MLM "Science" - the continuation of the story. Inflatable autonomous space module

The Russian space laboratory module "Nauka" will not be launched on the ISS due to the inability to eliminate problems with the propulsion system and the general obsolescence of components. What this threatens the Russian space - Life journalist Mikhail Kotov understood.

Say no to science

At the end of last week, at a meeting of the expert council of the Russian military-industrial commission, which discussed the development strategy of Roscosmos, it became clear from the presentation slides that the launch of the Nauka laboratory module to the ISS was postponed for at least a year - until the end of 2018. Yesterday, news agencies reported that Nauka might not be launched at all, since in 22 years "all the rubber elements of the module are already outdated and do not meet the requirements for them."

If this information is confirmed by Roskosmos, it will turn out that the project, which lasted more than twenty years, simply disappeared in vain, turning into a grandiose zilch instead of a Russian space triumph.

The bells that this will happen, sounded a few months ago. At first, among the planned launches for 2017, it was not possible to find a record of the launch of a rocket with the Nauka module to the ISS. In itself, this does not mean anything, they can always add at the last moment, but it makes you think.

Then in the online version of the American edition Popular Mechanics information appeared that the last three years of the Khrunichev Center's work on cleaning the fuel system of the multifunctional laboratory module ended in nothing. The pollution has not yet been eradicated. However, Russian officials remained silent or said that everything was in order with Nauka.

Judging by the bits of information that have appeared now, no one believes in the possibility of launching this module into space. It remains only to receive official approval to cancel all work.

Suffering for "Science"

Work on this module began in 1995. It was assumed that Nauka would be created on the basis of the Zarya backup module and it would become the largest Russian segment of the International space station. At present, the Russian part of the orbital complex includes the Zarya functional cargo block, the Zvezda service module, the Pirs docking compartment, as well as the Poisk small research module and the Rassvet docking and cargo module.

Funding problems slowed down the timely creation of Nauka, and the module was ready only by 2013. The initial launch date was set for 2014, then postponed, postponed again, and again. And now the deadline has been moved to the end of 2017. It was declared the most accurate deadline.

Subsequently, it became known that in 2013 pollution was found in the propulsion system of Nauka. The module was sent back to the Khrunichev Center, where they tried to bring it back to life for several years. This is a challenging job, as the laboratory module's propulsion system includes hundreds of meters of fuel lines and various hoses, each of which must be flushed and cleaned. However, as it became known recently, the whole complex of works turned out to be useless.

Currently, to eliminate contamination (metal powder formed during the manufacture of the module), it is proposed to cut the fuel tanks to clean them from the inside, and then weld them again. These works will take about a year. What was done during the previous few years remains a mystery.

Even more mysterious are the claims of rubber bands that cannot be replaced. Since the module is almost completely assembled and disassembled, the impossibility of replacing rubber bands without technical justification sounds strange. However, in this matter, specialists responsible for the safety of flight and ongoing work know better.

The "science" we have lost

What do we lose if Nauka is absent from work? This module was the main Russian hope in connection with the upcoming end in 2024 of the contract for the joint use of the ISS between the United States and Russia. In light of the impending divorce, Russian space officials considered the option of separating the domestic part of the station and starting independent work. To do this, it was supposed to add three modules to the Russian segments: the laboratory "Science", as well as the nodal and energy segments. Without this, the independent work of the Russian part of the station is unrealistic, and Dmitry Rogozin has recently said about flying to the ISS just for the sake of flights. According to him, industries we need customers who are interested in the result, and not in the process, as is often the case now.

However, without "Science" we will not have any process. The module provided for unified workplaces and devices for connecting scientific equipment both inside the station and outside. Among other things, with the help of the European ERA manipulator, it was supposed to carry out many scientific experiments without going into outer space, which would help to reduce costs. "Science" was supposed to deal not only with the actual scientific tasks, but also provide the ISS with oxygen, regenerate water from urine and control the orientation of the station along the roll channel.

In principle, the purpose of this module is to become the basis for the continued deployment of the station, to provide ports for transport ships and other research modules. The name "laboratory" does not reflect the importance of "Science" in the life of the station.

Recently, a decision was made to reduce the Russian crew of the ISS by one cosmonaut with the return of full-fledged flights after the launch of the laboratory module. What they will do now is unknown. The spacewalk planned for August immediately becomes irrelevant. At present, its main goal is to prepare a docking site for Nauka, and if there is none, then nothing needs to be prepared.

Come on, Science?

Good (or rather, bad), "Science" does not fly into space. What options does Roskosmos have? The most adequate solution does not seem to be an attempt to hush it up to the last, but to carry out fault detection as soon as possible and determine whether everything is bad or everything is very bad. The main thing is not to deceive ourselves with the possibility of quietly rescheduling the deadline for another year in anticipation that the problem will resolve itself. Work on "Science" has been going on for four years, and there is almost no hope for the best.

The patient is more alive than dead. - The patient is more dead than alive

film "The Adventures of Pinocchio"

Why such urgency? The thing is that there is very little time left before the division of property with the Americans in 2024. If by this time the Russian segment does not have a set of laboratory, nodal and fuel modules, then the very existence of the Russian part of the orbital station will be in question.

With the current budgets and the Federal Space Program, Russia simply will not have a second chance to launch a serious scientific station. Then the entire space program can automatically shrink to two or three launches of military satellites a year and watching how spaceports die.

Now, more than ever, we need a tough will and a clear, unvarnished understanding of the situation. Instead, the opposite happens: backdating, as quietly as possible, when you need to solve the problem, find funds and try to meet the deadline. As already said by one very smart animal: "You need to run as fast as you can just to stay in place, and to get somewhere, you need to run at least twice as fast!"

MOSCOW, 7 July. /TASS/. In the next three years, the Russian segment of the International Space Station should be replenished with three modules - laboratory, nodal and scientific and energy.

The Multifunctional Laboratory Module (MLM) will be the first to go into orbit at the end of 2017. This deadline was confirmed at a recent meeting held by the state corporation Roscosmos at the Khrunichev Center.

"Work on the MLM is proceeding in accordance with the approved schedule, and the launch will take place as previously scheduled," TASS was told in the Directorate for Communications of the Space Center. Khrunichev.

In 2018, the ISS will be augmented by Prichal, and in 2019, with the commissioning of the Science and Energy Module, the construction of the Russian segment of the station will be completed.

After the termination of the existence of the ISS (while its life is extended until 2024), these three modules can become the basis of the domestic orbital station.

Multifunctional laboratory module "Science"

The most long-awaited and most problematic module. Its creation began at the Khrunichev Center back in 1995, and then it was considered as a backup for Zarya, the first module of the ISS.

In 2004, it was decided to transform the MLM into a full-fledged scientific module with a launch in 2007. In 2013, an inspection by RSC Energia specialists revealed a blockage in the pipeline and sent the MLM back to the manufacturing plant. There he is still.

The module will solve not only scientific problems: it must produce oxygen for six people, regenerate water from urine (such technologies were used at the Mir station, and are now used on the American segment of the ISS), as well as control the orientation of the station, for example, raise the altitude of its orbit or dodge space debris.

With Nauka, Russian cosmonauts will receive a second toilet (the first is located in the Zvezda module), a cabin for the third crew member, who still has to "visit" the Americans, as well as the European ERA manipulator, which will allow them to perform a number of jobs without spacewalk .

For laboratory research, the module provides 29 workplaces.

"The design of the module provides for unified workplaces - devices for installing and connecting scientific equipment inside and outside the station, thanks to which the module can be adapted to any task. The high degree of automation of the MLM will reduce the number of expensive spacewalks - many operations overboard can be performed without leaving the station," the press center of RSC Energia said.

The functions of the MLM partially coincide with the capabilities of the Zvezda service module, and outwardly it looks like the Zarya, from which the hull was borrowed. Nevertheless, the press service of the head institute of Roskosmos, TsNIIMash, notes that Nauka is seriously different from Zarya in terms of equipment.

"For example, an on-board computer system, an on-board equipment control system based on a new element base, and additional subsystems of the life support system were installed on board the MLM," TsNIIMash was quoted as saying.

Nodal module "Prichal"

The module is unique - it has six docking nodes at once. It was made in 2014, and it should go into space after MLM. In the meantime, the module is stored on the territory of RSC Energia.

"Its creation is a big step towards the implementation of the concept of a renewable domestic space station with an unlimited resource," they say in the corporation. "Such products have not been manufactured before in any country in the world."

The predecessor of "Prichal" can be called the base unit of the station "Mir", which had five docking nodes. The node module should become the same "core" of the future Russian orbital station if the operation of the ISS ceases after 2024.

Science and Energy Module

This module does not yet have its own name. It is designed to conduct experiments and provide the Russian segment of the ISS with electricity, which so far has to be bought from the Americans. The solar panels of the American segment of the station can generate up to 32 kW.

The new Russian module will be able to produce at least 18 kW, fully covering the needs of the domestic segment. So far, only Zvezda supplies energy for it (up to 13.8 kW), MLM will have to generate another 2.5 kW.

A distinctive feature of the NEM is its volume, reaching 92 cubic meters. This is noticeably more than that of "Nauka" (70 cubic meters), and even more so the docking "Piers" (19 "cubes"). The scientific and energy module will increase the living space for Russian cosmonauts by almost a third - now the entire volume of the domestic segment is a little more than 203 cubic meters, mainly devoted to scientific equipment.

The layout of the module, RSC Energia explains, allows it to be rebuilt for any task right in flight, for example, adding shelves for equipment or an additional cabin for a crew member.

launch Place of docking Nadirny

Multifunctional laboratory module, advanced (abbr.: MLM-U, named "The science") - one of the proposed modules of the Russian segment of the International Space Station, created by the GKNPTs im. M.V. Khrunichev based on the understudy of the Zarya module - FGB-2, commissioned by the Federal Space Agency of Russia. The 17th module for the ISS "Nauka" should be one of the largest modules on the entire International Space Station.

Launch and docking with the ISS

The timing of the launch of the module using the Proton launch vehicle was repeatedly shifted: initially, the launch was scheduled for the first half of 2014, then for 2015, however, in the course of work on its retrofitting, foreign particles were found in the module’s propulsion system and it was sent to the manufacturer (to the Khrunichev Center). The module is now scheduled to be launched in December 2017. The service life of the Nauka module is at least 7 years.

As of July 2016, the launch of MLM-U to the ISS is planned for the end of 2017. Docking will be made to the nadir docking port of the Zvezda service module, instead of the Pirs module. Prior to the MLM-U docking with the ISS, the Pirs module will be undocked, deorbited and flooded. Already built and planned for launch in 2018 is the Nodal Module "Prichal", which will be docked to the MLM.

Story

The creation of FGB-2 in the configuration of the FGB-1 backup began in 1995, simultaneously with the creation of the Functional Cargo Block "Zarya" - the first module of the ISS, by decision of the leadership of the GKNPTs them. Khrunichev from his own funds.

In accordance with the Decision of Rosaviakosmos dated February 16, 2004 "On carrying out work on the simplified configuration of the ISS", approved by the General Director of Rosaviakosmos Koptev Yu. MLM) using the FGB-2 backlog”, approved by the head of the Federal Space Agency A.N. Perminov, MLM is included in the Russian segment at the nadir port of the SM Zvezda as a multifunctional laboratory module.

According to the simplified configuration of the ISS RS, the MLM module based on FGB-2 is designed to continue the deployment of the ISS RS by providing ports for transport vehicles and research modules, placing research equipment, delivering and storing cargo, etc.

In the event that the operation of the ISS is completed in 2024, the Science and Energy Module Nauka, as well as two more new Russian modules - the Science and Energy Module and the Nodal Module Prichal - will be undocked and become the basis of the Russian national orbital station.

On November 27, 2013, the head of the manned programs of Roscosmos, Alexei Krasnov, announced that Roscosmos had made an official decision to postpone the MLM launch for the International Space Station and return it for revision.

The MLM was modernized, as a result of which the module was named MLM-U (improved).

Purpose of the module

If possible, MLM should provide conditions for the implementation of commercial projects in order to attract extrabudgetary funds, including in the form of investments intended to complete the creation of the product and put it into operation.

In accordance with the initial data, the following requirements are imposed on MLM based on FGB-2:

• MLM should have a port for docking transport ships (TPK Soyuz-TM and TGK Progress-M and their modifications) and research modules both in automatic mode and in TORU mode.
• The MLM must ensure the transit of fuel from the Progress TGC to the SM and FGB tanks.
• FGB-2 should participate in the roll control of the ISS with the help of its engines.
• The MLM should be provided with places to place the ERA manipulator, base points for external scientific equipment and a cargo platform, and pins for storing and servicing delivered payloads.

According to the terms of reference of Roscosmos, MLM Nauka, ensuring the task of developing the Russian segment of the ISS and conducting full-fledged scientific research, must perform the following functions:

• placement and maintenance of scientific equipment;
• placement of the European manipulator ERA and ensuring its functioning;
• provision of volumes for storage of goods;
• maintenance of partial life support functions;
• control of the ISS through the roll channel with the help of engines installed on the pressurized adapter;
• provision of a docking port for transport ships and research modules;
• fuel transit from the Progress transport spacecraft to the Zvezda service module.

External equipment

The Nauka module is equipped with a European ERA robotic arm 11.3 meters long, weighing 600 kg, with a maximum payload capacity of 8 tons, designed to service the Russian segment of the ISS. The robot can move individual large modules of the ISS, and is also capable of capturing and moving objects with an accuracy of up to 5 millimeters.

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Segments Main modules Other devices Delivery ships Scheduled Canceled

An excerpt characterizing Science (ISS module)

“Not at all,” he said.
- Well, have you lost your mind?
- On the contrary, but the importance is somehow. Princess! he told her in a whisper.
“Yes, yes, yes,” Natasha said happily.
Natasha told him her affair with Prince Andrei, his arrival in Otradnoye, and showed him his last letter.
- What are you happy about? Natasha asked. - I'm so calm now, happy.
“I am very glad,” Nikolai replied. - He's a great person. What are you so in love with?
- How can I tell you, - Natasha answered, - I was in love with Boris, with a teacher, with Denisov, but this is not at all the same. I am calm, firm. I know that there are no people better than him, and I feel so calm, good now. Not at all like before...
Nikolai expressed his displeasure to Natasha that the wedding had been postponed for a year; but Natasha attacked her brother with bitterness, proving to him that it could not be otherwise, that it would be bad to enter the family against the will of her father, that she herself wanted it.
“You don’t understand at all,” she said. Nicholas fell silent and agreed with her.
Her brother was often surprised looking at her. It was not at all like she was a bride in love separated from her fiancé. She was even, calm, cheerful, completely as before. This surprised Nikolai and even made him look incredulously at Bolkonsky's matchmaking. He did not believe that her fate had already been decided, especially since he had not seen Prince Andrei with her. It always seemed to him that something was not right in this proposed marriage.
"Why the delay? Why didn't you get engaged?" he thought. Having talked once with his mother about his sister, he, to his surprise and partly to his pleasure, found that his mother, in the depths of her soul, sometimes looked with distrust at this marriage.
“Here he writes,” she said, showing her son a letter from Prince Andrei with that hidden feeling of hostility that a mother always has against her daughter’s future marital happiness, “writes that she will not arrive before December. What kind of business could hold him back? That's right, a disease! Health is very weak. Don't tell Natasha. Don't look at how cheerful she is: this is the last girl's time, and I know what happens to her every time we receive his letters. But God willing, everything will be fine, - she concluded every time: - he is an excellent person.

The first time of his arrival, Nikolai was serious and even boring. He was tormented by the imminent need to intervene in these stupid household affairs for which his mother had called him. In order to get this burden off his shoulders as soon as possible, on the third day of his arrival, he angrily, without answering the question where he was going, went with frowning eyebrows to Mitenka's wing and demanded from him the accounts of everything. What these accounts of everything were, Nikolai knew even less than Mitenka, who had come in fear and bewilderment. The conversation and accounting of Mitenka did not last long. The headman, the elector and the zemstvo, who were waiting in the ante-room of the wing, heard with fear and pleasure at first how the young count’s voice, which seemed to rise ever higher, hummed and crackled, heard abusive and terrible words, pouring out one after another.
- Rogue! Ungrateful creature! ... I will chop up a dog ... not with my father ... robbed ... - etc.
Then, with no less pleasure and fear, these people saw how the young count, all red, with bloodshot eyes, pulled Mitenka by the collar, with great dexterity, with great dexterity, between his words, pushed him in the behind and shouted: “Get out! so that your spirit, bastard, is not here!
Mitenka flew headlong down the six steps and ran into the flower bed. (This flowerbed was a well-known area for saving criminals in Otradnoye. Mitenka himself, when he arrived drunk from the city, hid in this flowerbed, and many residents of Otradnoye, hiding from Mitenka, knew the saving power of this flowerbed.)
Mitenka's wife and sisters-in-law, with frightened faces, leaned out into the hallway from the door of the room, where a clean samovar was boiling and the clerk's high bed stood under a quilted blanket sewn from short pieces.
The young count, panting, paying no attention to them, walked past them with resolute steps and went into the house.
The countess, who immediately learned through the girls about what had happened in the wing, on the one hand, calmed down in the sense that now their condition should get better, on the other hand, she was worried about how her son would endure this. She tiptoed to his door several times, listening to him smoke pipe after pipe.
The next day the old count called his son aside and said to him with a timid smile:
- Do you know, you, my soul, got excited in vain! Mitenka told me everything.
"I knew, thought Nikolai, that I would never understand anything here in this stupid world."
- You were angry that he did not enter these 700 rubles. After all, he wrote them in transport, and you didn’t look at the other page.
- Daddy, he's a scoundrel and a thief, I know. And what he did, he did. And if you don't want me, I won't tell him anything.
- No, my soul (the count was also embarrassed. He felt that he was a bad manager of his wife's estate and was guilty before his children, but did not know how to fix it) - No, I ask you to take care of business, I'm old, I ...
- No, papa, you will forgive me if I did something unpleasant for you; I can do less than you.
“To hell with them, with these men and money, and transports along the page,” he thought. Even from a corner of six kush, I once understood, but from the page of transport - I don’t understand anything, ”he said to himself, and since then he has no longer intervened in business. Only once did the countess call her son to her, inform him that she had Anna Mikhailovna's bill for two thousand and asked Nikolai what he was thinking of doing with him.
“But how,” Nikolai answered. – You told me that it depends on me; I do not love Anna Mikhailovna and I do not love Boris, but they were friendly with us and poor. So that's how! - and he tore the bill, and with this act, with tears of joy, he made the old countess sob. After that, the young Rostov, no longer intervening in any business, with passionate enthusiasm, took up the still new for him cases of dog hunting, which had been started on a large scale by the old count.

There were already winters, morning frosts shackled the ground moistened with autumn rains, already the greenery had become narrower and brightly green separated from the stripes of turning brown, knocked out by cattle, winter and light yellow spring stubble with red stripes of buckwheat. The peaks and forests, which at the end of August were still green islands between the black fields of winter and stubble, became golden and bright red islands in the midst of bright green winters. The hare was already halfway lost (molted), the fox broods began to disperse, and the young wolves were larger than the dog. It was the best hunting time. The dogs of the hot, young hunter Rostov not only entered the hunting body, but also knocked out so that in the general council of hunters it was decided to give the dogs a rest for three days and go on departure on September 16, starting from the oak forest, where there was an untouched wolf brood.
This was the state of affairs on the 14th of September.
All that day the hunt was at home; it was frosty and poignant, but in the evening it began to rejuvenate and warmed up. On September 15, when young Rostov looked out the window in the morning in a dressing gown, he saw such a morning, better than which nothing could be better for hunting: as if the sky was melting and descending to the ground without wind. The only movement that was in the air was the quiet movement from top to bottom of descending microscopic drops of mist or mist. Transparent drops hung from the bare branches of the garden and fell on the newly fallen leaves. The ground in the garden, like poppies, turned glossy wet black, and at a short distance merged with the dull and damp cover of fog. Nikolay went out onto the porch, wet with dirt, which smelled of withering forest and dogs. The black-spotted, broad-assed bitch Milka, with big black bulging eyes, saw her master, stood up, stretched back and lay down like a brown, then unexpectedly jumped up and licked him right on the nose and mustache. Another greyhound dog, seeing the owner from the colored path, arching its back, quickly rushed to the porch and raising the rule (tail), began to rub against Nikolai's legs.
- Oh goy! - that inimitable hunting echo was heard at that time, which combines both the deepest bass and the thinnest tenor; and from around the corner came Danilo, a hunter and hunter, trimmed in Ukrainian brackets, a gray-haired, wrinkled hunter with a bent rapnik in his hand and with that expression of independence and contempt for everything in the world that only hunters have. He took off his Circassian hat in front of the master, and looked at him contemptuously. This contempt was not offensive to the master: Nikolai knew that this Danilo, who despised everything and stood above all, was still his man and hunter.
- Danila! - said Nikolai, timidly feeling that at the sight of this hunting weather, these dogs and the hunter, he was already seized by that irresistible hunting feeling in which a person forgets all previous intentions, like a man in love in the presence of his mistress.
“What do you order, your excellency?” asked the protodeacon's bass voice, hoarse with chirping, and two shiny black eyes looked from under their brows at the silent gentleman. "What, or can't you stand it?" as if those two eyes said.
- Nice day, huh? And the chase, and the jump, huh? - Nikolai said, scratching Milka behind the ears.
Danilo did not answer and winked his eyes.
- He sent Uvarka to listen at dawn, - his bass said after a moment of silence, - he said, he transferred it to the Otradnensky order, they howled there. (The translation meant that the she-wolf, whom they both knew about, went with the children to the Otradnensky forest, which was two miles from the house and which was a small detached place.)

Sending the Russian multifunctional laboratory module (MLM) Nauka to the ISS may be canceled, TASS writes. This publication was stated by an unnamed source in the rocket and space industry. The launch of this module has already been postponed several times, the last one in March of this year. "Science" was left with the manufacturer, at the Khrunichev Center. The specialists of the Center found contamination in the fuel tanks of the module.

“Contamination was again found in the fuel tanks of the module, from which experts have been trying to get rid of all these years. It was decided to assess the condition of the module's systems within two weeks and then report the findings to the management to make a decision on its launch. According to preliminary estimates, the elimination of pollution and malfunctions allows the module to be launched no earlier than the end of 2018 - the beginning of 2019. It is possible that the launch will simply be canceled,” the source said.

Earlier, the launch of this module was scheduled for December this year, and the project team noted the possibility of postponing the launch to early 2018. If the launch was scheduled for December, then the module should have been sent to the Baikonur cosmodrome in March (pre-launch preparation of the module takes about 9 months). This did not happen, so the postponement or cancellation of the launch will take place with a high degree of probability.

In order to eliminate the contamination of fuel tanks, you need to cut them, clean them from the inside, and then weld them. The cleaning work will take about a year. Previously, the launch of MLM has already been postponed for the same reason. So, in 2013, the module was sent to the Khrunichev Center due to the fact that experts found foreign particles in the system.

Another problem is that all the rubber elements of the module are already outdated and do not meet the requirements. “As a result, not a single receiving body will sign a document on the acceptance of this module, will not take responsibility for the consequences,” a TASS source said.

The module began to be built in 1995, 22 years ago. Initially, it was positioned as a stand-in for the Zarya block, the first module of the ISS. After 9 years, in 2004, it was decided to convert it into a full-fledged flight module for scientific purposes with a launch in 2007. Since then, the port launch of the module has been constantly delayed. The launch weight of the Nauka is 20 tons. The creators of the module claim that it can accommodate up to three tons of scientific equipment. In addition, the module should provide a docking port for the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft, as well as provide fuel transfer from the Progress tanks to the ISS.

After the launch of Nauka, two more modules will be launched to the ISS. The first is a hub, its dispatch is scheduled for 2018, the second is a scientific and energy one, it will be launched in 2019. Three modules in the event of the completion of the operation of the ISS in 2024 should form the basis of the Russian orbital station.