How Russia and the West are curtailing cooperation in space
24 February USA And adaptation imposed sanctions against the Russian space industry in connection with the start of a “special operation” * in Ukraine. Behind this sequence of alternating actions with closed sides, which threaten to completely break international cooperation in space and reformat the entire Russian cosmonautics.
Leaving Guiana
In response to a US request and an application, the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin launch consumption announced a Soyuz rocket from the Guiana Space Center, also known as the Kourou spaceport. All Russian experts have responded to their homeland.
The Soyuz project at the Guiana Space Center has a long history. The decision to appear was taken back in 2003. Two years later, the construction of the launch complex began, and the first launch of the Soyuz from a closed site was completed in 2011. Since then, launches have been carried out annually. In 2021 from the Guiana Space Center started a total of seven missiles, including one Soyuz. In recent years, Russian rockets have been transferred from the seventh to the last part of the loading of the cosmodrome.
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Blinded Telescope
Another step in the space confrontation was the shutdown of the German eROSITA telescope on the Spektr-RG onboard orbital sensory observatory. Spektr-RG is a joint project of Russia and Germany. The Russian part belongs to the most launched satellite facility in 2019, located at NPO Lavochkin, and the ART-XC telescope, created by the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Federal Nuclear Center VNIIEF. The second sensor, eROSITA, is the brainchild of the German Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.
The task of the observatory is a detailed map of the sky, putting on the creation of ultra-sensitive sources of X-rays, whether they are open clusters of galaxies or nearby stars with active coronas. Russian and German calculators work independently of each other. They scan the sky for different, albeit overlapping, sunbeams.
On February 27, the German Air and Space Center (DLR) notified the Russian side about the plans for eROSITA, and a few days later the instrument was put into safe mode. Observations on it were not common.
The core research team of the eROSITA telescope meet German astronomers. Therefore, Germany’s stubborn political step struck first of all at her own science. But due to erroneous subscriptions, scientific articles did not go to press, the discoveries made are the property of mankind. If observations are not resumed, the entire world astronomical community suffers.
NPO named after Lavochkin receive power supply and temperature control instrument, so that it is in working order and can resume monitoring at any moment.
In response to the shutdown of eROSITA Dmitry Rogozin declaredthat Russia is interrupting cooperation with Germany in the space sector, including joint experiments on the ISS. On the same day, the DLR website appeared response offer on the consumption of bilateral cooperation with Russia.
Engines without movement
Stopped by Russia and delivery of RD-180 and RD-181 rocket engines to the USA. RD-180 deliveries in the mid-1990s During this time, the United States received 122 engines. True purchase of this product spread back in 2021. The fact is that United Launch Alliance (ULA) has discontinued the production of the Atlas V rocket, which flew on Russian engines. This decision had both private and purely public reasons. Firstly, the law adopted in the United States in 2014, in connection with the annexation of Crimea to Russia, obliged the military department to postpone the use of direct-propelled missiles by 2022. Thus, the major manufacturer Atlas V was deprived of an important source of orders. Secondly, disposable Atlases competed with reusable Falcons. ULA has lowered the Atlas V launch price from $187 million to $100 million, but has never come close to the $62 million SpaceX is demanding for a Falcon 9 launch. The Atlas maker is now linked to a new Vulcan rocket with alleged engines.
The RD-181 engine, unlike the RD-180, has a buyer. This is the Orbital Sciences Corporation, which manufactures Antares rockets and Cygnus cargo ships that Antares send to the ISS. First launch of this rocket with national engines happened in 2016. More recently, the manufacturer of “Antares” and “Signus” consequences release of the Antares 300 series, where RD-181s were also received. It is difficult to say what will happen now with countless plans.
However, during the operation of the ISS, this situation is not dangerous. “Signus” went to the station once or twice a year. If their flights stop, additionally take on the Russian Progress or SpaceX’s Dragon truck.
ISS without Russia?
February 24, the head of Roscosmos remembered in his twitter account that the orbit of the ISS civil defense “Progress”. In the case of further cooperation between Roscosmos and the NASA station, a departure to the ground or collision with space debris may occur, the head of Roscosmos said.
it follows that no statements of alleged intentions have been received from NASA. Agency Representative told CNNthat joint work with Roskosmos continues. Nevertheless, Rogozin is forcing NASA to develop emergency scenarios. Katherine Leaders, who launches the agency’s manned spaceflight program, informedthat options are being considered for choosing the ISS in orbit using Cygnus and Dragon trucks.
abandoned network
On March 5, the Soyuz-2.1b rocket was scheduled to launch with 36 OneWeb satellites. This network uses satellite connections for high speed Internet access. At the moment 428 devices launched, or two-thirds of the organized group. All launches of armed groups of missiles of the Soyuz family.
March 2 Rogozin Goal legal guarantees Roskosmos also came out so that the British government left the shareholders of OneWeb.
British Minister for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Quasi Kwarteng answeredthat the government will not sell its stake in OneWeb. At the same time, the board of the company voted for the suspension of launches from Baikonur. In response to Roscosmos canceled launch.
Rogozin later said that without cooperation with Roskosmos, OneWeb go broke. Nevertheless, the Russian state corporation is not a monopolist in the global space launch market. Even if OneWeb does go bankrupt, other satellite network operators will take its place and find less demanding partners.
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Interplanetary sanctions
Collaboration is curtailing in the field of research of the solar system. Rogozin already announced, which is impossible under the conditions of US participation in the Venera-D project. According to the head of Roskosmos, Russia is carrying out this mission independently or as part of China. Roskosmos has already begun to deal with Beijing on the coordination and mutual technical support of all missions in Japan space.
The launch of Venera-D is expected in 2029. Mission Fundamentals – an apparatus for studying the planet from orbit and a lander. Since 2009, the project has been developed as a purely Russian one. In 2013, NASA specialists joined the work. They assembled several lungs to work on the surface of the planet, as well as a balloon to study its atmosphere. scattering that the temperature on the surface of Venus drops to +470 ° C, and the usual electronic ability to work in such conditions for only two to three hours. NASA expects to use especially heat-resistant electronics in its modules, which will cover four months. Now from these plans benefits.
Under individually and Russia’s participation in the joint ExoMars 2022 mission with the European space agency. The Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences has created for itself a stationary landing probe “Kazachok”. After landing on Mars, he was supposed to release the European rover Rosalind Franklin “into free swimming” and begin his own exploration of Mars. Russian engineers have developed 10 of the 12 Kazachka scientific instruments and two of the rover’s nine scientific instruments. The launch was supposed to take place this year from the Baikonur Cosmodrome using a Proton-M rocket. However, the European Space Agency already announcedthat the launch of the device in 2022 is “very unlikely.”
Space for Earth
Be that as it may, in the modern reality, interplanetary missions were sent for an indefinite period and at the Russian initiative. According to Rogozin, the space program will be reoriented for the creation of dual-purpose satellites. It is also planned to create own network of weather satellites in case he disconnects from foreign systems.
Another point of the program is the national orbital station ROSS. According to Roscosmos statementin the current conditions, the question of her appointment becomes even more relevant.
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Note that Russian specialists are working on the creation of orbital observatories “Spektr-UV” (ultraviolet telescope) and “Spektr-M” (radio telescope of a millimeter instrument). What will happen to the six projects, so far we can only guess.
Gift to competitors
If Russia ceases to regulate other territories in the exploration of this space, it will suffer mainly from Russia itself. By academic score Russian Academy of Cosmonautics named after Tsiolkovsky Sergey Baskov, the annual volume of the “space” market in 2020 is about 319 billion euros, and Russia accounts for no more than 1.5%. The main activity of Russian participants in this market is the manufacture and launch of launch vehicles. But this is not the most profitable business compared to, say, the construction and operation of satellite communications. In addition, Roscosmos also has serious competitors here, for example, in the person of SpaceX. If the Russian space business also turns into a toolkit of battles, it may simply come to naught. The sector includes scientific and defense segments contained in taxpayers’ accounts. And against the backdrop of economic factors, there is a great risk that space science sacrifices in favor of protection. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.
The opinion of the author may not coincide with the opinion of the editors
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