Vladimir Solovyov on the progress of the design of the Russian Orbital Station
Roskosmos, 26/7/2022
At the end of May, at a joint meeting of the Presidium of the Scientific and Technical Council of Roscosmos and the bureau of the Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences for Space, the progress of the first stage of the preliminary design of the Russian Orbital Service Station (Российской орбитальной служебной станции, Rossiiskoi Orbital’noi Sluzhevnoi Stantsii) was discussed. Two variants of its placement were considered: in orbit with an inclination of 51.6°, where the ISS currently flies, and in high-latitude orbit with an inclination of 97°.
One of the options for the Station was explained to the Russian Space magazine by the flight director of the Russian segment of the ISS, full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, cosmonaut, twice Hero of the Soviet Union, general designer for manned systems and complexes of the Russian Federation, general designer of RSC Energia named after S. P. Korolev Vladimir Alekseevich Solovyov.
– Vladimir Alekseevich, why did you need to create a new Station?
– Since the early 1970s, the Soviet Union and then Russia have been working on a program of long-term manned orbital flights. First of all, we tried to create reliable transport complexes, systems and equipment that ensure a comfortable and safe stay of a person in orbit, highly efficient power supply systems, reliable, very accurate navigation and orientation systems, and much more. Taking into account the geographic location of the Baikonur Cosmodrome, launching into orbit with an inclination of 51.6° provided the best values in terms of payload mass in near-Earth orbit due to the “attraction” of the additional speed of the Earth’s rotation. This made it possible to most effectively solve the above problems, for which the actual value of the inclination of the orbit was not significant.
At present, the main disadvantages of continuing to use this inclination are clearly manifested: the inability to inspect most of the territory of Russia, located mainly at higher latitudes. In addition, launching to an inclination of 51.6° from the Vostochnii cosmodrome, the main one for the future manned program, will require large expenditures for the creation of a search and rescue complex.
In addition, by decision of the heads of space agencies – partners in the ISS, the life of the Station was determined by 2024, and now we need to decide what to do in the future, and already begin work on manned programs that will be implemented after this period.
It is no secret to anyone that the resource of the first ISS modules, designed for 15 years, has been exceeded by more than one and a half times. And recently there has been a tendency to increase the time spent by cosmonauts on maintenance and repair of onboard systems that have exhausted their resources. The crew has less and less time to carry out scientific experiments.
In our country, the discussion of how Russian manned cosmonautics will develop after the ISS program has been going on for a long time. The Space Council of the Russian Academy of Sciences considered this issue six years ago. Various departments participated in the discussion. The enterprises of Roskosmos expressed their proposals.
It is known that NASA, without leaving the implementation of orbital programs, decided to seriously return to the lunar manned program. All partners in the ISS, except for Russia, have joined their lunar project. For the leadership of Roskosmos, it became obvious that it makes no sense for us to participate in the American lunar project on the sidelines. It is clear to us that before sending cosmonauts to the Moon, we must decide on the need for this serious and very expensive step, to carry out a fairly large amount of research with automatic devices.
Without in any way belittling the importance of the Moon exploration programs, RSC Energia proposed to consider the project of creating the Russian Orbital Service Station (ROSS) in orbit with an inclination of about 97° to the equatorial plane, as well as to make the Science and Energy Module, Научно-энергетический модуль (НЭМ), Nauchno-Energeticheskii Modul’ (NEM) intended for the ISS Russian segment, the basis of ROSS. This proposal has been approved by the country’s top leadership.
– If this project is finally adopted, will it not turn out that we will delay the implementation of our own manned lunar program too much?
– I fully agree with Viktor Vladimirovich Khartov, General Designer for Automatic Space Systems. Once he made a wonderful report at the Royal Readings, in which he substantiated the need to first create the necessary infrastructure on the Moon with the help of machines and only then implement a manned lunar program, having previously prepared significant groundwork for the lunar base on Earth. It is irrational to simply put the Russian flag on the Moon, spending huge amounts of money on it. I believe that there is enough space at the south pole of the Moon for everyone. And the scientific Station must be deployed carefully, ensuring, above all, the safety of the astronauts.
Reliable exploration of the Moon is a costly business. In this task, I consider it very important to achieve the unification of the efforts of different countries, as was demonstrated in the ISS program.
– What are the features of the high-latitude version of ROSS?
– Two points played a decisive role in choosing the location of the future Station in a high-latitude orbit. First: the possibility of maximum visibility of its territory from its board, since the orbit with an inclination of 51.6°, on which the ISS flies, allows observing in nadir directly under the ISS flight path. – Ed. only about 10% of our territory.
The second point: the need to conduct the initial stage of biomedical research of the human body in orbit, which in some areas is less protected by the Earth’s magnetosphere from cosmic radiation. And this, in turn, is required to understand what future interplanetary expeditions will face, which also will not have such protection.
As a result, we chose a unique sun-synchronous orbit with a height of 372 km from the Earth and an inclination of 96.9° (at the first stage, 334 km and 96.8°), which provides constant favorable conditions for observing our own (and not only!) territory.
In addition, this orbit will make it possible to survey not only the entire territory of our country, but also both poles of the Earth with optical, infrared, ultraviolet and other detectors, as well as radar facilities, and every one and a half hours, which is very important. This feature of the orbit will make it possible to track and move various objects in the regions of the Earth’s poles, which gives a fundamentally new quality to research from space.
ROSS will operate in automatic mode and will be visited if necessary. As a result, the Station will be used more efficiently not only in scientific and economic interests.
– Why was it decided to make this version of ROSS not permanently inhabited, but visited? Is there any backward movement in this step?
– When creating this version of the ROSS, it is proposed to slightly change the philosophy of manned space flights, and make the Station technically more advanced and efficient in terms of obtaining the results of experiments and research. It’s no secret that for various reasons things are not going very well with our space experiments on the ISS (and the results on Mir were not very high either). And the problem is not only in financing, but also in the fact that the ISS has certain limitations. For example, it is constantly in a fixed orientation, which is not always convenient for a number of experiments on observing the Earth and space. Of course, there is also a lack of available energy resources, and this hinders the conduct of many energy-intensive experiments, for example, in the field of materials science, the development of methods for obtaining new materials in space, and others.
In addition, the constant presence of a person in orbit is a high-cost undertaking. To water, feed, clothe, provide oxygen and water to the crew is quite expensive. In addition, flights partially outside the Earth’s magnetosphere increase the radiation dose to astronauts, which somewhat reduces the allowable duration of flights.
But the scientists of the Space Research Institute (IKI) of the Russian Academy of Sciences have a whole set of instruments for research in the field of cosmic ray physics, which would be very interesting to place on the Station. But these devices, in order for them to work reliably in automatic mode, will need to be initially adjusted. And this should be done by a person, a robot cannot cope with such work.
We should not forget that man is a vulnerable creature, and space is an aggressive environment. According to preliminary calculations, it is enough for the crew to work at the Station for one or two months to perform commissioning and repair work, as well as for experiments and work in outer space without any harm to health. Therefore, it is proposed to make ROSS capable of operating in automatic mode for a long time. We propose to carry out manned flights on ROSS only when the required amount of work has been completed, which can only be performed by cosmonauts. We have yet to find a reasonable balance between the duration and frequency of flights.
The step forward is that Russia is moving from the stage of manned exploration to the stage of using low Earth orbit.
– How is it proposed to build a high-latitude ROSS?
We propose to build it in two stages. If the decision on its construction is made before the end of the year, then the first stage will begin in 2028 with the launch of the Scientific and Energy Module by the Angara-A5M launch vehicle. The NEM will need to be retrofitted with various systems, including a gyrodyne block, in order to be able to use it for several years as the main module. To it on the Angara-A5M rocket from Vostochnii, the Nodal and Gateway modules will be launched in one bundle. The node module is equipped with six docking nodes. It will be almost similar to the nodal module Prichal – Ed., which was delivered to the ISS last year. The gateway module provides the ability to exit from it for work in open space.
After docking in 2028 of the Nodal Module, it will be possible to send the first crew from Baikonur on a Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle on a Soyuz-type ship. It will be able to reopen the Station and start the first research and experiments. Upon the return of the crew to Earth, the ROSS will operate in automatic mode.
Then the Base Module, Базовый модуль, Bazovyi Modul’, of the same standard size as the NEM, with the same powerful solar panels, should arrive at the Station. A set of batteries placed on the NEM and the Base Module will make it possible to generate an electric power of up to 55 kW, which will provide a good energy potential sufficient for various, including energy-intensive, radar observations and experiments. On the Base Module, most likely, as well as on the NEM, two cabins and a toilet for astronauts will be installed. This will create comfortable conditions for a crew of four. In this case, the ROSS will reach a mass of about 55 tons and will have a hermetic volume of 217 m 3 . The first stage ends here (2030).
We assume that at the beginning of construction, crews will visit the ROSS twice a year, cargo will be delivered by cargo ships of the Progress series launched by Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicles.
– What works on the construction of the ROSS will be carried out at the second stage?
– At the second stage, which is expected to start in 2030, two more large modules will be attached to the Station: Target and Production, Целевой и Производственный, Tselevoi i Proizvodstvennyi. In addition, a partially pressurized Spacecraft Servicing Platform will be delivered to the ROSS, on which it will be possible to re-equip, refuel and re-send new automatic spacecraft into orbit. These vehicles must be maintainable, refuelable, and their orbits must be consistent with the ROSS orbit.
We worked out the possibility of refueling in space back in 1978. Europeans even bought this system from us for their ATV cargo ship, and it would be a sin not to use it for refueling satellites.
In the meantime, means should also be developed for moving spacecraft to the Station and then returning them to the required orbits – a kind of interorbital tugs. Such an opportunity should prove to be very promising. Our “colleagues” in the USA have already made such a tug. In the first test, they took a faulty satellite in geoStationary orbit into a burial orbit. In another test, also in geoStationary orbit, they docked a tug with a vehicle that had run out of orbital correction fuel and now control the satellite with the tug.
By the end of the second stage, the mass of the Station will reach about 122 tons, and the pressurized volume – 505m3, and by these indicators it will significantly exceed the Russian segment of the ISS.
It is assumed that the cosmonauts and cargo at this stage will be delivered into orbit and returned from orbit to Earth by a cargo-passenger ship based on the Oryol PTK, ПТК «Орёл», launched from Vostochnii by the Angara-A5M launch vehicle.
It is very important, from my point of view, to make sure that the construction of the ROSS does not become a long-term construction. Now everyone – both the leaders of the state, and the industry, and the people – are irritated when we create something new for a very long time. There are many reasons for this, of course. But I want this to not happen to ROSS. We must develop and make maximum use of new technologies that will allow us to build various elements of the Station on Earth in parallel and put them into orbit at a reasonable time. I believe that the time intervals of the first and second stages of ROSS assembly set out in our proposal can be significantly reduced.
– What is the purpose of the Production and Target modules?
– In the Production Module, it will be possible to conduct experiments in the field of space technology, space materials science, related to the development of methods for obtaining semiconductor crystals, films, including using molecular beam epitaxy condensation of molecular beams on a substrate in vacuum. – Ed.. Achieving significant results in this area can give a serious impetus to the development of domestic nanotechnologies, micro- and nanoelectronics. The same applies to solving urgent problems in the field of biotechnology.
This module will store components, assemble and test automatic devices. It will also allow carrying out work on the preparation, adjustment and repair of tested samples of advanced equipment.
The target module will be equipped with external universal workStations and – for connecting scientific equipment – with internal universal racks connected to a high-performance computer by a network for information exchange and storage.
You can not do without universal software. Depending on the composition of the scientific program, it will be possible to deliver equipment to this module for research in various fields of knowledge – space medicine, biotechnology, materials science, space technology, for visual and instrumental observations of the Earth, for educational experiments, and so on.
In other words, a new stage in the development of interchangeable payload technology, which has already been introduced and is being tested on the Russian segment of the ISS, will be implemented.
– Is it possible that the crews will be able to work both on the ISS and on the ROSS at the same time?
– Yes, of course it is possible. We, of course, need to continue operating the ISS until we create a more or less tangible backlog for ROSS. Although the ISS and ROSS will fly in orbits with different inclinations and it will not be possible to fly from one Station to another, we are able to ensure the efficient operation of both the Russian segment of the ISS and the ROSS. We have similar experience.
In addition, we must take into account that if we stop manned flights for several years, then it will be very difficult to restore what has been achieved. A specific example is the Energia-Buran program.
– Is it planned to use the launch complex at the Plesetsk cosmodrome to launch the Oryol spacecraft?
– We have not yet considered and did not offer such an opportunity. Now the only place to launch Oryol is the Vostochnii Cosmodrome, where the construction of the launch complex for the Angara-A5 launch vehicle is in full swing.
– At the Royal Readings last year, you said that ROSS could include a convertible module with a centrifuge. Has it been decided to abandon it?
– We are not going to give up anything useful. Yes, RSC Energia carried out joint work with NPP Zvezda on the convertible module. The Americans are already testing such a module as part of their ISS segment. We are also planning to carry out similar work.
As for the centrifuge, IBMP has such a short-radius centrifuge. It carries out interesting research and experiments on Earth. In Energia, we really had studies on installing this kind of centrifuge in a transformable module. Now we are considering the general configuration of the Station, looking for an opportunity to include this module with a centrifuge in the ROSS.
– What kind of experiments and targeted work can be carried out at the high-latitude Station?
– I mentioned this when talking about the Production and Target modules. In addition, we considered many other options. For example, it will be possible to deploy a control center for a cloud of small satellites and a maintenance system for automatic spacecraft, so to speak, on an “external sling.” Naturally, new construction materials, high-speed information interfaces, human-machine interfaces, new closed-cycle life support systems will be researched and tested so that no more than 5-7% of consumables are delivered from Earth. And, of course, robotic systems. For sure, experiments and observations will also be carried out in the interests of the security of our country.
With the help of certain equipment, it may be possible to refine the mathematical model of the Earth’s atmosphere above the poles, to study auroral phenomena from the Greek word Aurora – radiance. Geophysical phenomena occurring in the Earth’s magnetosphere and ionosphere in the aurora zone. – Ed., to work out methods of more reliable space weather predictions.
– Is ROSS considered as a “stepping stone” to a manned flight to the Moon?
– Oh sure. With political will and sufficient funding, ROSS can be used as a base for assembling a lunar or Martian complex. With the help of ROSS, it is possible to implement efficient two-launch schemes, when the crew waits at the Station for the arrival of the upper stage to perform a departure pulse to the Moon. Double-launch schemes make it possible to reduce the required carrying capacity of missiles and switch from expensive super-heavy class launch vehicles to more affordable heavy-class missiles.
For a flight to the Moon, the crew will be able to use a ship arriving at the Station from the Earth, or even a reusable ship with a permanent “reference” to the ROSS. In this case, ROSS becomes a kind of spaceport. Calculations show the feasibility of such an approach. Cargo operations to support lunar operations can be performed using rocket launches at an inclination of 51.6°, which is closer to the ecliptic and allows you to use the energy advantages of this orbit.
– You mentioned the Soyuz-2.1b rocket several times to launch Soyuz and Progress spacecraft at the first stage of the ROSS construction ….
– Yes, we discussed this issue with the General Director of the Progress RCC, Dmitrii Aleksandrovich Baranov. Of course, for flights into orbit with an inclination of 97°, it is necessary to switch to the Soyuz-2.1b carrier. True, it does not yet have a certificate for manned flights, but Soyuz-2.1a did not once have either. We tested it first when launching Progress, now we use it for launching Soyuz MS. We will probably do the same with the Soyuz-2.1b carrier.
– Will Soyuz MS be used to launch into 97° orbit, or will it require serious modification?
– At the first stage, a well-developed Soyuz spacecraft is needed, and the transition to a more powerful carrier Soyuz-2.1b will provide almost the same output mass at a new inclination as Soyuz-2.1a at an inclination of 51.6°. So a serious reduction in the mass of the Soyuz spacecraft, and, consequently, no modifications will be required. The Soyuz spacecraft will be able to fly to high-latitude ROSS in a three-seat version.
– At the second stage of the ROSS assembly, you intend to switch to the delivery of Oryol crews. And how do you plan to deliver goods? On modifications of the Progress spacecraft?
– We are not decommissioning Progress yet and will build and use them, especially at the first stage. At the same time, our specialists are calculating modifications of the Oryol in the “cargo-passenger,” “cargo-returning” and “cargo” versions.
PTK Oryol is being developed for flights to the Moon. Using the reserve on it, it is possible in a short time to create new types of a unified ship for the transport and technical support of the ROSS. This approach was implemented in the design of manned Stations, when the systems and assemblies of the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft were used in the creation of modules.
According to preliminary calculations, with a crew of four, the Eagle will be able to deliver up to 500 kg of “dry” cargo from Earth to the Station and from the Station to Earth. In the case of a crew of two, the amount of “dry” cargo increases to 750 kg, and it is also possible to deliver up to 1500 kg of fuel, up to 360 kg of water and up to 120 kg of gases. If proposals for the creation of “near-Earth” modifications of the Oryol receive support, we will be able not only to deliver cargo and fuel into orbit, but also to return a significant amount of cargo.
In conclusion, I would like to note that I spoke about the configuration of the Russian National Station developed by RSC Energia. This proposal received support from the leadership of the industry and the president of the country. The first stage of preliminary design has now been completed, after which a final decision will be made on what the high-latitude ROSS will be. During the second stage of preliminary design, the composition and purpose of the ROSS modules will be detailed. And that’s okay. I really hope that by the end of this year we will be able to convince the government that a high-latitude Station needs to be built.
If the decision is made and funding comes, then during 2022 we will develop a preliminary design, at the same time we will introduce automatic design more widely, reduce the amount of ground experimental testing through the use of digital models. After the draft design is defended, the stage of development of technical documentation will follow. And then – everything is as usual, until the launch of the first modules of the Station in 2028.
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