Russian plans to explore the planets
The last two months of the last 2011 of the year were marked by unpleasant events around the Phobos-Grunt automatic interplanetary station (AMS). A promising spacecraft fell victim to problems with the accelerating device, as a result of which it remained in low earth orbit, and then descended from it. 15 January 2012, the failed "expedition" ended - the device burned down in the atmosphere. The first versions of the reasons for the failure began to appear almost immediately after the device did not fall into the calculated orbit. Moreover, not all hypotheses regarding an emergency situation were proposed by competent persons. Anyway, according to the results of the analysis of the information collected during the launch and in the following days, it was found that electronics unsuitable for actions in space conditions became the main culprit of the accident.
It should be noted that the failure pursued the Phobos-Grunt project from the very beginning. The idea to send an automatic station to the satellite of Mars in order for it to collect information and deliver samples of soil to Earth, appeared in 1996 year. At that time, the launch of the rocket with the device was planned for 2004 year. However, by the mid-2000s, the financial and temporary aspects of the program had been seriously revised. Therefore, the launch of the AMC Phobos-Grunt was first transferred to the 2009 year, and then to the 2011. The subsequent fate of this station is known to all.
As it became known, in the coming years a new project could be launched, the goals of which will coincide completely with the objectives of Phobos-Grunt. But this is a difficult and slow matter. Therefore, the updated station, equipped with new equipment, will go to the Red Planet no earlier than 2020 of the year. According to the general director of the NGO them. Lavochkin V. Hartova, such terms are caused by several factors at once. These are financing, space industry opportunities, and current plans. In particular, now a higher priority is the joint project “Exomars”, which is being conducted jointly with the European Space Agency. The latter, as Hartov says, will be useful for the new Phobos research program: several new solutions and technologies are required for a flight to Mars, and the ExoMors project is quite capable of becoming their “progenitor”.
Despite the failure of the Phobos-Grunt program, Roscosmos and related organizations continue to work and make some progress in their field. Moreover, these achievements are recognized abroad. So, in May 2012, the Russian Space Systems OJSC received a very interesting letter signed by the Director of the London Royal Institute of Navigation. In this letter, RKS notified that the Council of the Institute had decided to award the team of employees working on the GLONASS project a Duke of Edinburgh award for technical achievement for 2012 a year. RKS engineers received an honorary prize "for the full deployment of the system in December 2011 and the provision of navigation and time services." 11 July held a solemn ceremony.
As you can see, failures with electronics or criminal actions of some officials on the "mastering" of funds, in general, do not have a fatal effect on the work of the space industry. Among others, several automatic interplanetary stations are being developed at once, which will go to their targets in the coming years. The first of these projects is the Venus Research Probe, also known as the European Venus Explorer (European Venus Probe). Russia's participation in this program is to provide a launch vehicle and related equipment. In November 2013, the Venus probe will be launched into Earth orbit with the help of the Soyuz-FG rocket and the Fregat upper stage. The launch will take place at the Kourou space center in French Guiana. The purpose of the flight of the Venus research probe is to study the atmosphere of Venus, its composition, dynamics, etc.
A little later, in 2015, another spacecraft, this time exclusively Russian, will go to its target. With the help of the Soyuz-2 launch vehicle, the Interheliozond vehicle will be sent to Earth’s orbit. Then he will fly to Venus, where with the help of gravitational maneuvers he will gain enough speed to fly to the Sun. The set of equipment necessary for the required measurements of various parameters of the star will be installed at the automatic station. These are x-ray telescopes, spectrographs, magnetographs, analyzers and particle detectors, spectrometers, etc. With the help of Interheliozond station, scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences hope to collect information about the Sun, the solar wind, the dynamics of matter inside the star, and much more. During research, the device will be in orbit with a diameter of about 40 of the radii of the Sun. To ensure work in such difficult conditions, domestic scientists are currently developing a new heat shield.
In the same year as Intergeliozond, the station of the Luna-Glob project will make its flight to the Moon. The first launch of the device, created by this program in the NPO. Lavochkin, planned for the beginning of the 2012 year, but because of the incident with the AMC "Phobos-Grunt" he was moved to three years. During the Luna-Glob program, at least two launches of spacecraft will be carried out. First, in 2015, an orbital probe carrying measurement, photo and video equipment will be sent to the natural satellite of the Earth. His goal will be to shoot the lunar surface and some explorations of the moon that can be done without descending onto it. A little later, in 2016, the Zenit-3 launch vehicle will send a second probe into space. This "participant" of the project will not be orbital, but descent. It is the descent vehicle "Luna-Glob" that will collect basic information and send it to Earth. In general, the objectives of the Luna-Glob project resemble what Soviet automatic stations of the sixties and seventies were doing. Since then, the technique has gone far ahead and the opportunity to resume research satellite of our native planet. In the future, according to the results of the Luna-Glob descent probe, it is possible to send other AMCs that have different equipment and other tasks. The information collected by the Luna-Glob apparatus will be useful in the preparation of the planned manned missions to the moon.
Obviously, the Luna-Glob orbiter will collect information not only to ensure the “landing” of its descendable fellow. In the 2017 year, Russia and India are planning to launch a joint launch of two more lunar vehicles. An Indian-made GSLV-2 launch vehicle will be launched from the Shriharikot cosmodrome, carrying the Russian station Luna-Resource and the Indian Chandrayan-2. By approaching the Moon, the stations will diverge: the Russian will land, and the Indian will remain in orbit. It is known that the Luna-Resource descent module will have a high degree of unification with the Luna-Glob descent station. The Russian station "Luna-Resource" will be engaged in contact and remote studies of the polar regions of the moon. In particular, the object of study will be the lunar soil, the structure of the satellite and its interaction with the Earth. The Indian module Chandrayaan-2, which is in orbit, in turn, will collect the information for which it is necessary to be at some distance from the surface: the state and features of the plasma and dust exosphere, the impact of solar radiation on the moon, etc.
At about the same time, Russia will again begin independent studies of Venus. On the 2016-17 years, the launch of the Venus-D probe is planned. The twelve-ton spacecraft will consist of three parts and will be launched into space using the carrier rocket “Proton” or “Angara”. The basis of the research complex: the orbital automatic station. Its task is to be in orbit and make measurements of various parameters of the Venusian atmosphere. Simultaneously with the work in orbit, the main module will send probes to the planet. The first of them will fall to a height of about 55-60 kilometers from the surface of the planet, and the second will work under a layer of clouds, at altitudes of 45-50 km. The strength of both probes should be enough for eight to ten days of operation, after which the aggressive atmosphere of the atmosphere will disable them. For the time available, the probes will collect information about the composition of the atmosphere in its various layers, the dynamics of movement of flows, etc. It is also planned to include in the research complex a descent vehicle. Due to the high pressure at the surface of the planet, its protection is only enough for two or three hours of work and for a descent of 30-60 minutes in length. Now, in the early stages of developing research probes, it is noted that if a more powerful launch vehicle is used, the expansion of the complex is possible. First of all, one more drifting atmospheric automatic station can be added. In addition, the persons responsible for the development of the equipment claim that in the very near future it is possible to create environmental protection systems with which the drifting probes can be located at altitudes of about 50 kilometers during the month.
The orbital module "Venus-D" will function until about the beginning of the twenties. Later, it will be replaced by a new automatic station. The Venus-Glob project is a further development of Venus-D. Unlike the earlier station, the Venus-Glob orbital module is planned to equip the 4-6 with descent vehicles capable of operating in the atmosphere and on the surface. The program "Venus-Glob" dates back to the mid-2000s, when scientists of the Russian Academy of Sciences were studying the issue of the characteristics of the long-lived station. According to the results of the mass of research, it was concluded that the creation of a landing module for long-term work on the surface of Venus is still possible. However, in the current state of materials science and industry, such an apparatus will be extremely expensive. In addition, you will need to spend a lot of effort on the creation of effective cooling systems, or on the development of electronics, adapted to such harsh conditions as are hidden under the Venusian atmosphere. The Solar System Section of the Russian Academy of Sciences hopes to complete all the necessary research and make the long-term station that scientists from all over the world have been dreaming about for the years remaining before the proposed launch. It is noted that the Venus-Glob program could well be completed in cooperation with the Europeans. The fact is that after the completion of the Euopean Venus Explorer station, the ESA plans to commission the AMC EVE-2. Cooperation between the Russian Academy of Sciences and the European Space Agency may lead to the fact that instead of two automatic stations, only one will fly to Venus, but it has a much greater scientific potential than the initial projects of independent development.
The projects of automatic interplanetary stations listed above have already gone beyond the stage of proposals and are the subject of design work. Almost all of them, with the exception of Venus-Glob, are also part of the Federal Space Program 2006-2015. When looking at the pace of proposals, the development of projects, launches and plans for the future, the idea of the expediency of adopting a federal program involuntarily arises. In any case, even the mere reconstruction of the grouping of the GLONASS system clearly hints at the gradual restoration of the capacity of the domestic space industry. In the future, this will give a good pace of development in different directions, including automatic interplanetary stations. However, not everything is smooth here either. Remembering "Phobos-Grunt", it is worth noting the need to monitor each stage of development, assembly and operation. Space technology has one very unpleasant feature: even a small saving on the quality of any component can lead to disproportionate losses. It was for this reason that the notorious Phobos-Grunt was lost. I really do not want the following automatic stations to fly to other planets, but fall to their home.
On the materials of the sites:
http://interfax.by/
http://phobos.cosmos.ru/
http://lr.cosmos.ru/
http://venera-d.cosmos.ru/
http://stp.cosmos.ru/
http://izmiran.ru/
http://odnako.org/
Information