Russia Wants to do a Mission to Ganymede

 

Russia has allocated 1.5 million dollars for the development of a technical proposal to land a probe on the surface of  Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon.

Ganymede would be an excellent choice.  It is the largest moon in the solar system, 8% larger than Mercury but has only 45% of Mercury's  mass.

The Russian mission will be called Laplas-P1, would consist of two spacecraft launched by separate heavy lift  launch vehicles. The trip to Jupiter would take upwards of nine years. 

 In all likelihood a prototype would not be available until 2017, with a launch date of 2023 the arrival could not take place any earlier that 2030.

For more check out the IO9 article HERE

Russians Plan Mission to Phobos

No question about it, the Russians are fascinated with Mars' moon Phobos and it would seem not without good reason.

The Russian space program has plans to visit the diminutive satellite some time around 2020 to hopefully solve some very nagging questions about the moon's makeup. 

One of the most nagging questions concerning Phobos is it's extremely low density.  Scientists have speculated that the low density is due to ice in its interior or possibly  is it due to Phobos being completely fragmented. A huge pile of rubble with voids throughout the moon.  

A recent study showed that the surface of Phobos contains tons of dust, soil, and rock blown off the Martian surface by large projectile impacts. Phobos, it would appear, has been  gathering Martian debris for millions of years.

The Phobos mission also has a goal of returning Mars surface material to Earth, but this is not the first time the Russian space program has attempted to do so.   The Russian mission will be the space agency's second attempt to return a sample from Phobos.  The first try was launched in 2011, but an engine failure stranded the spacecraft in Earth orbit.

Read the complete The Daily Galaxy article HERE

Vostochny Space Launch Centrer - Remember That Name

Here is a name you will be hearing a lot about in the next decade:  The Vostochny Cosmodrome  or quite literally the Russian:  "Eastern Spaceport".   This new Russian space launch facility's   Raison d'être  is, according to the Wikipedia,   to reduce Russia's dependency on the Baikonur Cosmodrome, which is located in Kazakhstan.

The planned total area is over 342 miles and almost 20 miles in diameter and construction costs have been estimated  over 13 billion.

Plans call for the building of seven launch pads at the site, including two for manned flights and two for space freighters.  (and three for hummmmmmmm) 

Of course not all is vodka and caviar in Amur Oblast land.  From the Wikipidea file:

• In November 2012, press reports indicated that the Russian government is having difficulty in finding a good use for the new spaceport, and that other government ministries have been avoiding the project while "calling the project a 'dolgostroi,' which is Russian for an endless construction boondoggle (aka Boston's Big Dig).

In any case The first launch from Vostochny is unlikely to occur until 2018 at the earliest due to construction delays.

New Russian Luna Spacecraft

Standing on decades of successful operation of the Soyuz, Russia has made no secret that it has plans that place their crafts well outside Earth orbit.   To effect these plans Russia has finalized the design for a new spacecraft capable of transporting humans to the Moon. 

The "Prospective Piloted Transport System, as it has been designated, design contract has been was awarded to Energia in 2009 and is the company that presently construct the Soyuz.  All indications point to the PPTS being ready for flight soon.   Energia  execs have said  "If we get normal financing, we will start flight tests of the spaceship in 2017."   

Here is the complete Dvice article   and the original RT article here

US Erases Russian Grunt Radar Data After Accusations?!

Have you heard this one? A couple of days ago a friend told me that the Russians were blaming the US of blasting their Phobos Grunt probe with radar making it unable to get a fix on its' position and therefor crashing back into the Pacific ocean. I really thought it was the height of paranoia and an effort from those in control to cover their collective asses from the Russian government that said heads would roll for this mistake. So I just disregarded it as ranting when I heard about the radar connection. But then our government does something so patently suspicious you have to ask, what were they thinking? It seems, according to the Gizmodo article:

• After Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin accused the United States of being the main suspect in rendering their Phobos-Grunt Mars spacecraft useless, the United States Strategic Command has mysteriously deleted all the spaceship's data from their Space Track database.

Really?  In plain sight?!!  Its not like Space Track is some super secret site:

• Space Track is an unclassified but password-protected site. It tracks every object in orbit, publishing timely data about their position. The data is publicly available to more than 39,000 users in more than one hundred countries around the world.

Not exactly a place to pull a stunt that is clearly against Space Track policy.  

Gizmodo article

Russian Grunt to Fall into the Ocean Sometime Between Saturday and Monday

In a recent Daily Galaxy blog article details the last few moments of the failed Russian Mars Phobos probe and its' projected impact in the Indian Ocean sometime between January 14 and January 16th.

The probe, which was launched on  Nov. 9, was to explore one of Mars’ two moons, Phobos, but became stranded after its  launch, still in Earth orbit, after it failed to respond to engineers in Russia and the European Space Agency, never igniting the stage that was to propel the spacecraft toward its target.

Phobos-Grunt weighs 14.6 tons, which includes 12 tons of highly toxic fuel,  all of which is projected to burn up before impacting the ocean.

Russian Failed Mars Mission Could Mean Charges?

Russia's failed Mars exploratory rover mission failure mean that scientists and engineers behind the Phobos-Grunt mission could face criminal prosecution - This directly from the country's president, Dmitry Medvedev.

Another highly visible failures consists of the botched Russian cargo shipment, intended for the International Space Station, that came crashing to Earth minutes after blastoff back in August.

According to IO9 punishment could take the form of either financial or, disciplinary or even criminal punishment.

It seems that Medvedev's comments were more directed toward Lavochkin, the company that built the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft.

More at the IO9 article site

30 Update: Soyuz Docks With ISS

At 11:11 Moscow time, 3 pm Eastern, the Soyuz capsule carrying one American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts docked with the international space station. This crew is scheduled to remain on the ISS for 150 days.

Below is the video of the Soyuz as it makes it's approach and docking maneuvers.

Russian Phobos Grunt - Off the Mark, Possibly Finished?

According to BBC news online via The Daily Galaxy blog, Russian space agency reports that shortly after launch, the Phobos Grunt probe failed to fire its' mains to launch it towards Mars and is now:

• stuck in an Earth orbit and that engineers have two weeks to correct the fault before the probe's batteries run out.

The probe's mission was to collect rock and dust samples from Mars' moon Phobos and bring them back for study in labs on Earth.

• The venture is also significant because it is carrying China's first Mars satellite. Yinghuo-1 is riding piggyback on Phobos-Grunt.

Possible reason for the failure to fire may be due to the probe not being able to:

• orientate itself in space using the stars, failed to pick them up and therefore did not execute the firings as planned.

BBC news article here

Cause of Russian Progress Crash Determined

This recent Device article reports that A Russian investigatory commission has discovered that the crash. There was some worry that worry was that a design flaw might be the cause. The commission's findings point instead to something almost as bad. A manufacturing fault.

From the article:

• (The crash was) caused by a clogged fuel line in the third stage engine of the Soyuz rocket. This particular fuel line was driving a turbo pump that pumps fuel into the main combustion chamber, so when the pump failed, the third stage shut down...

This is still a bit problematic. The question is, can we trust the manufacture and assembly infrastructure will be up to the task of finding just where the part failure crept in? The Russian space agency has promised to launch another resupply module and launch some of the backlog of satellites to prove that the Soyuz rockets are still safe before they send up another manned mission to the ISS. But having this all happen before the mid November cutoff deadline for keeping the ISS manned is going to be a tall order.

Abandon Ship!

According to an article in Dvice: NASA may be considering abandoning the International Space Station in November, due mostly to the crash of the Russian Progress M-12M resupply ship in August of 2011. If the malfunction that prevented the Progress from separating from the heavy lift second stage booster then the first half of the crew will have to return in October with the balance returning in January.

Even though the station is capable of maintaining the crew indefinitely, the Soyuz is only rated for 210 days life in which exceeding that limit is strongly not recommended. And neither is a January landing on the Russian Steppes.

ISS Crews NASA and Russian mission control are all holding their collective breathes as technicians try to uncover the cause of the malfunction.

Russian Resupply Craft Crashes

A Russian Progress M-12M resupply unmanned capsule crashed 325 seconds into its flight when one stage of the Soyuz-U rocket shut down prematurely. the Progress capsule carried three tons of equipment, food, and fuel. This failure highlights the bottleneck the ISS is operating under with the Shuttle program now finished and SpaceX not yet ready to begin servicing the station. This also means that the crew exchange due September 22 may not take place and the on station crew may have to stay longer than they expected and there are already whispers circulating that the crew may need to be "reduced" to put less stress on the ISS' equipment and supplies.

Gizmodo article

For Sale: vehicle w/ extremely high mileage, serious damage

Hey, got a few million bucks available? Have I got a deal for you! Very unique vehicle, Very high mileage, showing serious wear and damage. Are you saying, Hey! Where can I get more info? Or was it...what? Are you serious?! Well actually you would be right on both counts. The auction house Sotheby's in New York will auction the spherical Vostok 3KA-2 Space Capsule. The well used space craft has great historical significance. It is the model used for the final dummy run before Uri Gagarin made his historical flight. ( oh and yes, the article spelled his name Yury...)

Read more in the complete Yahoo article here

Russians considering rocket to move asteroid off course!

Recently, in a move that has left other space capable countries a bit bemused, Russia is considering sending a space-craft to the Apophis asteroid in hopes of changing its' course and preventing a collision with Earth, a collision that NASA has deemed highly unlikely.

Apophis is an 885-foot asteroid that was first discovered in 2004. Astronomers at one point thought the chances of hitting Earth on one of its' flybys as low as 1 in 37, however the lowest estimate of a collision is now set at 1 in 45,000 for the 2036 pass. What is a bit disconcerting about the 2036 estimate is that it was once 1 in 250,000, so the chances are much higher in 2036 even though they are still stacked well against the asteroid striking Earth even then.

The head of Russia's space agency, Anatoly Perminov disagrees with NASSA's assessment saying, that he heard from a scientist that Apophis is getting closer and may hit the planet.

From the article:

• Perminov wouldn't disclose any details of the project, saying they still need to be worked out. But he said the mission wouldn't require any nuclear explosions.

complete Yahoo News article

Russian Mock Mars Mission ends

Tim Sayell sends in an article from Yahoo News reporting the end of the Russian mockup of a trip to Mars.

The six test subjects emerged after 104 day still in good humor. The group had been locked inside the mock spacecraft since March 31.

The mock-up consisted of windowless metal cylinders each the size of rail cars. Common facilities included a gym and a small garden, and the modules were equipped with the new European and Russian exercise and training equipment for biomedical research. Each crew member did have a private room for sleep. The crew also specially prepared meals and used toilets closely resembling those on the space station.

There was no internet or TV and all communications were strictly between the crew and mission control which had a built in 20 minute delay to simulate the delay that would be experienced on a real trip.

read complete story here

Russians attempted to land on Moon before Apollo 11

Wired online posts an article the describes the discovery of long forgotten audio tapes that document the Soviet's plans to land an unmanned craft on the moon in July of 1969 in hopes of upstaging Apollo 11 which was already in orbit at that time.

Luna 15 had been launched earlier in 1969 and was monitored by astronomers in England as it maneuvered and began it's decent only to crash into the Luna surface only hours after Apollo 11 /Eagle had already landed.

From the article:

• Astronomers from the University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics unearthed these forgotten audio files while researching materials for the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. The recordings come from the control room of the Jodrell Bank Observatory, where astronomer Sir Bernard Lovell and colleagues were listening to transmissions from the moon on the Lovell radio telescope.

Read complete article Wikipedia article on Luna 15

US tourist launches toward ISS

In light of some of the bad press that Space Adventures has garnered over the past few weeks, I though an article showing the successful side of a launch.

Shaun Saunders sends in an article from BBC News about space tourist Richard Garriot who was part of the crew of the Russian Soyuz that launched towards the ISS recently. Mr Garriott. a software design millionaire, has paid about $30m for his 10-day trip to the International Space Station. Richard's father, Owen Garriott, spent 60 days on the US space station Skylab in 1973. Owen, now 77, will support his son from mission control in Moscow. Richard plans to carry out experiments during his voyage, including one involving protein crystal growth, on behalf of companies that he says have footed a "meaningful percentage" of the ticket price. He will also follow in his father's footsteps and take photos to record how the Earth's surface has changed in the 35 years since his father's voyage.

The first official image of a Russian-European manned Luna spacecraft

The BBC via Gizmodo has released the first "official" images of the proposed Russian/Euro manned follow on to the Soyuz space capsule. Designed to replace the Soyuz vehicle currently in use by Russia - it will allow Europe to participate directly in crew transportation. Ultimately the reusable ship may well be utilized to carry four people towards the Moon. That's right, Four - bettering the US Ares/Orion system. Among other improvements besides the crew complement size is the emphasis on re-usability. Plans for the capsule entale making a soft landing using rocket engines unlike the Soyuz predicessor. Resembling America's next-generation spacecraft Orion. (though it could be said that Orion bears a striking resemblance to a Soyuz) The Russian-European vehicle is designed to carry six crew into low-Earth orbit and four on missions to lunar orbit. Also in the planning stages are possibilities of using the new Vostochny Cosmodrome being developed in Russia's eastern Amur region.

Space Adventures Charters Entire Russian Spacecraft

Can you believe this?! Yep, seems it is true! According to a recent article in popsci.com: To celebrated its ten-year anniversary Space Adventures, (the group that brokered the first tourist flights to space) announced that it had negotiated a deal with the Russian Federal Space Agency to buy an entire flight to the International Space Station. That's right, not just one seat, but the entire flight will be taken up by space tourists. A professional Russian cosmonaut will command the flight for two ticket-paying passengers some time in late 2011. (Soyuz as you know can only carry three people) From then on, Space Adventures plans to fly one charter flight to the International Space Station a year through the station's operational life. RKA will add new spaceships to its manifest rather than bumping existing flights. (you got to think about this for a second....this puts the vaunted NASA on the same level as Space Adventures, basicly buying seats from the Russians. *sigh*) Indications are that a tourist space walk and trip to the moon are in the planning stages - flown by the Russian Federal Space Agency and brokered by Space Adventures. (I hate to even think this, but with exciting stuff like this happening, NASA appears to be dead and to stupid to lay down. NASA is doing some great science, but leaving this huge gap in their manned program shows that they are event driven, advancing in spirts. The Russians have been steady throughout the last 40 plus years. Simplistic yes, but who is buying seats from whom? )