"Qualitative Breakthrough": Director of IKI RAS - on the prospects for space exploration in 2022

- Anatoly Alekseevich, what important events in Russian cosmonautics are scheduled for 2022 and what projects can be highlighted?

- First of all, of course, we are waiting for the launch of the lander to Mars as part of the second stage of the European-Russian project "ExoMars".

The device will carry both Russian instruments and a European rover - the rover.

In addition, in Russia, around the middle of the summer of 2022, it is planned to launch the Luna-25 lander.

For the first time in world practice, the device should land in the lunar circumpolar zone, which is of greatest interest now, because it is very different from those regions near the equator, where both Soviet lunar missions and American Apollo landed more than 40 years ago.

Another scientific project, which is also scheduled to launch at the end of 2022, is aimed at observing the upper atmosphere and is called the "Ionosphere".

The ionosphere is the upper plasma part of the atmosphere at altitudes over 100 km.

In particular, it is in these layers that the aurora occurs.

So there are big plans for 2022, let's hope they all come true.

• Anatoly Alekseevich Petrukovich

• © IKI RAN

- Please tell us more about the ExoMars project, in which the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences is taking part.

What data is planned to be collected following the mission?

- Mars is traditionally in the center of attention of all countries, all space agencies. Mars rovers have already been launched to it, now there are two American and Chinese rovers on the surface of the planet. And in orbit around Mars there are now as many as eight working spacecraft exploring the planet. Although there are no Russian devices among them, our devices are installed on both European and American devices, including the rover.

The name "ExoMars" was not chosen by chance. "Exo" in this case refers to extraterrestrial life (from "exobiology"). Everyone has probably read the news about the presence of water ice and methane on Mars in the media. If everything is clear with water - when there is ice on the planet, then water will be present in the atmosphere, then the situation with methane is more interesting. It is rapidly decomposed by sunlight, so for methane to be in the atmosphere at least in some amount, there must be a source on the planet's surface. Usually, that is, on Earth, these are either volcanoes (but on Mars we do not see volcanoes), or some kind of primitive bacteria. This is Mars' biggest intrigue. Although methane in its atmosphere is negligible compared to the atmosphere of the Earth, the very fact of its even episodic presence gives hope to find some traces of life.

In about 10 years, a large international project for the return of soil from Mars should start; now it is important to choose the right region from where to transport it.

It is necessary to find a place where the future apparatus will sit, all countries are now engaged in this preparation.

ExoMars is a very serious integration project of Roscosmos and the European Space Agency.

Its first stage was the ExoMars-2016 mission, in which Russia participates with scientific instruments and ground antennas for receiving information.

Now we are preparing for the second stage - this is the ExoMars-2022 mission.

The lander - "hardware" is made by Russia, electronic control devices - Europe, scientific instruments: most of them - Russia, partly - Europe.

The rover is European, but it also has Russian instruments.

This is an unprecedented project in terms of technical cooperation.

If it is carried out successfully, it will lay the foundation for further very effective international cooperation.

Now the apparatus is going through the last preparatory stages in Europe, everything is practically assembled.

Our specialists, including engineers from the IKI RAS, go there and work at European space enterprises.

- So, international cooperation in astronautics is preserved, despite the political contradictions of the countries?

- Yes, international cooperation is a key factor for success in science.

Almost all space science projects are international to one degree or another.

For example, on the Russian satellite Spektr-RG one of the two telescopes is German.

Cooperation allows us to combine the unique competencies of different countries.

No country can independently conduct the entire spectrum of research in space.

• Mars

• AP

• © Mohammed bin Rashid Space Center / UAE Space Agency

- You also mentioned the Russian lunar project.

Please tell us more about it.

- In the 1960s and 1970s, the USA and the USSR took part in the "moon race".

The first flight to the Moon took place in 1959, although a soft landing was carried out only in 1966 - it was the Soviet station "Luna-9".

The Americans also joined, for whom sending a man to the moon became a matter of restoring prestige.

However, around the mid-1970s, all these programs were discontinued because they were quite costly, and the scientific and political "cream" had already been skimmed.

The moon was imagined as a stone ball, "scraped" by solar radiation over the billions of years of its existence - it would seem that there is more to look for.

But since the 2000s, interest in the moon has revived. First, orbiting "reconnaissance" satellites were launched to it, which were able to study the composition of the surface in more detail. There were no Russian devices there, but Russian devices were used. Very interesting facts were discovered - places with a high water content in the form of ice were found. Of course, it is under a layer of soil, because from the surface of the Moon, both ice and water would instantly evaporate into space.

Most likely, the water on the moon was the result of collisions with comets, and comets are the carrier of primitive organic matter in the solar system.

Comets have been falling on the moon for billions of years, and it, like a sponge, absorbed all these billions of years of history of the solar system.

It is very interesting to delve into this ice, which lies under the surface, to find some signs of primitive substances that were common in the early stages of the formation of the solar system.

It is generally impossible to find a place on Earth older than a billion years, everything changed during the movement of tectonic plates, as a result of floods, weathering ... And the Moon is like an archive of the Solar system, everything is preserved there unchanged.

We can say that the second lunar race has now begun, although not as politicized as the first.

Now in the world, many projects related to the moon are being prepared.

And in this area Russia is among the leaders.

First of all, we were one of the first to formulate that it is necessary to fly exactly where there is water.

And for five years I had to explain why this is correct.

Now everyone already thinks so, it became obvious.

There is water in the polar regions of the Moon, but there are not very good conditions for the landing of the apparatus in comparison with the places of the Apollo and Soviet Moons.

There is a mountainous relief, plus both the Earth and the Sun are low above the horizon.

If you have sat down, relatively speaking, behind some kind of mound, then you either do not see the Earth, or the Sun.

Luna-25 is a completely Russian project, the device is already being tested at the NPO.

Lavochkin.

We hope that he will fly away in just a few months.

We plan to land not quite at the South Pole, but much further south than we did before, at about 70 degrees, in an area where some ice is predicted.

So far, this will be the world's first landing this close to the pole.

- Now another project is starting in Russia - "Sphere", within its framework it is planned to create satellite constellations.

In 2022-2023, the first flight samples of spacecraft will be designed and sent into orbit.

Why was there a need for this project?

- "Sphere" is a mega-constellation of satellites.

The project includes the launch of hundreds of satellites for completely different purposes: communications, the Internet, observing the Earth in various ranges.

The project is not unique.

For example, Elon Musk, who is on everyone's lips, is now launching almost 11 thousand satellites.

But its implementation will make it possible to have almost the same Internet throughout the world as, for example, in Moscow.

It is impossible to do this with the help of cellular antennas outside cities, if we are talking about remote areas, the Arctic, etc. Technically, satellite communications exist now, but they are expensive.

So the main task is to make this connection available to the average user.

There is also a second task.

Now a detailed survey of the Earth from space is being carried out, but if large cities are often filmed, then the countryside, natural objects - at best, once a year.

Yes, and large cities can also be filmed more often - in order, for example, to replace some of the street cameras with satellite imagery.

• Satellite in orbit

• Gettyimages.ru

• © 3DSculptor

- Probably, it will also be possible to quickly track forest fires?

- In this sense, it is easier with fires.

A wildfire is relatively easy to track down because it is a bright, hot spot, even if the burning area is still very small.

In infrared light, it will be clearly visible from space.

Although in Russia only one specialized satellite monitors fires, the computer information system, which IKI RAS developed by order of the Federal Forestry Agency, receives all available data from space, and maps are updated 10-15 times a day, including due to satellites of other countries. who share information.

We can say that the second task of the "Sphere" and its foreign analogues is the transformation of satellite imagery into a subject of daily use.

This can solve many practical problems.

In addition, from the point of view of technology, it is very important to learn how to make not one or two satellites a year, but 100. This task lies at the heart of the Sphere program.

The satellites should be fairly simple and cheap; receiving stations are also needed.

The entire industry needs to be rebuilt to begin the assembly line for satellites.

This is a very important program that will provide a qualitative breakthrough in astronautics.

For Russia, this is especially important, because we are somewhat "stuck" in Soviet cosmonautics and cannot escape these paradigms in many respects.

- Another interesting Russian project is the creation of the Zeus nuclear tug.

Its first flight is scheduled for 2030; in 2021, a mock-up of this device was presented to the public.

Now NASA has begun to move in a similar direction - last year the agency began to select projects to create a nuclear engine for space.

What is the key complexity of this technology, why was it not addressed before?

-

Nuclear reactors flew into space on Soviet vehicles, as "batteries" that powered the devices.

At the same time, the main concerns have always been associated with the possibility of the apparatus falling to Earth with subsequent radioactive contamination.

Turning a reactor into a "engine" is not an easy task. Conventional chemical rocket engines create a jet stream by burning fuel. There are so-called electrojet engines, in which electric fields create a jet of heavy ionized gas, such as xenon. It is for obtaining a large amount of electricity for such an engine that a nuclear reactor can be responsible. 

However, a nuclear reactor by itself provides only thermal energy, it must be converted at least into electrical energy.

For example, at a nuclear power plant, this is done by heating the water that turns the turbine.

Such a design is very nontrivial for space, where the installation must operate for decades in a vacuum.

Space technology has completely different requirements than terrestrial technology.

Therefore, assembling such a really operating mechanism is a very difficult task.

Actually, this is now being done within the framework of the Zeus project.

While we are moving towards solving this problem.

• Launch of the Proton M carrier rocket

• RIA News

• © Roscosmos

- According to preliminary information, at the end of 2023, it is planned to test a prototype of a cruise stage of the Krylo-SV reusable missile. It is already known that domestic reusable missiles will land according to an airplane scheme, and not vertically, like the missiles of the Space X company. What is the advantage of this approach?

- If we talk about reusability, then this is an interesting technical concept.

Now a rocket is a huge amount of fuel, engines, and only a small satellite head at the top.

If the rocket has to return to Earth, it will be necessary to save some fuel for landing, to make the rocket "legs".

This is all additional weight, it is subtracted from the weight of the satellite.

And we will immediately lose in the efficiency of launching, and the cost of launch per kilogram of payload increases.

This is pure economics.

This approach can be commercially justified if we start to launch tens, hundreds of missiles.

Now the reusable rocket was made by Elon Musk's company.

Indeed, some of the steps have already flown 10 times, the project looks very nice, but he has not yet disclosed economic efficiency indicators.

Musk's rockets land vertically - that's one way.

Another is if you put a small wing on the rocket stage and land it in horizontal flight.

But here there are already problems of their own - you need, for example, to install another special engine, in this case it will not be possible to use a rocket engine.

It is difficult to say which method is better yet.

Considering that we are launching from Vostochny, where the mountainous terrain is quite wild, the aircraft option may be more profitable.

- In 2021, Roskosmos announced plans to build a Russian orbital station by 2025; the ISS is planned to be shut down.

Is there a discussion in the expert community on the creation of a new international space station?

Or is the era of purely national projects in this area coming?

- Till

there is no conceptual clarity.

It is clear that the ISS, like any technical object, has its own lifespan; there is nothing to be done about it.

However, international cooperation does not end at the station itself.

Because the ISS is not only walls and devices, it is also a whole system of international agreements on interaction in space.

There are common standards and even a common conditional currency for mutual settlements within joint projects.

This is the most complex infrastructure of interaction in space, which will not go anywhere.

Now, within the framework of this system, the Americans and Europeans are building a lunar station, which should start working in three years.

It is ten times smaller than the ISS, it includes only one residential block and one technical block.

This is not a complete replacement for the ISS, of course.

The Chinese also launched their own station, which is structurally similar to Mir.

• ISS

• AP

• © NASA

Now, for example, the issue of standards is being discussed so that, relatively speaking, a Russian ship could dock to an American station, and vice versa.

We need interchangeability so that in the event of an accident, we can help each other.

The ISS experience should not be lost.

I think that now the new concept is in the maturing stage.

Perhaps the ISS will be replaced by a distributed structure of many stations that will interact with each other.

Now we do not fully understand what manned space will look like in 20 years.

Will we only carry tourists?

We will fly - to Mars, to the Moon - or we will meet aliens in near-earth orbit, relatively speaking.

Or maybe you have to defend yourself against some asteroid.

And, let's say, if we have some kind of super task, then all countries will gather again - and we will have a new international manned space program.

The main thing is to be technically ready for this.

- How is the work on the creation of the Russian-Spanish ultraviolet space telescope Spektr-UF progressing?

It is also called the analogue of the Hubble telescope.

What new opportunities will it give researchers?

- "Spectrum-UV" is a telescope operating in the ultraviolet wavelength range. This is not yet X-ray radiation, but we no longer see it with our eyes. But in ultraviolet light, for example, planetary atmospheres glow well. In visible light, the star completely outshines the planet. And in the ultraviolet, the planet will look much brighter, because in this range, hydrogen shines, the so-called hydrogen corona, which, for example, the Earth and all other planets have. Therefore, it will be easier to see exoplanets in ultraviolet light. In addition, the most interesting stars that explode quickly are the hottest and brightest, they are clearly visible even in other galaxies in the ultraviolet glow. These are the so-called giants and supergiants of the blue or white classes, according to them you can determine the type, history of the galaxy.

Spectrum-UV is indeed similar to Hubble, although the range is slightly different.

And technologies are no longer used in the 1980s, but in the 2010-2020s.

IKI is also participating in this project, we are looking forward to its launch.

In general, generally speaking, we have a large scientific space program, which includes two dozen projects.

The next few years are the launch of the Luna-25, Ionosphere, Exo-Mars spacecraft.

Now we have a Spektr-RG X-ray observatory with two telescopes, and by 2025 it is planned to put the Bion satellite into orbit with biological experiments.

Two more spacecraft will have to go to the moon - orbital and landing.

Plus, it is planned to launch the Resonance satellite to study the influence of the Sun on the Earth's magnetic field.

This is a rough program until 2025.