Belarusian scientists created unique space equipment
In space, man is increasingly replacing automation. Including created by the Union space programs. The equipment "sees" the planet in great detail. Smoke in the forest? - Signal about the fire. Strange spot or not registered building anywhere? - Information is immediately sent to the flight control center. Very convenient and efficient. However, the equipment is still imperfect, the information coming from it has to be cleared of distortions, tied to the terrain, and applied to changes on geographical maps. All these operations should be carried out as quickly as possible so that the fire does not spread, oil spills do not blur, etc. Usually for these purposes large-format scanners are used, having a high cost, inconvenient to transport, and having a number of other restrictions. Therefore, employees of the Joint Institute of Informatics Problems of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus have chosen a different path. They constructed a sectional electromagnetic digital device that reads the map in parts. After data processing by the device, it remains only to “stitch” them into a single unit on the computer.
The head of one of the laboratories of the UIIP NAS of Belarus, Dr. Gert Alekseev, Ph.D. This may be representatives of forestry, agriculture or the Ministry of Emergency Situations. And it often happens that information is necessary for everyone at once. Our equipment allows you to apply information to several cards at once, so now no one will have to wait. ”
Minsk equipment has many other useful properties and applications. Innovation of Belarusian scientists cost them at least two times cheaper than a conventional scanner. In addition, it is much more compact and can read cards of any format. Analogues of the new equipment is no longer anywhere in the world.
It should be noted that the equipment was created within the framework of the Allied scientific and technical program "Kosmos-NT", and the joint institute of informatics problems of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus is the main coordinator of the research carried out under this program.
Executive Director of the Russian-Belarusian space program Sergey Korenyako: “Thanks to our cooperation, we managed to create technologically complete products, which are the basis of the multifunctional space system of the Union State. The intellectual and production experience accumulated by us will allow us to organize the transfer of the processed information from orbit to its end user. ”
Joint research is carried out simultaneously in several directions. Specialists from Belarus are developing information technologies for receiving and transmitting information received from orbit, its storage and processing. The contribution of Belarusians to the construction of spacecraft is also significant: scientific equipment for the study of the atmosphere from orbit and optical devices for scanning the earth's surface, with high resolution, new materials and anti-friction coatings, and special elemental base for electronic devices. Currently, the Institute of Physics of NASB is working on the creation of a laser-targeted unit of a laser-plasma engine for microsatellite orbit correction. Among the practical results of the work of scientists is the monitoring of facilities and territories along which oil and gas pipelines are laid, for example, the Druzhba pipeline. In the course of this monitoring, a set of images of potentially dangerous places for laying pipelines was created.
Another side of cooperation is to take care of training new highly qualified personnel for the emerging space industry. The financing of the Kosmos-NT program from the Union budget allowed creating the necessary material basis for training specialists for the space industry at the Belarusian State University. In the future, students will receive information from a special educational satellite and process it on new equipment. In the list of specialties BSU first appeared a whole "space" column. Space specialists are needed both by science and enterprises.
Among other technical achievements of Belarusian researchers, it is worth highlighting the creation of solar cells on flexible substrates that are able to convert the energy of sunlight into electric current. It is likely that this new product will soon find its earthly application.
At the Space Congress held recently in Minsk on the basis of the UIIP NAS of Belarus, the space congress analyzed preliminary results of the implementation of the Allied programs “Cosmos” and set goals for their participants for the future.
At the moment, the Russian authorities are finalizing the concept of the Monitoring-SG program for the 2012-2016 years. The Belarusians hope that this process will be completed as soon as possible and a new concept will be adopted at the next meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Union State. With this project, a new series of programs will begin, aimed at introducing the accumulated potential in the field of monitoring the state of the Earth's surface from space.
In 2012, the launch of a bunch of Belarusian and Russian spacecraft, designed to monitor the earth's surface, is expected. In the future, this group will include new satellites, among which will be devices operating beyond the visible optical range. After that, even clouds will not interfere with observing terrestrial objects from space.
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