Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known
Founder: Joseph Barone
Contributors: crookedindifference, bumerangue, propagandery, rocketmagic, rostenbach
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Russia unveils space exploration strategy
Russia plans to regain world leadership in space and remain among the top three space powers, a draft of a space exploration strategy until 2030 submitted to the government by the country’s Federal Space Agency Roscosmos says.
The draft strategy has not been unveiled to the public. Some information has been leaked to the media, allowing us to assume that the new strategy is very ambitious.
Live spacewalk
If anyone’s interested the spacewalk with Anton Shkaplerov and Oleg Kononenko is starting in a few minutes here. I’ll post some screencaps as it progresses.
Russia and NASA plan to COLONISE the Moon
‘We want to do more than just step on it’
Russian, American and European space agencies are in talks to create a human colony on the moon, according to Russian news source Rianovosti.
Russia wants to build either a space base on the surface of the Moon itself or a space station that closely orbits the heavenly body – and has planned talks with NASA and the European Space Agency about creating the manned base. It has been 40 years since humans visited the Moon and Russia cosmo-bosses want to go further this time.
“We don’t want the man to just step on the Moon,” agency chief Vladimir Popovkin said in an interview with Vesti FM radio station. “Today, we know enough about it. We know that there is water in its polar areas,” he added. “We are now discussing how to begin [the Moon’s] exploration with NASA and the European Space Agency.”
Inside a russian rocketry plant. Photos: Lana Sator.
i am hyperventillating
Soyuz TMA-21 has landed back on earth!
European Space Agency Plans to Team Up with Russia for the First Manned Mission to Mars
If it’s a space race the Russians want, a space race they shall have. But et tu, Europe? Russian news outlet Ria Novosti is reporting that the European Space Agency (ESA), long the ally of Cold War champion NASA, is teaming with Russia on a joint manned mission to Mars, and that their crew will be the first to set foot on the Red Planet.
World’s First Commercial Space Station Planned in Russia
Called the Commercial Space Station, the orbiting space laboratory and hotel will be able to host up to seven people at a time. It is being planned under a partnership between the Russian companies Orbital Technologies and RSC Energia.
The space station is expected to launch sometime between 2015 and 2016. The cost of individual trips may vary based on launch vehicle, duration and purpose of missions.
![“Orlan” is the Russian word for “eagle”. The Russian corporation “Zvezda” developed this space suit “ORLAN M” for the Russian space programme in early 1970 für moon walks. As the race to space was ended after the landing of Apollo 11 in the “sea of silence” on the moon surface on july 20th 1969, Russians stopped their moon program 1971 and developed the space suit for other activities as like spacewalks outside from space stations and space-ships.It became easier and more mobile. Since 1971 the Orlan was used since beginning of the Salyut space stations. The “Orlan M space suit” (M means here “modernized”) is an improved version of the previous spacesuit, the Orlan-DMA. It can accommodate a greater range of anthropometric sizes (165 cm to 190 cm).Radio communications have been modified so that two cosmonauts can speak and listen to each other simultaneously (which they couldn’t in the previous Orlan version). The metallic cuirass (the suit’s hard aluminum-alloy torso) is increased in size as are the arm and leg openings for the greater range of wearers’ heights. On the cuirass are fixtures for attachment of the USK, Cosmonaut Self-Rescue Device . The Orlan can be used in both the Pirs and U.S. Quest airlocks (the U.S. EMU can only be used in Quest) of the International Space Station ISS.The drawback is that the higher pressure means that the Orlan is somewhat more difficult to move in. The Orlan operates at a pressure of 0.4 atmospheres (EMU at 0.3 atm.), enabling a pre-breathe time of only 30 minutes (in the EMU pre-breathe is 12 hours in the Joint Airlock, or 4 hours in the EMU itself). The Orlan M space suit is very easy concepted: Through the its back the cosmonaut get into the space suite. All vital equipment is in the space suit on the back of the suit, however inside - e.g. fans, water pumps, pressure control valve, oxygene tubes and radio communication system. Each of the articles of equipment has a 1:1 back up system, i.e. if one of the vitally necessary systems should fail, immediately a duplicate takes over the supply.Technical datas of the “Orlan M space suit”: Nominal duration of the autonomous mode: 7 hoursORLAN-M spacesuit absorption cartridge operating time (with airlock time included): 9 hoursSuit positive pressure: nominal mode 392 hPa - emergency mode 270 hPaOxygen available (main and back-up): 1 kg eachCooling water available: 3.6 kgAssured heat removal: average 350 W - maximum Up to 600 WTotal consumed power by the suit systems: Up to 54 WQuantity of telemetry measured parameters: 29Spacesuit weight (wet): ~112 kgService life: Up to 15 vykhody (EVAs) over 4 years (no return to the Earth) MK modelOrlan-MKName: Orlan-MKManufacturer: NPP ZvezdaMissions: Used on ISS. Used from 2009-present.Function: Extra-vehicular activity (EVA)Operating Pressure: 5.8 psi (400 hPa)Suit Weight: 265 lb (120 kg)[12]Primary Life Support: 7 hoursMKS modelName: Orlan-MKSManufacturer: NPP ZvezdaMissions: To be used on ISS. And to possibly be introduced in 2015.Function: Extra-vehicular activity (EVA)Operating Pressure: 5.8 psi (400 hPa)Primary Life Support: 7 hours Source Roscosmos](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpqj3qtZae1qzvby8o1_500.jpg)
“Orlan” is the Russian word for “eagle”. The Russian corporation “Zvezda” developed this space suit “ORLAN M” for the Russian space programme in early 1970 für moon walks. As the race to space was ended after the landing of Apollo 11 in the “sea of silence” on the moon surface on july 20th 1969, Russians stopped their moon program 1971 and developed the space suit for other activities as like spacewalks outside from space stations and space-ships.
It became easier and more mobile. Since 1971 the Orlan was used since beginning of the Salyut space stations.
The “Orlan M space suit” (M means here “modernized”) is an improved version of the previous spacesuit, the Orlan-DMA. It can accommodate a greater range of anthropometric sizes (165 cm to 190 cm).
Radio communications have been modified so that two cosmonauts can speak and listen to each other simultaneously (which they couldn’t in the previous Orlan version).
The metallic cuirass (the suit’s hard aluminum-alloy torso) is increased in size as are the arm and leg openings for the greater range of wearers’ heights. On the cuirass are fixtures for attachment of the USK, Cosmonaut Self-Rescue Device . The Orlan can be used in both the Pirs and U.S. Quest airlocks (the U.S. EMU can only be used in Quest) of the International Space Station ISS.
The drawback is that the higher pressure means that the Orlan is somewhat more difficult to move in.
The Orlan operates at a pressure of 0.4 atmospheres (EMU at 0.3 atm.), enabling a pre-breathe time of only 30 minutes (in the EMU pre-breathe is 12 hours in the Joint Airlock, or 4 hours in the EMU itself).
The Orlan M space suit is very easy concepted: Through the its back the cosmonaut get into the space suite. All vital equipment is in the space suit on the back of the suit, however inside - e.g. fans, water pumps, pressure control valve, oxygene tubes and radio communication system. Each of the articles of equipment has a 1:1 back up system, i.e. if one of the vitally necessary systems should fail, immediately a duplicate takes over the supply.
Technical datas of the “Orlan M space suit”:
Nominal duration of the autonomous mode: 7 hours
ORLAN-M spacesuit absorption cartridge operating time (with airlock time included): 9 hours
Suit positive pressure: nominal mode 392 hPa - emergency mode 270 hPa
Oxygen available (main and back-up): 1 kg each
Cooling water available: 3.6 kg
Assured heat removal: average 350 W - maximum Up to 600 W
Total consumed power by the suit systems: Up to 54 W
Quantity of telemetry measured parameters: 29
Spacesuit weight (wet): ~112 kg
Service life: Up to 15 vykhody (EVAs) over 4 years (no return to the Earth)
MK model
Orlan-MK
Name: Orlan-MK
Manufacturer: NPP Zvezda
Missions: Used on ISS. Used from 2009-present.
Function: Extra-vehicular activity (EVA)
Operating Pressure: 5.8 psi (400 hPa)
Suit Weight: 265 lb (120 kg)[12]
Primary Life Support: 7 hours
MKS model
Name: Orlan-MKS
Manufacturer: NPP Zvezda
Missions: To be used on ISS. And to possibly be introduced in 2015.
Function: Extra-vehicular activity (EVA)
Operating Pressure: 5.8 psi (400 hPa)
Primary Life Support: 7 hours
Source Roscosmos
At the End of the Space Shuttle, the Russians Have the Last Laugh
Even for die-hard space patriots, it’s hard not to appreciate the delectation Russia may be getting out of the end of the Space Shuttle program. Officially due in a little more than a month, the milestone won’t just mark the end of the United States’ domination of manned spaceflight. It will also mean that NASA will begin handing over 1.1 billion dollars to their former Space Race nemesis, the Russian Space Agency. That should about cover the cost of about 20 American trips to the Space Station through 2016 aboard Russia’s old trusty Soyuz spacecraft. That’s a $50 million round-trip ticket for each astronaut.
Dmitri Kondratyev out on a spacewalk from the ISS (2011)
First spaceflight challenge: a doctor, a submariner or a pilot?
The issue of recruiting people to the cosmonaut corps in Russia first emerged in 1946 - the year of the Kremlin’s debates on the first manned suborbital spaceflight. A rocket was to deliver a pressurized cabin with two pilots on board to an altitude of about 150 kilometers. The cabin then had to detach, descend with a parachute and land using its soft landing engines. One of the generals, minding the venture’s high risk, is said to have suggested a crew composed of doomed camp prisoners for the maiden flight. Although the project was generally approved by Stalin, the idea of involving those on death row met no support after all.
Russia, Sweden to boost space cooperation
Russia and Sweden agreed on Wednesday to improve cooperation in the space industry, including their intention to launch Swedish satellites using Russian carrier rockets.
The two countries signed a relevant declaration during Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s visit to Stockholm.
The sides also agreed to jointly use ground facilities to gather information for operating their own orbital objects and those of third countries.
