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What's really behind the latest revival of Russia's smaller, cheaper space station concept
Previous chapter: OPSEK project
Above: The assembly of the post-ISS Russian station could start with the docking of the Soyuz spacecraft (left) at the MLM module (right).
Above: A specialized Node Module, UM, with six docking ports would be added to the front of the MLM module (right), in the next step of assembly.
Please help to keep this site open and current! The pace of our development depends primarily on the level of support from our readers.
On December 15, 2014, answering questions from journalists at the end of an annual press-conference, the head of Roskosmos, Oleg Ostapenko said that the agency had been considering options for the development of the High-Latitude Orbital Station, also known by its Russian abbreviation as VShOS. According to Ostapenko, the new space station would enable to monitor more than 90 percent of the nation's territory (thanks to the higher inclination of its orbit toward the Equator than that of the ISS). In the future, the station would also serve as a foundation for the Russian lunar exploration program, Ostapenko said. The orbital outpost could function as a permanently inhabited facility or as a fully automated spacecraft with periodic visits by the crew, according to Ostapenko.
Peculiarly, the Earth-orbiting station concept seemingly contradicted a recently proclaimed Russian strategy to explore the Moon. During his introduction to the event, Ostapenko himself called the Moon the first priority for the manned space program. Obviously, building such a station would divert resources and time from any lunar expedition, observers said.
As often happens in human space flight, the projects are driven forward by reasons other than those officially announced. Industry sources familiar with the situation explained that the decade-old concept to follow the ISS with a small Russian station had received a new impetus in the past few months due to a combination of technical, political and financial problems.
At the heart of the latest plan is the botched construction of the Multi-purpose Laboratory Module, MLM, the Russia's next big piece of theInternational Space Station, ISS. After many years of delays, the price tag for the MLM project ballooned to one billion rubles, however the all-but-completed module had to be grounded until at least 2017 due to severe quality control problems during its manufacturing at GKNPTs Khrunichev in Moscow. Repairs of the module were estimated at another billion rubles and GKNPTs Khrunichev was expected to cover this cost from its own reserves. However, the nearly bankrupt company came back with an announcement that it already owed around a billion Euro and would not be able to pay for the future work. Even if repaired and successfully launched, the MLM module, which would have taken more than two decades to build, could arrive at the ISS on the eve of its retirement.
As an alternative, Russian space officials came up with a new scheme to build a whole new station around the MLM, instead of launching it to the ISS. The project with an estimated price tag from four to five billion rubles would cover a five-year delay in the construction of the ISS. The new Russian station would also utilize all future modules of the Russian segment, which were expected to follow MLM to the ISS, such as the Node Module, UM; the Science and Power Module, NEM; an Inflatable Habitat, and the OKA-T laboratory.
Thanks to its orbit, overflying most of the Russian territory the station could focus on remote-sensing tasks, such as testing of the Earth-watching space sensors. As the Russian national asset, it would be free of restrictions for military experiments imposed on the activities of the ISS.
Politics of high-inclination orbit
The new space station would also conveniently fulfil the political goal of providing a purpose for the costly expenditure on the Soyuz launch pad inVostochny. After a marathon construction of the behemoth facility in the remote region of the Russian Far East with the arbitrary goal of launching a space mission in 2015, the lack of purpose for the project finally dawned on Kremlin officials.
In the absence of a new-generation spacecraft, Roskosmos apparently started looking at the possibility of launching old Soyuz spacecraft on itsnamesake rocket from Vostochny. However, in order to reach the ISS, the spacecraft would have to climb into orbit over a vast stretch of the Pacific Ocean, requiring a whole fleet of rescue vessels stationed along its ground track in case of emergency. In contrast, the north-bound launches to a prospective high-latitude space station would be heading over the mostly open tundra of the Russian Far East. (see map —>)
Money talk
The last and possibly most important factor prompting the Kremlin to urgently review the concept of an all-Russian space station is the latest ruble collapse. It is already clear that the current economic downturn could postpone if not outright kill all the lunar dreams in Russia. The money foes will likely bind Russian cosmonauts to the low Earth orbit for as long as two decades.
When?
The launch of the MLM module is currently set for 2017, however it envisions its docking at the ISS. Should the Kremlin decide to build a whole new station around it, the ill-fated spacecraft would have to be grounded again. First off all, it would have to be modified to function as the core of the future station, instead of just an addition to an existing Russian segment, which is already in place to provide the new arrival with flight control, power, life support and communications.
The current deadline established by the Kremlin for the first manned launch from Vostochny is 2018 and recent Russian documents revealed a plan to launch an unmanned OKA-T laboratory on a Soyuz rocket at that time. It is conceivable that OKA-T could be re-purposed as an early component of the high-latitude space station and even provide a temporary shelter in the low Earth orbit for visiting Soyuz crews. However, even under the most optimistic and simplified scenarios, few believe that the new scheme could lift off before 2020s.
Plesetsk. These studies were put at the foundation of the work on the VShOS facility in 2014.
One of major problem engineers would face in preparing manned missions to the high-inclination orbit would be finding appropriate landing zones for descent modules of Soyuz spacecraft. It was deemed impossible to find a large enough landing zone on the Russian territory, which could provide not just open and flat area for the nominal touchdown, but also for an emergency descent in the so-called ballistic mode (without use of aerodynamic control during the reentry), which could put the crew capsule as far as 600 kilometers away from the primary landing site. Only endless steppes of Kazakhstan provide such a flexibility, however the high-latitude trajectory of the future station imposes additional restrictions on the landing trajectory. In case of an emergency onboard the outpost at a wrong time, the crew and its mission control could face a dilemma either waiting for the right landing window, or making an orbit-correction maneuver, which would put the Soyuz on a right descent path to the landing zone. In any case, the new 64.85-degree orbit would increase a risk for the crew, when compared to the return from the current ISS orbit with an inclination 51.6 degrees toward the Equator. Obviously, the political issue of Russian dependency on Kazakhstan would also remain. Only the introduction of the new-generation spacecraft, whose descent module would have higher maneuvering capabilities during landing could radically improve the situation.
APPENDIX
Potential components of the Russian High-Latitude Space Station:
No
Module
Function
Launch vehicle
1
Multi-purpose laboratory module, MLM
Attitude control (?), laboratory
Proton
2
Node Module, UM
Docking ports
Soyuz-2
3
OKA-T-2
Man-tended laboratory
Soyuz-2
4
Transformable Module, TM
Inflatable habitat
Soyuz-2
5
Science and Power Module, EM
Power supply, laboratory
Proton or Angara-5
6
Module-Wharf, MS (Modul Stapel)
Assembly platform
Soyuz-2
Read (and see) much more about the history of the Russian space program in a richly illustrated, large-format glossy edition:
Written and illustrated by Anatoly Zak; Last update: January 6, 2015
Editor: Alain Chabot; Last edit: December 16, 2014
All rights reserved
Previous chapter: OPSEK project
Above: The assembly of the post-ISS Russian station could start with the docking of the Soyuz spacecraft (left) at the MLM module (right).
Above: A specialized Node Module, UM, with six docking ports would be added to the front of the MLM module (right), in the next step of assembly.
Please help to keep this site open and current! The pace of our development depends primarily on the level of support from our readers.
On December 15, 2014, answering questions from journalists at the end of an annual press-conference, the head of Roskosmos, Oleg Ostapenko said that the agency had been considering options for the development of the High-Latitude Orbital Station, also known by its Russian abbreviation as VShOS. According to Ostapenko, the new space station would enable to monitor more than 90 percent of the nation's territory (thanks to the higher inclination of its orbit toward the Equator than that of the ISS). In the future, the station would also serve as a foundation for the Russian lunar exploration program, Ostapenko said. The orbital outpost could function as a permanently inhabited facility or as a fully automated spacecraft with periodic visits by the crew, according to Ostapenko.
Peculiarly, the Earth-orbiting station concept seemingly contradicted a recently proclaimed Russian strategy to explore the Moon. During his introduction to the event, Ostapenko himself called the Moon the first priority for the manned space program. Obviously, building such a station would divert resources and time from any lunar expedition, observers said.
As often happens in human space flight, the projects are driven forward by reasons other than those officially announced. Industry sources familiar with the situation explained that the decade-old concept to follow the ISS with a small Russian station had received a new impetus in the past few months due to a combination of technical, political and financial problems.
At the heart of the latest plan is the botched construction of the Multi-purpose Laboratory Module, MLM, the Russia's next big piece of theInternational Space Station, ISS. After many years of delays, the price tag for the MLM project ballooned to one billion rubles, however the all-but-completed module had to be grounded until at least 2017 due to severe quality control problems during its manufacturing at GKNPTs Khrunichev in Moscow. Repairs of the module were estimated at another billion rubles and GKNPTs Khrunichev was expected to cover this cost from its own reserves. However, the nearly bankrupt company came back with an announcement that it already owed around a billion Euro and would not be able to pay for the future work. Even if repaired and successfully launched, the MLM module, which would have taken more than two decades to build, could arrive at the ISS on the eve of its retirement.
As an alternative, Russian space officials came up with a new scheme to build a whole new station around the MLM, instead of launching it to the ISS. The project with an estimated price tag from four to five billion rubles would cover a five-year delay in the construction of the ISS. The new Russian station would also utilize all future modules of the Russian segment, which were expected to follow MLM to the ISS, such as the Node Module, UM; the Science and Power Module, NEM; an Inflatable Habitat, and the OKA-T laboratory.
Thanks to its orbit, overflying most of the Russian territory the station could focus on remote-sensing tasks, such as testing of the Earth-watching space sensors. As the Russian national asset, it would be free of restrictions for military experiments imposed on the activities of the ISS.
Politics of high-inclination orbit
The new space station would also conveniently fulfil the political goal of providing a purpose for the costly expenditure on the Soyuz launch pad inVostochny. After a marathon construction of the behemoth facility in the remote region of the Russian Far East with the arbitrary goal of launching a space mission in 2015, the lack of purpose for the project finally dawned on Kremlin officials.
In the absence of a new-generation spacecraft, Roskosmos apparently started looking at the possibility of launching old Soyuz spacecraft on itsnamesake rocket from Vostochny. However, in order to reach the ISS, the spacecraft would have to climb into orbit over a vast stretch of the Pacific Ocean, requiring a whole fleet of rescue vessels stationed along its ground track in case of emergency. In contrast, the north-bound launches to a prospective high-latitude space station would be heading over the mostly open tundra of the Russian Far East. (see map —>)
Money talk
The last and possibly most important factor prompting the Kremlin to urgently review the concept of an all-Russian space station is the latest ruble collapse. It is already clear that the current economic downturn could postpone if not outright kill all the lunar dreams in Russia. The money foes will likely bind Russian cosmonauts to the low Earth orbit for as long as two decades.
When?
The launch of the MLM module is currently set for 2017, however it envisions its docking at the ISS. Should the Kremlin decide to build a whole new station around it, the ill-fated spacecraft would have to be grounded again. First off all, it would have to be modified to function as the core of the future station, instead of just an addition to an existing Russian segment, which is already in place to provide the new arrival with flight control, power, life support and communications.
The current deadline established by the Kremlin for the first manned launch from Vostochny is 2018 and recent Russian documents revealed a plan to launch an unmanned OKA-T laboratory on a Soyuz rocket at that time. It is conceivable that OKA-T could be re-purposed as an early component of the high-latitude space station and even provide a temporary shelter in the low Earth orbit for visiting Soyuz crews. However, even under the most optimistic and simplified scenarios, few believe that the new scheme could lift off before 2020s.
Plesetsk. These studies were put at the foundation of the work on the VShOS facility in 2014.
One of major problem engineers would face in preparing manned missions to the high-inclination orbit would be finding appropriate landing zones for descent modules of Soyuz spacecraft. It was deemed impossible to find a large enough landing zone on the Russian territory, which could provide not just open and flat area for the nominal touchdown, but also for an emergency descent in the so-called ballistic mode (without use of aerodynamic control during the reentry), which could put the crew capsule as far as 600 kilometers away from the primary landing site. Only endless steppes of Kazakhstan provide such a flexibility, however the high-latitude trajectory of the future station imposes additional restrictions on the landing trajectory. In case of an emergency onboard the outpost at a wrong time, the crew and its mission control could face a dilemma either waiting for the right landing window, or making an orbit-correction maneuver, which would put the Soyuz on a right descent path to the landing zone. In any case, the new 64.85-degree orbit would increase a risk for the crew, when compared to the return from the current ISS orbit with an inclination 51.6 degrees toward the Equator. Obviously, the political issue of Russian dependency on Kazakhstan would also remain. Only the introduction of the new-generation spacecraft, whose descent module would have higher maneuvering capabilities during landing could radically improve the situation.
APPENDIX
Potential components of the Russian High-Latitude Space Station:
No
Module
Function
Launch vehicle
1
Multi-purpose laboratory module, MLM
Attitude control (?), laboratory
Proton
2
Node Module, UM
Docking ports
Soyuz-2
3
OKA-T-2
Man-tended laboratory
Soyuz-2
4
Transformable Module, TM
Inflatable habitat
Soyuz-2
5
Science and Power Module, EM
Power supply, laboratory
Proton or Angara-5
6
Module-Wharf, MS (Modul Stapel)
Assembly platform
Soyuz-2
Read (and see) much more about the history of the Russian space program in a richly illustrated, large-format glossy edition:
Written and illustrated by Anatoly Zak; Last update: January 6, 2015
Editor: Alain Chabot; Last edit: December 16, 2014
All rights reserved
