Russian Space Program: News & Discussion #3

Big_Gazza wrote:

kvs wrote: It looks like the Soyuz-MS will be replaced by a species of the Hermes (not Buran)

I think the Kliper concept is more appropriate.  It was premature to consider back in the 00s, but I expect the concept will be adopted in the late 2020s and by then the issue of funds won't be the issue it was.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/08/russias-space-leader-blusters-about-mars-in-the-face-of-stiff-budget-cuts/

Roscosmos has a relatively meager budget to carry out its civil space activities. Its funding for civil programs in 2020 is 176 billion rubles, equivalent to $2.4 billion; that is about one-tenth the level of NASA's funding.

kvs wrote:But really the ignorance is a convenient tool to spread propaganda.  

miketheterrible wrote:Budgets are kinda strange thing in Russia. Roscosmos gets what most see a meager budget but other budgets are used for different purposes.  Vostochney isn't being built under Roscosmos budget.  Budget for the new space center is under Roscosmos budget.  New rockets used for military are used under military budget (which Roscosmos gets) for said missiles (Sarmat development is done via Roscosmos corporation).  Military satellites are the same.

So Roscosmos budget is more to do with internal development.  The rest they get excess from government contracts or things fall under different budgets.

When the sanctions broke out in 2014, the US vetoed the supply of the electronic component base. On average, Glonass had 50 percent of its imported electronic component base (85% of which was American). An import substitution program was adopted, including, among other things, the unification of elements, which made it possible to reduce the number of types by several times. At present, R&D works have been opened to create a domestic-made electronic components.

Further, the standard way - they bought a safety stock for nine satellites in advance from available imports, and ordered work for the unavailable one in the Ministry of Industry and Trade. We are moving towards the fact that the share of imported electronic components from 50%, which was in 2014, will fall to 12% by 2025 (this is all available or already purchased), and from 2026 the Glonass-K2 satellites will fly with 100% Russian element base

Big_Gazza wrote:Interview with Nikolay Testoedov, General Director of Reshetnev

https://tass.ru/interviews/9341145

This caught my eye, dealing with the progress of import substitution of Western space-rated electronics, in this case, specific to navsats.

When the sanctions broke out in 2014, the US vetoed the supply of the electronic component base. On average, Glonass had 50 percent of its imported electronic component base (85% of which was American). An import substitution program was adopted, including, among other things, the unification of elements, which made it possible to reduce the number of types by several times. At present, R&D works have been opened to create a domestic-made electronic components.

Further, the standard way - they bought a safety stock for nine satellites in advance from available imports, and ordered work for the unavailable one in the Ministry of Industry and Trade. We are moving towards the fact that the share of imported electronic components from 50%, which was in 2014, will fall to 12% by 2025 (this is all available or already purchased), and from 2026 the Glonass-K2 satellites will fly with 100% Russian element base

That's great news!!  More please, and stick it right up 'em

Big Gazza wrote:
Just friggin WOW!!! Pics apparently of the Russian TEM prototype, nuclear electric propulsion system for deep space exploration.

kvs wrote:The droplet cooling concept requires hauling extra mass that is dumped into space.   So it is a negative payload account from the onset.   I am not dismissing it, but in principle
if a mass conserving cooling system is viable for a 1 MW electrical powerplant, then it is the optimal solution.   Perhaps for larger systems the droplet cooling approach will
be necessary, but larger systems can carry more cargo.