Editor’s Note: It was my good fortune to come across a recently published book, Russia in Space by Anatoly Zak, and then have the publisher agree to let me excerpt part of it. This book is amazingly informative, beautifully illustrated and contains fascinating facts about Russia’s space history, the technology, and plans for the future.
Read Part I and Part II of this series.
The ISS gets a new lease of life to 2020
On February 1, 2010, the Obama administration published a proposed federal budget curtailing funding for the Constellation program begun by the previous White House. With the idea of returning to the Moon on hold, the International Space Station automatically received a new lease of life. A formal decision to prolong the station’s operating life was made on March 11 at a meeting in Tokyo of all the international partners. The heads of the agencies noted that there were no technical restrictions to supporting the ISS beyond 2015 and on to at least 2020, and that the partnership was working to certify the on-orbit elements to 2028, by which time the first element, the Zarya control module, would have been in space for three decades.
This new retirement date would give Russia’s expected new-generation spacecraft a decade-long ‘buffer’ in which to enter service after its first test, which in 2010 was expected to take place in 2018.
According to NASA, a fiscal year 2011 budget allocation that was consistent with the administration’s budget request would allow the agency to support the ISS to at least 2020. The international partners emphasized their common desire to work with their individual governments to reach a consensus on the continuation of the ISS to the next decade. Future uses for the ISS
The extension of the station’s life refreshed efforts to find new jobs for the orbital facility. In 2011, Russian specialists apparently considered the ISS as a launch pad for small satellites that could be assembled from parts on board the outpost and then placed into various orbits. But the rationale for this idea, and just how the satellites would reach their target orbits, was not disclosed.104
With the prospect of manned missions beyond low orbit in the 2020s, Russian planners concurred with a NASA plan to emphasize medical research on board the ISS. Specialists at the IMBP identified five main challenges in preparing for deep space missions. First, life support systems had to be ready for various emergency situations on board the spacecraft, such as a loss of air pressure. Also, the harmful influence of weightlessness on the human body during very long missions had to be addressed. In addition, the risk of infection, sociological stress, and other problems related to the change of environment from Earth to space had to be considered. The final and probably the greatest challenge would be the radiation environment, with levels much more severe than those encountered by manned missions in low orbits protected by the Earth’s powerful magnetic field.105
In other areas of research that were potentially suitable for the ISS, the Russian planners faced a similar problem to their US colleagues: the considerable lack of enthusiasm among the scientific community. Fully 60 science experiments were to be performed in the Russian segment in 2011 alone, but its hosts admitted that the outpost had a potential for research on a much larger scale. In addition, a uniquely Russian problem impaired the expansion of the scientific activities: the poor quality of the instruments and experiments. In the aftermath of the post-Soviet crisis, almost 70 percent of the hardware proposed for the station failed to meet the qualifications for work on board the ISS.106
The Space Shuttle Atlantis is parked at the International Space Station (ISS) after delivering a hastily built Russian MIM-1 module, which took advantage of one of the last visits to the outpost by the winged orbiter. As the retirement of the Shuttle was drawing near, the fate of the ISS was hanging in the balance. Soyuz TMA-M
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After the introduction of the Soyuz TMA it took 8 years to introduce the Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft (industrial designation 11F732A47) as the very latest step in a series of upgrades to Russia’s legendary manned transport. Originally designated as Series 700, the Soyuz TMA-M was also informally called the “digital Soyuz” in a reference to its advanced flight control computer.
Systems introduced in that round of modifications were also expected to pave the way for the development of a new-generation manned spacecraft. Unfortunately the upgrade program was delayed several times, in part due to the lack of a completed integrated test facility with which to thoroughly check a fully assembled vehicle on the ground at RKK Energia’s Korolev test center. Instead, the company resorted to testing the individual components intended for Soyuz TMA-M during missions of Progress cargo ships, before certifying the new hardware for use on manned spacecraft. At the end of 2008 a new version of the Progress cargo ship (designated M-01M) lifted off sporting an updated TsVN-101 flight control system which replaced the obsolete Argon-16 computer and was ultimately intended for the new Soyuz. Also on board was the new miniaturized MBITS radio-telemetry system. These upgrades enabled faster and more efficient flight control, while at the same time reducing the number of avionics modules by fifteen and the overall mass devoted to avionics by 75 kilograms.
Following trials onboard ProgressM-0M, Soyuz TMA-01M finally lifted off on October 8, 2010. Other upgrades that were deferred to the next round of modifications apparently included moving the main flight control computer from the instrument compartment (PAO) to the descent module (SA). This would eliminate the need for the KS0-20Mcomputer in the descent module dedicated to the reentry and landing of the capsule after its separation from the PAO module.
Thus the same computer would support the entire mission from launch to touchdown. However, this proposal had not been funded, even though at the start of 2009 there was still hope that the move would be implemented no later than 2011-2012. Future plans for Soyuz upgrades also aimed for a complete overhaul of the power supply system, starting with the solar panels and working all the way to the cable network (BKS). As of 2010, new more effective solar panels were expected to become available for the Soyuz within a year.Soyuz MS and Progress MS
As before, the new round of upgrades would be first tried on the unmanned Progress cargo ships and then on the Soyuz. The modified ships would become Progress MS and Soyuz MS. The latest cycle of modifications was expected to be completed in 2013-2014.
One upgrade would include new communications and flight control avionics that would use the satellite based global positioning system to enable the crew capsule to transmit its exact coordinates to mission control in real time. The brand new avionics would also be used for rendezvous with the space station. Finally, a state-of-the-art attitude control system would replace the famous optical periscope protruding from the descent module. The new device would not be hampered by lighting conditions in orbit.107
To reduce the time crews spent in the cramped Soyuz spacecraft, engineers considered cutting the travel time to the station from two days to one day. In early 2012 the new flight profile was expected to be ready within a year.108 Progress cargo ship for the Soyuz-2 rocket
RKK Energia returned to the idea of upgrading the Progress cargo ships in 2010. By that time, the newest version of the Soyuz rocket, known as Soyuz-2.1b, had logged enough successful missions to replace its predecessors. By 2011 the decision was made to phase out the Soyuz-U and Soyuz-FG rockets that had been the workhorses of the human space program. At the time it was expected that Progress cargo ships would start to use the Soyuz-2 in 2013 and after ten successful missions the same rocket would also be used to launch manned Soyuz spacecraft, most likely in 2015-2016.93
The ability of the Soyuz-2.1b to lift around 8.1 tons of payload rather than the 7 tons of the Soyuz-U/FG would permit a new version of the Progress spacecraft to have an enlarged pressurized compartment capable of accommodating an extra 800-1,000 kilograms of supplies, taking the total payload capacity to 3,300-3,500 kilograms.
The structural mass increase of the update would reach 150-200 kilograms. Due to its extra weight, the new version of the spacecraft would arrive at the ISS with only 200 kilograms of propellant available for refueling the station rather than the 250 kilograms of the previous cargo ships, so the update traded an increase in dry cargo against a decrease in wet cargo.94
This ‘Progress on steroids’ would probably feature a redesigned tanker module, known as OKD. A brand new plumbing system proposed for the refueling section could feature the capability to pump the propellant and gas supplies back and forth between the tanker spacecraft and the station.95 In fact, the cargo ship could be further enlarged if a better version of the Soyuz rocket became available by replacing the RD-107/108 engines on its first two stages with the more powerful NK-33 engines leftover from the N1 rocket (see p. 157).Soyuz limitations
Incremental Soyuz upgrades essentially encompassed all of RKK Energia’s work with what is known in Russian slang as “iron”, or real hardware during the 1990s. But no matter what changes were made inside the spacecraft, it had a fundamental drawback that could not be overcome: its small size. The problem traced its roots to 1962, when the ship was still on the drawing board. At that time, in a race to save every gram of payload, Konstantin Feoktistov, one of the leading engineers in the design of manned spacecraft, proposed to reduce the diameter of the future crew module from 2.3 to 2 meters. Within a year, Sergei Korolev, the head ofOKB-1, fatefully accepted Feoktistov’s proposal, leaving future spacecraft with almost no reserves in terms of volume. In order to fit into the seats of the Soyuz, cosmonauts had to adopt an “embryo” pose which approached the limit of what was physically possible for adult humans.
To give the crew more room, let alone to increase the number of crew members, a whole new spacecraft would be needed. In turn, any talk of a new spacecraft would depend on what seemed highly improbable in 1998: an economic recovery in Russia. Surprisingly, it did happen…
Excerpted with permission from CG Publishing, Inc./Apogee Space Books. Permission is exclusive to United Business Media, EDN and extends to this reprint only. Copyright is retained by Apogee Space Books. To purchase Russia in Space, click here.
