Russian Space Program: News & Discussion #4

https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1523464037048020992

thegopnik wrote:https://mobile.twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1523464037048020992

Hmmm... Rogozin got it right (Azov are Nazis) and Musk is playing the fool by denying it. What to expect from someone who clearly wishes to embed himself as a top-tier equipment & services supplier to the US military?...

Got to try to make your competition look bad but making a big deal that he is not supporting Nazis will just stir the publics curiosity about Ukraine.

not sure which thread this should be in
but I can't help noticing the growing expertise at Roscosmos in electric motors
re Import substitution and diversification

eg
Rogozin interview

« The potential of the [Russian] rocket and space industry is very important. We employ 170,000 people.
The diversification program allows us to fill our light rail transportation,
electric power and medical equipment businesses with additional orders.

We closely monitor the behavior of foreign manufacturers who are suddenly afraid of something, like hares running away somewhere and leaving teams that find themselves without pay or jobs.
This is a false story, so we interact with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Russian government and we think that if there are essential assets, then Roscosmos is ready to take them. »

he is referring to his UKVZ Tram business which is going very well 100 trams this year
and what looks like in-bogey drive system . to achieve flat floor layout ..... pretty neat

https://www.ukvz.ru/en/produktsiya/technology/

Development of an unmanned tram for Vostochny
https://kosmosnews.fr/2022/05/14/developpement-dun-tramway-sans-pilote-pour-vostochny/

then I noticed interview with Khrunichev boss .... he is v.interested in electric traction motors
in this case sounds like to replace Siemens in larger trains

https://kosmosnews.fr/2022/05/04/centre-spatial-khrounichev-linterview-par-tass-de-son-directeur-general-alexei-varochko/

"In addition, we are seriously considering the implementation of another area - the production of traction motors for rolling stock.
The relevance of this project is due to the high demand due to the departure of certain companies that meet the electricity transmission needs of the internal market. In my opinion, this project could well be implemented by us."

and also recently the Keldysh Centre that does all the ion drives for satellites ....

"Keldysh Center tests powerful electric motors for spacecraft"

"In addition to autonomous tests, joint research is conducted on the operation of a closed circuit for energy conversion of gas turbines and electric rocket motors, thus offering the possibility of obtaining unique experimental data on the joint operation of the main components of a powerful propulsion: from the primary heat source [e.g. a nuclear reactor - Editor's note: KN] to electric motors that create useful thrust.

The experimental base of the Keldysh Center gives Russia leadership and offers significant competitive advantages over foreign countries in the development and creation of electric rocket engines, which make it possible to implement a number of promising tasks in space, including the exploration of the Moon, manned expeditions to Mars, flights to distant planets in the solar system and their satellites."

https://kosmosnews.fr/2022/05/19/le-centre-keldysh-teste-de-puissants-moteurs-electriques-pour-engin-spatiaux/

interesting area of expertise Roscosmos is developing there ....

not to mention their rapidly growing interests in robotics
I mean Rogozin has robotised tracked patrol vehicles at Vostochny
now he wants a driverless tram there
Vostochny seems to morphing into his own private "future city" concept ... a living laboratory

Rogozin for a full-on socialist is becoming very entrepreneurial ..... the Russian "Elon Musk" ?

The tram business might look unrelated to Roscosmos. But look at the latest Soyuz and Angara pads. They have rail systems to transport the rocket from the assembly building to the launch pad. The tram company business had the required expertise and it was financially distressed so Roscosmos ended up with it. The medical equipment business also makes sense since a lot of similar equipment will be necessary in a space station for life support. Another business which Roscosmos could get into, with some ease I think, is if European companies like Air Liquide and Linde leave Russia then Roscosmos is uniquely positioned to conduct business in this sector. These are businesses which deal with production and transport of cryogenic gases and the space industry has lots of experience in these matters. A company like Roscosmos could also get involved in the Arctic LNG project and other similar LNG projects in Russia to develop substitutes for liquefaction of LNG.

planning ahead it seems ...

recent comments re Ukraine .....

On Saturday, Dmitry Rogozin spoke about Roscosmos' interest in space enterprises in Ukraine, which in the past were an inseparable part of the single space family of the Soviet Union.

At these enterprises, the State Corporation may well establish a normal life, restore production and provide jobs.
Below is a list of the main space enterprises in Ukraine.

Within Dnepropetrovsk
⠀⠀⠀Yuzhnoye Design Bureau named after M. K. Yangel
⠀⠀⠀"Southern Machine-Building Plant" named after A. M. Makarov

Within Kyiv
⠀⠀⠀Enterprise "Arsenal"
⠀⠀⠀Enterprise "Kyivpribor"
⠀⠀⠀Kyiv Radio Plant

Within Kharkov
⠀⠀⠀Scientific and Production Enterprise "Khartron-Arkos"
⠀⠀⠀Special Design Bureau "Polisvit"
⠀⠀⠀Scientific and Production Enterprise "Kommunar Association"

https://russian.rt.com/science/news/1008553-kosmos-luna-ispytaniya

Igor Mitrofanov, Head of the Department of Nuclear Planetology at the Institute for Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that the Luna-25 automatic station is undergoing final tests.
"The decision on the launch will be made after the completion of the test program," he said.

It is noted that the domestic lunar program should resume from this station.

At the end of April, Alexey Malakhov, a senior researcher at the Institute for Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences, spoke about the lunar program.

https://russian.rt.com/science/news/994101-kosmos-luna-ekspert

Researcher Malakhov spoke about the lunar program

"The lunar program consists of three launches. The first launch should take place in August of this year. The Luna-25 station will land at the South Pole. Recent discoveries, including large deposits of water ice at the poles, have increased interest in these areas, " he said in an interview with the publication. Pravda.Ru.

According to the expert, the Luna-26 (orbital) and Luna-27 (landing with a heavier spacecraft) missions are already being developed.

As Malakhov noted, the Moon is very convenient for testing technologies for finding a person in deep space outside the Earth's magnetic sphere.

"These technologies will be useful to us in the exploration of Mars, which is more suitable for life," the expert added.

Earlier, Scientific director of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences Lev Zeleny in an interview withIzvestia said that sanctions against Russia will hinder the development of the space industry, but the country will try to stop their effect.

And this is a special stand machine room in the Moscow Center of Keldysh. There is a thermal vacuum stand for testing the turbocharger in "combat" conditions of operation in orbit. "Behind the wall" is a thermal simulator of a nuclear reactor, it produces almost 2 MW of thermal energy, which is fed to a turbocharger generator and converted into electricity by it.
This is how we are working out the most complex components of the Zeus nuclear space reactor today.
On May 13, the next tests were held, no problems were identified. The temperature of the working fluid at the turbine inlet exceeded 1,200 K, the rotational speed was 34,000 revolutions per minute.
https://t.me/rogozin_do/2886

In the next steps of testing, we will reach the design 60,000 revolutions per minute (this is 1000 revolutions per second!)
, Meanwhile, materials scientists from Russia and Belarus are working on turbine blades designed for an even higher temperature of the working fluid - up to 1500 K and above. There are several candidate materials in the work: from special alloys to ceramics and composites.
This is important, since the efficiency of heat spillage in space by IR radiation is proportional to the temperature by 4 degrees. And this means that even by slightly increasing the temperature in the turbocharger, we will seriously save on the area of the spillway panels.
https://t.me/rogozin_do/2887

In our country , all citizens are well versed in three things: how to manage troops, how to treat covid and how to create space nuclear tugs. Here is an example of another powerful intellectual onslaught on Roscosmos and me personally. But I still read the beginning of this article and I want to react (still Sunday):

1. "Protons - hydrogen ions will fly out of the ion engine nozzles..." Actually, in our Zeus nuclear tug, the ID-500 engines will be powered by xenon. As for the RD-0410 ionized hydrogen engine, it was made in KBHA in the 1970s. It is not suitable for our tasks, the specific impulse for interplanetary flights is too small (910 seconds versus 7000 seconds for ID-500).

2. "No turbines, because you have to save a lot..." In fact, turbomachine conversion was chosen by our designers precisely to save the total mass of the complex - 8-10% efficiency of direct conversion (thermal emission) requires huge fields for heat discharge. For 0.5-1 MW - only a turbomachine, without options.

3. We have a layout for a 2-launch scheme for the Angara A5 launch vehicle. When we have the "Angara A5B" with the third "hydrogen" stage with a payload capacity of 37 tons, then there will be new opportunities for the payload module, but this is definitely not a deterrent factor today. And, by the way, despite yesterday's catchy headlines in the media, we have enough financial resources by 2024 to work on "Zeus", because "experts" should not be hysterical.

And then I don't even want to read. The author is stupid, I do not recommend publishing such "experts". This is about the same as Karaulov, who carries the devil knows what, for example, about the fact that after each launch from the East, our cosmodrome falls half a meter underground. During the next start, I will put Andryusha under the starting table with a folding ruler, let him measure (as Ostap Bender did) the "depth of the failure".

How tired of idiots...

https://svpressa.ru/politic/article/335391/

https://t.me/rogozin_do/2885

With the increased lifetime of Russian satellites, and the increased payload of the Soyuz 2 launcher, the amount of launches required by the Russian state to meet its own requirements are much less than they used to be. Add to that Russia basically being removed from the commercial launch market. And SpaceX finally solving the long term stagnation where the US was losing its launch market to Russia and Europe. The European launch market is even in a worse shape than the Russian one after over two decades of success.

The chances of the Japanese surpassing Russia are slim to none. And in the long term India should become a major space power. And it would not be surprising it they made more launches than Russia eventually. But they are still far from that.

Progress MS-30 launched successfully and docked with ISS.  

Not bad for a nation of mud-hut dwellers with an economy smaller than Italy but ruined by Western sanctions....  

That is the 8th successful launch for Russia this year, while the Eurotrash faggots have managed only one...     Don't know what those Russophobe morons spend their 4.8B euros on... probably diversity training and safe spaces for Polynesian lesbian amputees.  

Rogozin instructed to turn on the German telescope at the Spektr-RG observatory

MOSCOW, June 4 - RIA Novosti. Roskosmos will restore the operation of the eROSITA telescope at the Spektr-RG orbital observatory, which was turned off by German colleagues, Dmitry Rogozin, general director of the state corporation , said on the Russia-24 TV channel.

"I instructed to begin work on restoring the operation of the German telescope in the Spektr-RG system together with the Russian telescope," he said.

The head of Roskosmos stressed that this is necessary for science. According to him, those who, for political reasons, decided to stop the work of the German telescope, had no moral right to do so.

...

Shortly after the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine , German specialists put the eROSITA telescope into safe mode. According to Rogozin, this led to losses for Roskosmos, so the state corporation intends to bill Germany. In addition, we had to change the observation program for Spektra-RG.

source

As usual, Anatoly Zak twists the facts on his site to introduce his particular brand of 5th column bullshittery...

Russia considers "kidnapping" a deep-space telescope

Thankfully his BS is confined behind a paywall so the Russia-hate mind-virus is mostly contained to the already infected.

https://www.roscosmos.ru/launch/2022/
It finally happened. Now on the Roscosmos website you can find a table listing all the space launches of the USSR and Russia. All 3366 launches are there.
The number of launches in the seventies and eighties is simply unattainable.

The Russian Academy of Sciences is concerned about the plans of Roscosmos to turn on one of the two telescopes (eROSITA) disabled by Germany at the Spektr-RG space observatory
https://www.interfax.ru/russia/844905


"The Russian Academy of Sciences will discuss with Roscosmos the fate of the German eROSITA telescope, which is part of the Russian Spektr-RG observatory, scientists are concerned that the plans of the state corporation for the independent use of the telescope will harm it. The president of the Academy, Alexander Sergeev, told Interfax about this: "Our management of eROSITA is not an easy task and in some sense even risky. Because we did not create this device and we did not operate it. This technique is very serious, unique, and our scientists have concerns, will we be able to manage properly in principle? Colleagues express concern about whether we will spoil the device with this.""

I answer: no, we won't spoil it.
The telescope was turned off not by the Germans, but by Russian specialists at the request of Germany. The Spektr-RG space observatory was assembled at a Russian enterprise by Russian engineers. It was launched into space by Russian rocket scientists and launch vehicles.
Russian astronomers need a working observatory, not a de-energized piece of iron and glass dangling one and a half million kilometers from Earth. The significance of the results of the work of Spektr-RG is enormous, it is this observatory that tracks phenomena in deep space that can affect, including destructively, life on our Planet. Therefore, it's enough for us to dance to the tune of Western hysterical "partners" and our collaborators. It's enough for us that the European Space Agency ruined the joint Mars research mission "ExoMars", which was fully ready for launch in September this year. Now they want to ruin Spectrum-RG as well.
Our scientific community and our space industry should act coherently and exclusively in the interests of national science and be guided solely by our national interests. The observatory should serve higher science, and not the whims of petty European politicians, whose name no one knows and does not want to know.
Roscosmos specialists are world-class professionals. They will be able to solve the task assigned to them without damaging the control circuit of the German telescope. The time will come when the Germans will thank us themselves. Even if our own critics remain silent at the same time.
I hope that the friends of Roscosmos at the Russian Academy of Sciences and the President of the Academy, Alexander Mikhailovich Sergeev, will treat my arguments with respect and understanding.
https://t.me/rogozin_do/2986

Scorpius wrote:The Russian Academy of Sciences is concerned about the plans of Roscosmos to turn on one of the two telescopes (eROSITA) disabled by Germany at the Spektr-RG space observatory
https://www.interfax.ru/russia/844905

Turn it on. If the spineless Eurotrash complain, tell them to advance and self-procreate

Scorpius wrote:https://www.roscosmos.ru/launch/2022/
It finally happened. Now on the Roscosmos website you can find a table listing all the space launches of the USSR and Russia. All 3366 launches are there.
The number of launches in the seventies and eighties is simply unattainable.

How to access this page outside of Russia?

owais.usmani wrote:

Scorpius wrote:https://www.roscosmos.ru/launch/2022/
It finally happened. Now on the Roscosmos website you can find a table listing all the space launches of the USSR and Russia. All 3366 launches are there.
The number of launches in the seventies and eighties is simply unattainable.

How to access this page outside of Russia?

You can use a web proxy. For example -

The spacecraft "Glonass-K" was delivered to the Plesetsk cosmodrome for preparation for launch

MOSCOW, June 10. /TASS/. The Glonass-K satellite, intended for the development of the GLONASS orbital constellation, was delivered to the Plesetsk cosmodrome, the Siberian Sputnik newspaper of the Reshetnev ISS enterprise reported on Friday .

"At the enterprise, the Glonass-K spacecraft underwent a full cycle of ground tests, which confirmed the operability of its systems and build quality, readiness for service in the interests of consumers. Currently, its preparation for launch has begun at the Plesetsk cosmodrome," the report says.

At the moment, seven more Glonass-K satellites and two Glonass-K2 satellites are at different stages of production at the Reshetnev ISS satellite-building enterprise.

Now the GLONASS constellation includes 25 satellites, of which 22 are used for their intended purpose, three are temporarily withdrawn for maintenance. To cover the entire globe, 24 working vehicles are required.

source

9 birds currently in manufacture? This is excellent news. It is prima facie evidence that Russia has been successful in replacing the important items of Western electronics that had previously held back their efforts at superceding the Glonass-M generation birds.

Rogozin: Axiom Space with a delay paid Roskosmos for an astronaut's flight to the ISS in rubles

Phase 5, acceptance

MOSCOW, June 11 - RIA Novosti. The American company paid Roskosmos in rubles for the flight of astronaut Mark Vande Hay to the International Space Station, said the general director of the state corporation Dmitry Rogozin on the air of the Rossiya 24 TV channel.
According to him, Roskosmos received full funding, but not from NASA , but from Axiom, which acted as an intermediary.

They promised to pay us by the end of May, I will say this, they were exactly a month late, that is, there was a delay,” Rogozin said, adding that all the funds were returned in rubles.

According to him, when organizing the Vande Hay flight, NASA understood that they were under pressure from the US Congress, so they chose the private company Axiom Space as an intermediary and ordered the flight from them. Axiom bought a seat on a Russian ship.
In April, the head of Roskosmos said that the payment for the flight was delayed, and the American partners referred to logistical problems, but expressed confidence that the Russian side would receive the full amount - two billion rubles.

https://ria.ru/20220611/kosmos-1794743916.html

Phase 5, acceptance paying in Rubles

GarryB wrote:And the current plan is for Phase 5 to last while the ISS lasts and then Phase 6, ISS is deorbited and a Russian replacement station is built, hopefully from scratch.

Me thinks Russians can keep selling flight tickets as long as there is demand in rubles

GarryB wrote:But once the Russian space station is in orbit there will be a lot of things they wont want the US to see...  Trump posters, and Hillary Clinton dart boards.

I have just realised... how different would a game of darts be in space with no gravity and the dart travelling in a straight line to the target...

Maybe a velcro tipped dart at some fluffy dart boards rather than metal pointed darts...

on ISS metal pointed ones. They know how to fix holes already