Space anti-record: what projects will Russia and Europe lose due to a break in relations
Based on the gap between US dollars in Europe and Europe, not only scientific, but also telecommunications projects, the cost of which was measured in hundreds of millions, will suffer, examples are given below.
Icarus
The Icarus project is one of the first scientific programs owned only by Russian scientists. With the help of a set of satellite sensors, equipped with some birds after capture, they transmit location data to the ISS.
The space station has three antennas, and the astronauts monitor the status of the equipment and maintain constant communication with researchers on Earth. Access to this private accounting system can be used in various regions of the world.
ExoMars 2022
The joint astrobiological mission of ESA and Roscosmos on the Red Planet was one of the first victims of fraud around scientific projects. On March 17, ESA announced that the joint mission was suspended. The refusal will result in the fact that the approximate flight outside the terrestrial environment for Europeans may be greater. The problem is that the production of Martian rovers is more or less established even in countries, the space outreach program has not even reached “coming of age” yet. The production of launch vehicles is an order of magnitude more complicated.
Prototype rover of the ExoMars program (2015) Source: Wikimedia, Author: Cmglee – download paper, CC BY-SA 3.0
The Russian-European rover was supposed to fly to Mars either on the Proton or on the Angara. The launch of Angara with a mock payload will be offered at the end of December 2021, and now ESA is faced with a choice: either normalize relations with Roscosmos, or transfer to more expensive Ariane-5, Atlas-5 or Falcon rockets -nine.
One Web
One of the hottest topics of cooperation in space was the break in relations between the British satellite company OneWeb and the Russian space agency. Part of the communication satellites expected to be deployed remained at Baikonur – the room with them was sealed, and all specialists from the British side left for the cosmodrome for an indefinite period. Head of the press service of Roscosmos Dmitry Strugovets reportedthat six Soyuz launch vehicles will be withdrawn from the launch program by Roscosmos.
OneWeb satellite model Source: Wikimedia Author: NASA/Kim Shiflett
It is curious that after the break in relations with the Russian Federation, OneWeb will use the launch services of its direct competitor, Elon Musk’s SpaceX. There are currently 428 OneWeb satellites in orbit, and the constellation’s readiness for full deployment and operation is estimated at 66%. SpaceX is aiming to complete the deployment phase by the end of 2023, and the first launch of the OneWeb satellite could take place as early as the expected year. The value of the launch services contract has not been disclosed. At the same time, the head of Glavkosmos, Dmitry Loskutov, said that OneWeb did not report on plans from Russian Soyuz missiles.
Another platform where cooperation between Russia and foreign companies has reached a fundamentally new, even strategic level. The Guiana Space Center is located 500 kilometers from the equator, which makes it a prime location for launching a rocket: due to the speed of the Earth’s rotation, the rocket needs less fuel to extract the payload. As a result, the launch itself can either be much cheaper, or the payload can be launched at one time by an order of magnitude more than when starting from Baikonur or Cape Canaveral.
Ariane 5ECA at the ELA-3 launch pad Source: Wikimedia Posted by elisabetta_monaco from Munich, Germany – Ariane9, CC BY 2.0
The share of launches of Soyuz-ST rockets from the Kourou cosmodrome is less than that of A-5 rockets, however, the complete refusal to cooperate with the site and the conservation of the cosmodrome segment, which has already been voiced by the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin, may seem to seriously increase the cost of launches.
Who else?
It is already known that launches from Kourou are expected to be abandoned by the start of the deployment of the Galileo navigation system (the European analogue of GPS), the Euclid telescope, designed to search for dark matter, the EarthCARE global warming apparatus and other spacecraft will not fly anywhere.
Another important step towards breaking the connection in the space sphere was the shutdown of the eROSITA sensor by Germany. It occurs at the Spektr-RG orbital observatory, built and put into orbit with the help of Russian technology. The space enterprise of the Russian Federation assembles itself, the satellite as well as the ART-XC sensor, specialized and built by the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Russian Federal Center for Nuclear Research VNIIEF.
Telescopes of the orbital astrophysical observatory Spektr-RG: eROSITA – large mirrors at the bottom left; ART-XC – smaller mirrors on top Source: Wikimedia Author: German Aerospace Center DLR, CC BY 2.0
In addition, Russia refused to supply Orbital ATK RD-181 rocket engine computers. They were sold for installation on an Antares missile, which was mounted on the MKS Cygnus lethal cargo ship. By forecasts the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin, due to Russia’s refusal of the US proposal to lose up to $ 4 billion.
The fate of the ISS is also unknown: the universally recognized obviousness of the station, its orientation, the correction of the orbit of a unique structure in Earth’s orbit. However, some of the cost of maintaining the facilities is still imported into the United States.
Voyager on the lows
With almost absolute certainty, it can be argued that the expectation and interplanetary expedition “Venera-D” are held in Russia and the United States. And although the launch of the expected station was scheduled for 2029, the prospects for this mission, given the consideration and pressure from the United States, are becoming increasingly illusory.
The only chance to conduct a successful expedition to one of the most little-studied planets is to send China to work. For 13 years, the project was developed as an exclusively Russian one, but in 2013, engineers from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other spacecraft specialists joined the work. Now their involvement in actual disavowals, the emergence of planetary exit schemes, will almost certainly have to change.
When does the US withdraw the verdict?
Researchers in the field of space cooperation observe that it is possible to declare a policy-free zone. However, in 2019 representatives of Russia ceremoniesthat this formula does not work. At the same time, purely private projects are stalling even with sufficient funding. For example, the American landing on the moon as part of the Artemis mission has already “moved” to the right – at least by 2030-2035.
The rejection of international cooperation is destructive for all countries, and to the greatest extent this is due to the need to reduce the burden.
This is also interesting: