As Russia prepares to leave the International Space Station, a new space station is being developed to make sure “the country is not left without a space station.” The New Russian Space Station will also help to monitor the Earth’s ‘health,’ says a design team member.
On the opening day of the ARMY-2022 exhibition, which began on August 15 in the Moscow region, a model of a new Russian space station (abbreviated as ROS) was presented.
The space station, whose design is being created by Russian spacecraft manufacturer “Energia,” is anticipated to be up and running by the time Russia pulls back from the International Space Station project. It is intended to help take care of our planet by, for instance, detecting wildfires and tracking the melting of glaciers, an engineer involved in the station’s design said.
Margarita Sidorova, an engineer, revealed that they had already completed the station’s initial preliminary design and determined the height and angle of the orbit. The modules themselves are anticipated to be deployed in two stages, and the team will now prepare preliminary designs for each module of the station.
According to Sidorova, the sci-tech module, a node portion with an airlock, and a base module with crew quarters will be included in the first stage, while the second stage will have three dedicated modules, one of which will be a service platform.
“The first module is ready, its flight model is already available,” Sidorova said. “It was initially expected to become a part of the ISS. Now the module is going to be upgraded, with functions that allow controlling the entire station being added, just like on Zarya module on ISS. So this module is going to be the first to be brought into orbit, becoming the foundation of our space station.”
The ROS will be able to monitor practically the whole surface of our planet, and most significantly, the entire area of Russia, which the ISS is unable to do, she added.
“The station will allow us to monitor the melting of glaciers and to track and prevent wildfires, especially in hard-to-reach places in Russia,” Sidorova noted. “Right now, we often cannot detect them immediately and only become aware of them when it is too late. The ROS will help us to monitor our planet’s, and Russia’s, ‘health’ more closely. The ROS will also allow us to conduct complex geological research – for example, to explore new natural resource deposits.”
The station is being developed, as Russia moves to withdraw from the ISS program, in order to guarantee that “the country is not left without a space station.” according to officials of the Energia corporation who occupied the company’s display at the ARMY-2022 exhibition.
The eighth international military-technical forum ARMY-2022 began on August 15 and will continue until August 21 at various locations in the Moscow region.