M.” The main innovation is its full computerization – the suit itself “suggests” actions for the cosmonaut to take in case of emergencies. It is important that the computer tips can be disabled if you want; the cosmonaut himself can decide which mode of operation is preferable,” said Romanenko at a preflight press conference on Thursday at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.

07/05/2009/00:05 Participants in the Mars-105 experiment have been “in flight” already more than a month

The participants in the 105-day scientific experiment in which a flight to Mars is being simulated, have been in ground “Mars flight” already more than a month, said the Institute of Biomedical Problems, Russian Academy of Sciences.

“A third path shall be taken. The six testers ‘fly’ on. The most difficult stage is behind us: the creation of this team,” said the representative of the Russian Academy of Sciences IMBP, Paul Morgunov.

According to him, despite the fact that the crew was formed and tested in advance, the work in isolation brought about changes. “But the scientists were lucky: the crew harmonized. According to the reports of the participants, time dragged slowly at first, but now they are accustomed to, and have not even noticed as more than a month has passed in “flight”.

“Scientific data, and material already has been gathered for the next flight to Mars, but the most complex experiments are yet to come,” said the IMBP representative.

07.05.2009 / 00:05 In 2012, Russian cosmonauts will have a new survival suit

A new Russian survival suit for work in free space will be created in a few years, Sergei Pozdnyakov, the general director and the main designer of the research and production enterprise (NPP) Zvezda, said. “The first models will appear in 2012, and the definitive variant should be ready by 2015,” he said.

According to S. Pozdnyakov, the following series of survival suits will be called “Orlan-MKS” (modified, with a computer and a synthetic cover – модифицированный, с компьютером и синтетической оболочкой). For the survival suit’s cover, polyurethane will be used instead of rubber. “Polyurethane is a very reliable and durable material. Its structure is such, that even when damaged by a sharp object, the material does not tear open. Such reliability will allow us to use a double cover for modern survival suits, to make the new Orlan more mobile and comfortable,” he explained.

Use of the new cover will positively affect the survival suit’s service life. This will increase from 4-5 years to 6-7. At the same time the quantity of exits in which it will be possible to use the new Orlan will be increased. “The Orlan-M is calculated to last for 12 extravehicular activity of a duration of about 6 hours, the Orlan-MK for 15 EVAs, and the Orlan-MKS for 20 EVAs,” noted S. Pozdnyakov.

07/05/2009/00:05 – Cosmonauts of the new Russian spaceship Rus’ will not wear survival suits, being placed in tight capsules

In the new Russian piloted ship Rus’, «Русь», whose design outline is planned to be finished next year, instead of flight survival suits there may be individual tight capsules.

“There are ideas to place cosmonauts who do not take part in piloting the ship, in tight capsules instead of survival suits. The cosmonaut enters into such capsule, closes the hatch and sits in it like an egg at the dangerous stages of flight,” the general director and the main designer of the research and production enterprise Zvezda, Sergei Pozdnyakov, said.

However this is only an idea. As often in reality, this idea will become clear after requirements for the systems of protection and life-support of the new ship’s crew arrive at NPP Zvezda. “We wait for the initial data on the ship: the sizes, parametres of overloads, time of flight in case of cabin depressurization,” S. Pozdnjakov said.

The general director of the enterprise hopes that NPP Zvezda, together with Rocket & Space Corporation Energiya, will work together on designing new seats, a life-support system and waste-disposal for the ship.

07/05/2009/00:05 – A survival suit for work on the Moon’s surface can be created in a short time, says the General Director of NPP Zvezda

The Russian Orlan spacesuit, in which the Russian astronauts go into outer space, can, with little refinement, be used for walking on the moon. “We should start thinking now about creating the suit to work on the lunar surface. In principle, we can create a suit based on the Orlan – which, in turn, evolved from the Krechet spacesuit created for a Soviet lunar expedition,” said Sergei Pozdnyakov, Сергей Поздняков, the director and chief designer of the Scientific-Production Enterprise Zvezda. As he said, for a cosmonaut to work in the Orlan on the Moon, the design of the foot coverings needs to be changed.

“If such a task is assigned to us, we are ready to execute it quickly,” noted S. Pozdnyakov. According to him, for a cosmonaut to work in the Orlan on the Moon, the design of the shell toe needs to be changed.

“New dinner table top priority as ISS expands”, Space Daily, 7/5. An ISS crew of 6 means a new dinner table will need to be constructed.

Orlan for Mars on Earth

On the IMBP Mars-500 site there is a photo gallery showing a modified Orlan spacesuit to be used by the participants when they do their simulated excursion onto the Mars surface. I am curious as to what spacesuit designs Russia is planning to use for future Mars missions – the spacesuit will need to be worn in ⅓ Earth gravity, so the current Orlan won’t be suitable as it weighs 120 kg. I can’t find any information online about this, though!

“How Diverting! The Entertainment Aboard the Space Station”, Popvox blog, 5/5. A year ago, NASA Watch made a Freedom of Information request to NASA for a list of films on the ISS, and this PDF (1.8 MB) was the result, listing films and books (mostly from the USA side – the only Russian film mentioned is Хочу в Тюрму). The list has undoubtedly been added to by then. (Annoyingly, the list was scanned in as images, so I do not feel like typing them all out!)

Off topic: Rather oddly, I received an email from Blogger saying my blog had been identified as a potential spam blog! So if the blog has been inaccessible, that’s the reason! (I have already responded to the request to verify it, and the blog seems to have been approved.) Wonder what triggered that alert? There’s certainly nothing offensive on the blog (it’s G-rated!), though I do have a lot of links – but that’s necessary to comment on news articles and such.