Soyuz Spacecraft Research Articles

Анализ баллистических ограничений при отработке возможности установления лазерной связи со спускаемым аппаратом на атмосферном участке спуска

The paper presents the Plasma-SA space experiment to study possibility of establishing a laser communication channel between the descent vehicle of the Soyuz transport spacecraft and ground stations at the atmospheric descent phase, when plasma layer is blocking radio communication. Design limitations associated with safe installation of the scientific equipment onboard the Soyuz spacecraft descent vehicle are briefly considered. Ballistic limitations caused by the descent trajectory and the descent vehicle control at the atmospheric phase determining location areas of the ground-based laser radiation sources were analyzed. Principal possibility to register test signal from the ground source by the equipment installed onboard the descent vehicle is demonstrated. Effect of deviation from the calculated trajectory and of alteration in the roll angle during descent control with its registration is demonstrated, and ways to improve these conditions are proposed.

On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Vladimir Fedorovich Roshchin

The article is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of a distinguished scholar, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Honored Master of Sciences and Engineering of the RSFSR, Laureate of the Lenin Prize – Vladimir Fedorovich Roshchin, who headed the Aerodynamics and Flight Dynamics Chair of the Moscow Institute of Civil Aviation Engineers (MICAE, the Moscow State Technical University of Civil Aviation at the present time) in the 70s. The certain biographical details about the researcher and his career highlights are given. The synergy of V.F. Roshchin as a student of the Moscow Aviation Institute with S.P. Korolev was of utmost significance. S.P. Korolev became not only a Director of Diploma for the graduate, but also a Mentor, a vivid personality who developed the area of expertise, influenced the evolvement of intellectual assets and the formation of a young professional, taught the proficiency of cooperation in a team of supporters. Thanks to his great abilities, Vladimir Fedorovich, among the best graduates of the Moscow Aviation Institute, was personally employed by S.P. Korolev, who headed EDB-1. Thus, he started his career in the innovative and developing branch of aerospace technology. Having climbed a career ladder from an engineer to a head of the research-engineering section, Vladimir Fedorovich was engaged in theoretical and experimental research of aerogasdynamic, thermophysical and ballistic problems of the head parts of rockets and launched space vehicles. The scientist achieved the National Awards for the launch operations of the first manned spacecraft "Vostok-1" with the cosmonaut Yu.A. Gagarin, the study of the shape and rotor recovery landing system of the Soyuz spacecraft and a series of other contributions. The article mentions the scientist’s engagement with the unique cooperative scientific projects, particularly with joint authors from the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after Professor N.E. Zhukovsky (TsAGI) to design an unconventional craft "Vertostat". This paper emphasizes the timespan of V.F. Roshchin, associated with work in MICAE (MSTUCA), his teaching, scientific, management activities. The personal qualities of the talented scientist such as bright individuality, broad education, phenomenal professional memory, undoubted erudition, valuable management skills, genuine commitment to science, independence of views, absolute honesty and integrity are noted. It is highlighted that V.F. Roshchin found his true vocation, fostered graduates and followers.

Разработка микробиологического препарата для биоремедиации почв, загрязненных компонентами ракетных топлив

Heptyl rocket fuel and aviation kerosene are widely used in the propulsion systems of the Proton and Soyuz spacecraft. The propellant components (RFC) enter the environment, causing strong toxic effects, when the separating first stages of rockets fall away or in case of emergencies. The study was aimed to isolate strains of microorganisms-destructors of RFC, as well as to assess their safety for bioremediation of contaminated soils. Microorganisms capable of decomposing heptyl, formalin, and aviation kerosene were isolated from natural soils. An association of two strains of bacterial destructors Pseudomonas putida 5G and Rhodococcus erythropolis 62М/3 was obtained, and a method of their use in recultivation of soil contaminated with RFC was developed. The results of laboratory and field tests showed high efficiency of the microbial destruction of pollutants, the decrease in integral toxicity and phytotoxicity of the cleaned soil to safe levels, and an increase in the soil biological activity. Thus, dehydrogenase activity increased by 2.4 times, hydrolase activity by 2.1 times, and cellulase activity by 5.1 times. Microbial association can be recommended for recultivation of soil contaminated with RFC.

Historical Aspects of Organizing and Conducting Training of Cos-monauts for Space Flight on Soyuz-T Transport Vehicle. (Memoirs of Crew Trainer V.I. Vasilyev).

The 5th of June 2021 will mark 41 years since the launch of the first manned spacecraft of the Soyuz T series. The difficulty of training to fly on the Soyuz T spacecraft was that the entire training base, all descriptions and guides necessary to study the ship and prepare the crews in a regular way, lagged behind the pro-cess of vehicle designing. In the course of the first trainings and flights, the forms, methods and training programs were worked out. The problem of re-training cosmonauts who performed flights on the Soyuz spacecraft was particu-larly critical.

Assuring fault tolerance of the Soyuz MS manned transport spacecraft

The paper is devoted to assuring a failure-free operation of the Soyuz MS manned transport spacecraft and the safety of its crew and also to making an analysis of the validity of fault tolerance requirements specified for the spacecraft in the scope of its participation in the International Space Station (ISS) activities. The analysis of methods and the results of work to assure resistance to failures of the Soyuz spacecraft in the development and the subsequent modernization phases are presented. The concept of requirements for fault tolerance adopted in the design and development of the Soyuz MS spacecraft is stated, modifications made onboard the spacecraft to fulfill these requirements are described. Objectives of the ground development test and the plant check-out tests to present failures in the flight of spacecraft are reviewed. An approach to statistical analysis of comments and failures detected during the flight of the spacecraft is proposed; it allows to give an independent assessment of the efficiency of tests to prevent failures in flight. The results of statistical analyses of comments and failures recorded in flights of the Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS (a total of 55 spacecraft) are presented. Based on the results a conclusion about the validity and sufficiency of requirements for fault tolerance is made. Key words: manned transport spacecraft Soyuz, Soyuz MS, flight, modernization, modification, fault tolerance, reliability, safety, comment, failure, statistical analysis, International Space Station, ISS, design, development, ground development test, plant check-out tests.

European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and meagre (Argyrosomus regius) fertilized egg resistance to a spacecraft launcher vibration qualifying test

Food autonomy represents an essential challenge for the future Moon Village planned by the European Space Agency. Rearing fish on the moon to provide essential amino acids, omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and vitamin B12 could become a reality using integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA). The Lunar Hatch programme’s goal is to fertilize farmed fish eggs on Earth that would hatch upon arrival at the lunar base. However, the vibrations from a spacecraft’s launch are an unusual situation for fish eggs and may have a negative impact on them. European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and meagre (Argyrosomus regius) eggs were exposed to mechanical stresses using standard protocol performed to approve a satellite for space launch. The hatching rate was evaluated after vibration expositions at different hours post fertilization (hpf). An initial series of tests subjecting the eggs to orbital rotation demonstrated their integrity. In subsequent tests, mechanical stressors acting on the Soyuz spacecraft was simulated to test impact on fish eggs. The results showed egg robustness for European sea bass at 35 hpf (one-third of the embryo development) and 83 hpf (two thirds) and of meagre at 14 hpf (one third), with no significant difference in hatching rate compared with an unshaken control batch. European sea bass embryos and potentially other fish species with similar incubation periods (4–6 days) seem to be good candidates to surviving a spacecraft launch. This paper discusses the findings and suggests possible future research avenues.

Vision-Based Spacecraft Pose Estimation via a Deep Convolutional Neural Network for Noncooperative Docking Operations

The capture of a target spacecraft by a chaser is an on-orbit docking operation that requires an accurate, reliable, and robust object recognition algorithm. Vision-based guided spacecraft relative motion during close-proximity maneuvers has been consecutively applied using dynamic modeling as a spacecraft on-orbit service system. This research constructs a vision-based pose estimation model that performs image processing via a deep convolutional neural network. The pose estimation model was constructed by repurposing a modified pretrained GoogLeNet model with the available Unreal Engine 4 rendered dataset of the Soyuz spacecraft. In the implementation, the convolutional neural network learns from the data samples to create correlations between the images and the spacecraft’s six degrees-of-freedom parameters. The experiment has compared an exponential-based loss function and a weighted Euclidean-based loss function. Using the weighted Euclidean-based loss function, the implemented pose estimation model achieved moderately high performance with a position accuracy of 92.53 percent and an error of 1.2 m. The in-attitude prediction accuracy can reach 87.93 percent, and the errors in the three Euler angles do not exceed 7.6 degrees. This research can contribute to spacecraft detection and tracking problems. Although the finished vision-based model is specific to the environment of synthetic dataset, the model could be trained further to address actual docking operations in the future.

Emergency recovery of the crew of the manned transportation spacecraft Soyuz during ascent to orbit (towards a history of development of the unique space hardware)

The paper is dedicated to the development of the equipment for emergency recovery of the Soyuz spacecraft crew during ascent to orbit, and contains a summary of research, engineering, design and experimental studies, carried out by specialists of RSC Energia (formerly OKB-1), TsNIIMash (formerly NII-88), TsAGI and many other companies that were involved in the development of the emergency crew rescue equipment. The paper discusses layout arrangements for the emergency escape nose section, algorithms for the operation of the emergency rescue system, provides results of simulations of the motion of the emergency escape nose section and structural parts of the spacecraft in case of the launch vehicle failure, provides brief results of the analysis of actual cases of emergency crew rescue, including the failure of Soyuz-FG launch vehicle on October 11, 2018. Key words: descent vehicle, emergency escape nose section, separation equipment.

Study of Terrestrial and Cosmic UV Emissions from the International Space Station with the Mini-EUSO Telescope

Mini-EUSO is an imaging detector launched on the International Space Station on August 2019 with an unmanned Soyuz spacecraft. It is observing the Earth in a multispectral range comprising UV (300–400 nm), visible (400–780 nm) and NIR (1500–1600 nm). Mini-EUSO is accommodated on board the Russian Zvezda module, facing on a UV-transparent window in Nadir direction. The telescope main optics comprise two Fresnel lenses focusing light onto an array of 36 Hamamatsu multi-anode photomultiplier tubes, each of 64 channels for a total of 2304 pixels. In addition to the two ancillary cameras, Mini-EUSO contains an 8 × 8 array of Multi-Pixel Photon Counter SiPM. The Mini-EUSO main research objectives are the study of Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays above 1021 eV and the search for Strange Quark Matter, even though, with its large field of view (44°), it will map an Earth ground area of 263 × 263 km2 every 2.5 µs, allowing to study several atmospheric event such as Transient Luminous Event (TLEs), meteoroids and marine bioluminescence.

Eksplozija graničnog sloja po ulasku svemirske letelice u guste slojeve Zemljine atmosfere

Introduction/purpose: A supersonic flow around a sphere with a radius of 1m at altitudes of 80 to 40 km was analysed. Methods: The descent trajectory at the first cosmic velocity, similar to that of the Soyuz spacecraft with a duralumin structure without thermal protection, was taken into consideration. Results: For the gas between the shock wave front and the surface of the descending spacecraft, data were obtained on the increase in density, pressure, and temperature behind the shock wave front as well as the shift of the shock wave from the surface of the descending spacecraft. The effective temperature of the shock-heated gas reaches its maximum value of 7340 K at an altitude of 60 km. At altitudes of 80 and 40 km, the effective temperature is 7000 K and 6400 K, respectively. Based on the obtained data on the thermodynamic state of the gas behind the shock wave every 10 km, calculations were made of energy fluxes to the surface of the spacecraft for convective and radiative heat transfer, as well as for the impact of electrons produced due to ionization of negative ions. Radiative heat transfer has proven to be the most significant. The burning mechanism of negative ions of triatomic molecules of aluminium with the formation of AlO molecules was determined, and data on pressure rise in the boundary layer on the spacecraft surface were obtained. At all considered altitudes, the pressure rises instantly: to 1.06*1010 Pa at an altitude of 80 km, 5.3*10 Pa at an altitude of 60 km, and reaches the maximum value of 5.5*1010 Pa and an altitude of 40 km. A pressure of 109 to 1010 Pa arises during explosion of various explosives. The energy flux reaches the spacecraft surface between explosions. At the moment of explosion, shock waves develop in the atmosphere surrounding the surface of the descending spacecraft, and compressive waves develop in the entire structure of the spacecraft. The descending spacecraft cracks, and its entire structure breaks down into parts. The area of interaction increases sharply, and each subsequent explosion has a greater intensity and size. As a result, the last most intense explosion occurs at an altitude of approx. 40 km, after which individual fragments of the spacecraft fall to Earth. Conclusion: The exploration of space with flight to other planets is possible only after a thorough study of explosive processes taking place on the surface of the spacecraft descending on other planets, and especially on Earth.

The Return of Manned Missions

The United States space program has been without a launch vehicle for human spaceflight since 2011. That was when the space shuttle Atlantis returned on its final flight. Since then, NASA has relied on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to take its astronauts to the International Space Station. However, if all goes to plan this could soon change, as two private companies are working with NASA to launch the first astronauts into orbit. The companies, SpaceX and Boeing, are building crew capsules and rockets, designing space suits, and training astronauts to fly these new vehicles into space.

A Study and Discussion on the Cost Issue of Suborbital and Orbital Space Tourism

The major purposes of this paper are to study the current costs, or say the ticket prices, for suborbital and orbital space tourisms and to discuss the rationality. On 27 February 2017, SpaceX has announced it plans to launch two paying passengers on a tourist trip around the moon next year (2018). Two private citizens who were not named have paid significant deposit to be sent around the moon to mark the furthest humans have ever travelled to deep space. It could be believed that the cost is tens of million USDs per person. Between 2001 and 2009, 7 millionaires paid and travelled 8 times to the International Space Station by taking the Russian Soyuz spacecraft and launch vehicle systems. Recently, Blue Origin successfully tested the full-envelope escape system of its New Shepard’s crew capsule with the first crewed test flights planned for early 2018. Also, the Virgin Galactic’s second SpaceShipTwo took to the skies for the first test flight of the revamped atmospheric re-entry system, and expected commercial passenger service to be underway before the end of 2018. Through the background review, this paper concluded that the current prices announced are too high, and the ticket price for suborbital space tourism should be no more than one tenth for that of orbital, Strategies for reducing price were discussed. For the sustainable and prosperous development of space tourism, the cost must be affordable by many tourists, not simply by a few very rich persons.

Editorial Comment

It is difficult for many of us to comprehend that we have been flying in space for over 50 years, and except for a one-year gap between the Russian Mir Station and the International Space Stations (ISS), most of the past 28 years have seen a continual human presence in low Earth orbit. Aside from the risks associated with leaving the planet and the remoteness of spacecraft, human health and performance in space is dominated by the condition of weightlessness. The removal of the gravity-driven hydrostatic gradient along with predictable anthropomorphic changes drives a set of global adaptive responses in nearly every physiologic system. Over these years we have developed an incomplete but serviceable knowledge of these adaptive responses. 1 Barratt M. Space physiology and medicine. in: Gradwell D. Rainford D. Ernsting's Aviation and Space Medicine. 5th ed. CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, 2016 Google Scholar Renal and urinary function have played a significant role in both the understanding and experience of human spaceflight. The piece by Leapman and colleagues in this issue introduces the fundamental urological issues associated with this novel environment. In my 212 days spent off the planet on the ISS, the US Space Shuttle, and the Russian Soyuz spacecraft, I have had the delightful and sometimes dubious opportunity to experience many of these first hand. The astronaut population is acutely aware of urologic issues, and these are debriefed and handed over to new flyers with great attention.

Providing health care in rural and remote areas: lessons from the international space station.

Circumnavigating the globe every 90 minutes, 400 km above the Earth’s surface and at a speed of 27 600 km per hour, the international space station typically does not evoke thoughts of rural Haiti. This aerospace behemoth contains some of the most expensive, most advanced technology ever designed. An isolated extraterrestrial outpost of humanity, it represents a marvel of human engineering and ingenuity. It is this very isolation, ironically, that gives it something in common with rural areas in low- and middle-income countries here on Earth. In many parts of the world, basic emergency and acute medical care is lacking. 1 Comparing the international space station’s systems with efforts underway to address the lack of rural and remote health-care services may help clinicians, researchers and policy-makers develop new ideas and improve on existing practices. What happens when an astronaut on the space station has a medical emergency? Certainly, the entire space station cannot gently glide its way down to Earth. At least one Soyuz spacecraft is usually docked for evacuation but there are usually only a few astronauts in the space station at a time. It is not practical for several astronauts to return to Earth accompanying the patient. It would take up to 24 hours for an astronaut to return to the ground to receive medical care – precious time lost for someone in a critical condition. 2 The United

The Final Frontier-What Should the Travel Medicine Practitioner Know About Space Flight Participation?

Box office movies, such as Star Trek and 2001: A Space Odyssey , have ingrained images of space exploration in the public imagination. Extraterrestrial tourism or, more accurately, personal space flight participation, has been discussed since the late 1960s, when then president of the Hilton hotel group, Barron Hilton, raised the prospect of hotels in space at the American Astronautical Society Conference.1 The Space Tourism Society defines space tourism as a combination of in-Earth orbit experiences; beyond-Earth orbit experiences, including lunar and Martian travel; high fidelity Earth-based simulations and entertainment; and cyber space tourism experiences.2 The so-called Karman line , which is commonly used to demarcate the edge of space, is considered to occur at 100 km of altitude above the Earth,3 or at 10 times the altitude of a cruising commercial airliner. Recreational space visitors who travel beyond this altitude may reasonably be labeled astrotourists. They need to accelerate to speeds of 28,000 kph just to remain in space.4 Several commercial companies have presented plans for transporting tourists into space since the 1980s. Setbacks have delayed progress, including the tragic explosion of the orbiter Challenger in 1986, which meant that the idea of using space shuttles as vehicles for tourist flights was abandoned. The American company, Space Adventures, in cooperation with the Russian space agency, was responsible for flying seven wealthy clients on a Soyuz spacecraft between 2001 and 2009.5 The first personal orbital space flight participant was Dennis Tito, a former NASA employee, who spent a week on board the International Space Station 400 km above Earth, at a reported cost of US$20 million.6 This same firm claims that up to 200 aspiring space tourists have paid deposits of almost US$3 million for the privilege of taking more affordable suborbital flights in …

Mission BION-M1: Results of RIBES/FOAM2 experiment on shape memory polymer foams and composites

FOAM2 is an experiment in microgravity conditions which was performed on 20th of April 2013 during the BION-M1 mission of the Soyuz spacecraft. The experiment was carried out by an autonomous device contained in the BIOKON container (by Kayser Italia) which was in turn assembled in a properly designed payload (called RIBES, “Reconfigurable Incubator for Biology Experiments in Space”). The main goal of the experiment was to demonstrate shape recovery of polymer foams and composites in the space environment. A simple device for the evaluation of the actuation load during recovery of a shape memory epoxy foam was used together with an instrumented chamber for the extraction of the recovery speed of a similar sample. For the first time, also a shape memory composite was tested by observing the shape recovery of a bent thin sheet. Good results were achieved in terms of shape recovery for all the samples thanks to the adopted thermal program. The effect of microgravity is negligible if compared with recovery forces but it strongly affects performances of heating devices and has to be taken into account for designing actuators or self-deployable structures in future space applications.

Biomechanical sex differences of crewmembers during a simulated space capsule landing.

The objective of this study was to observe the differences in the biodynamic responses of male and female crewmembers during a simulated Soyuz spacecraft (short-duration flights) impact landing. There were 16 volunteers (8 men and 8 women) recruited to sit in a pseudo-supine position and be exposed to several impact acceleration pulses. The acceleration peaks ranged from 7.7 to 11.8 g with a duration of around 50 ms. Acceleration responses from the drop platform and seat, and at the volunteers' head, shoulder, chest, and ilium were measured. Results indicated that there were significant gender-based differences in the peak acceleration measured from volunteers' shoulders and iliums. The peak decelerations measured at the head and ilium were relatively higher than those measured at other levels on the seat. It was recommended that more attention be focused on the sex differences of biodynamic responses of crews in the study of new protective designs for space capsule and personal life support equipment.

Effects of geomagnetic disturbances on humans functional state in space flight

Investigations of the effect of geomagnetic activity influence on the heart rhythm regulation of cosmonauts during the expeditions onboard the Soyuz spacecraft, and the MIR orbital space stations was carried out for various durations of flight in weightlessness and, under control of groups of cosmonauts who were inspected under flight conditions outside the geomagnetic disturbances and in ground preflight conditions, during disturbances and without them. The four series of analytical researches in which the data about changes of characteristics of heart rate variability are demonstrated for the first time the presence of specific effect of geomagnetic disturbances on the system of vegetative regulation of blood circulation of cosmonauts during the flight. The response of cosmonauts’ heart rhythm on the magnetic storm is depending on the initial functional background and, in particular, on the state of mechanisms of vegetative regulation (the duration of flight and adaptation to it).

Random Sample

Space scientists at the University of Leicester are working to protect the people of Britain from a terrifying scourge: counterfeit whisky. And this week's numbers quantify the cost to ferry U.S. astronauts to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz spacecraft, the percentage of MIT's science and engineering faculty who are women, and the number of homes that could run on an underwater turbine array just authorized by the Scottish government.

Soyuz spacecraft takes off for space station

Soyuz spacecraft takes off for space station