November 25, 2013 at 20:44Where is the history of space
I hope everyone knows about the NGO named after S.A. Lavochkina - an enterprise that since 1965 has been implementing all interplanetary missions of the USSR and Russia. At least everyone probably heard about their products: Luna-3, Luna-9, Luna-16, Lunokhod, Mars-3, Mars-5, Venus-7 , "Venera-13", "Vega", "Phobos-Grunt", "Radioastron", "Electro-L" ... Like any enterprise in the space industry, it is under the regime of secrecy, and even the museum can be accessed only by prior request and in group tour.
Just a month ago, I was surprised to learn that in addition to the museum, there is still a mysterious place under the ironic name “Hangar 18” in NPOL.
Unlike the American counterpart, he hides not alien ships, but earthly ones. But the wealth of the collection, collected on a small area, can confidently compete with the now-defeated pavilion "Cosmos" at VDNH. Seeing such cosmic abundance, at first I was just stunned. Then he learned that Lunokhod is a running model; "Venus-7" - a technological model that underwent thermal vacuum tests before flight in 1970; and almost all models contain elements that were created for real devices, the successes of which I was inspired in childhood. In short, the state of shock did not release immediately. But first things first.
The creator, keeper and master of this cosmic wealth - Ruslan Vladimirovich Komaev - is a legendary person whose talent as an engineer and leader over the past three decades has led the USSR and Russia to outstanding successes from Venus 13 to Radioastron. Of course, there were failures like “Mars-96” or “Phobos-Grunt,” but there were also such devices as “Grenade” or “Astron”, which almost no one knows about, despite years of successful work.
The plans of Ruslan Vladimirovich and the leadership of NPOL create an educational children's space center that can inspire future generations of space explorers. It is assumed that he will be located in Khimki, not far from the enterprise, and will be focused primarily on working with Khimki youth. Although, it seems to me, the scale of such a center is much wider, it may well have federal significance.
Now there, of course, the opening is still far away. Targeted state funding is not allocated, mock-ups and models are actually restored on the basis of Komaev’s enthusiasm, often at his expense. The management of the enterprise helps as far as possible, so things are not moving there as fast as we would like, but obvious progress is evident.
Hangar 18 is located in the closed part of the plant (yes, in the closed territory of the enterprise there is an even more closed part). Therefore, to bring a camera there would require considerable effort and numerous approvals. However, on Saturday, November 23rd, we, together with the art community of the USSR-2061 , organized a blog tour for NGOs. Unfortunately, it was not possible to see the production itself. They explained to us that every visitor to a clean room where spacecraft are assembled is a source of pollution, and there were twelve of us, so alas. But it was possible to see the museum NPOL and, more interestingly, "Hangar 18".
Ruslan Vladimirovich himself met us at the entrance, and behind the door there was a surprise that no one expected — the Apollo orbital and descent modules! Yes, Komaev decided that once learning to master the cosmos, then it is necessary to learn the world experience, and not just your own. Therefore, he collected all the information, photographs, drawings that are available on the Internet, and creates a full-size model of the American lunar module, which will correspond to the original not only from the outside, but also inside.
When the work is completed, here it will be possible to easily remove Apollo 13 again.
Now, even on Saturday (and maybe only on Saturday), work is underway to recreate Gagarin's descent capsule:
The process did not stop even in spite of a flock of curious bloggers clicking cameras and asking a lot of questions.
The plans of Komaev to ask RSC Energia for another Soyuz ship to complete the collection, but so far there is no place to put it.
Along the walls of "Angara 18" "modestly" are full-size models of automatic interplanetary stations. In the center rises "Luna-24." It is interesting for its drilling device, which allowed to extract lunar soil from a depth of 2 meters.
The predecessors had another soil intake device that produced shallow drilling:
The device of the first generation drill can be carefully studied at the Museum of NPO named after S.A. Lavochkina.
In general, the extraction and delivery of lunar samples is a very interesting mission, which is worth telling separately. For example, I myself only found out that various drilling devices were used. I’ll start preparing the material, but first I’ll try to get pictures from these devices from the bowels of the RAS.
Next to Luna 24 is the Soviet-(Russian) -European astrophysical observatory Granat, which worked from 1989 to 1998:
A part of the telescope was dismantled, otherwise it would have to cut a hole in the ceiling.
And behind the "Moon", lurking ... Guess what?
Yes, it’s Moonbuggy - the American Apollo lunar rover:
The machine still needs to be improved, for example, it is necessary to pull the metal mesh onto the wheels, but soon it will be ready to take on board the first young astronauts.
The creator of the model even prepared the instruments of the lunar expedition, and with pleasure demonstrates the result of his work.
In general, when you look at this white-haired space explorer (without quotes), who, as a boy, boasts of his crafts, you are inevitably infected with his enthusiasm. This is really a man who, over the years, has carried his sincere interest and devotes his life to him. Such people, at one time, made a jerk into space, and such people are sorely lacking in the industry today.
Along the wall farthest from the entrance, the automatic conquerors of Venus lined up. The Venus-7 descent vehicle lies at the foot of the multi-ton tower of the Venus-13. This "Seven" has not only exhibition value, but also historical, because It was created for temperature tests in preparation for the first successful landing on Venus.
The burned pennant Venera-7 on the case eloquently speaks of the experienced trials:
( I thought for a long time why part of the inscription is in mirror reflection, but still did not understand. Apparently the temperature was such that the nameplate moved to the mirror dimension :)
The Vega model is different from the neighboring "Venus-13" in that the casing of the descent vehicle is partially removed and the landing module itself is visible. On the case, dust protection plates were added, which were necessary for the station when approaching Halley's comet. In addition, the structural difference is the massive block of ASP-G cameras for shooting a comet using an external manipulator:
Dimensions, “cameras”, of course, space ones:
But she made observations unique to that time, revealing the secrets of the legendary comet, which for centuries had terrified the inhabitants of the Earth:
“Venus-15” rises in the corner. It also did not fit entirely under the ceiling of the hangar, so the multi-meter radar, which was used to map the North Pole of Venus, lies separately. Shooting from the side of the transmitting antenna:
I could not pass by the old friend "Mars-3":
Here it is packed in full. Few where you can see it in this form. The museum at VDNH has only a lander. At the NPOL Museum there is a descent vehicle with an element of a protective casing and a brake cone. At the Museum of the Space Research Institute - 1/3 model. Possible only in Kaluga "complete set" 1/1.
And finally, Lunokhod-2 is a functional model, though not yet complete. But the wheels are spinning, the antenna is being controlled, and the cameras are being shot.
In the idea of Ruslan Vladimirovich to make a full-fledged lunodrome, on which one could practice in controlling the device. Two modes are supposed: "Lunokhod" when the control is fully consistent with how it was carried out in 1973; and the Mars rover, when it is necessary to write a program of action, send it to the device, and it will already be engaged in the implementation. For the first mode, a control panel will be made that matches the original one. The consultant for its creation will be one of the "drivers" of the lunar rover. In the second mode, the commands will be downloaded from the computer, and it will even be possible to implement some time delay, as when transmitting to Mars.
I had an idea: until the Khimki Space Center had been erected, put Lunokhod-2 on Mars-Tefo - in the Cosmos pavilion at the All-Russian Exhibition Center. Fortunately, the place has been “prayed” since the days of the Soviet Union, and the company specializes in educational and entertaining work with children. In the pavilion, it would be possible to build a lunodrome (it seems that there were still some fragments of the training ground, in which, in fact, the Soviet storming of the Moon was being prepared) and realize the dream of young and adult space fans to steer the Lunokhod. The leadership of NPOL liked the idea, Komaev said that you can try and complete the apparatus by April 12 ...
Lunokhod returns to Cosmos- This news would be worthy of the headlines in the newspapers of the country. But, as it often happens now, the initiative ran into trivial problems: rents are too expensive, they do not offer discounts for space, there are not enough specialists, there is nowhere to wait for help. So, if anyone has a familiar investor who finds $ 1M in space - let me know. Well, or several parts. I thought about kickstarter, but I'm afraid I cannot raise the necessary amount of funds, at least not for Cosmos at the All-Russian Exhibition Center.
But you can try to help in another way. If someone knows how to hold a screwdriver, soldering iron or electric drill and there is a desire to do something for space, we can offer our help to Komaev. It is impossible to say for sure whether it will be possible to realize this, whether there will be an opportunity to go to the closed part of the plant, and whether our help is needed, but we will at least offer it. But if it works out, it will be possible to work together with real space specialists. To do this, I propose to leave a comment in the discussion of VC or, if there is no account, to me in PM. For now, just find out if there are anyone. If there are, then let's go ask for an NGO.
Later I will also tell about the museum of the NGO named after S.A. Lavochkina. There are also many interesting exhibits, although not as large-scale ones - it’s just that the height of the room does not allow.
Getting there is easier than in "Hangar 18", you can even assemble a group from Habr, if there are many who want to. But that's another story.
In conclusion, I would like to note that such an event as a visit to the space company's photobloggers is an extremely rare, if not unique, event in the Russian cosmonautics. Therefore, I would like to thank the leadership of the enterprise NPO them. S.A. Lavochkina, who dared to take such a step. He says that, finally, he finds support for the idea of greater openness of the industry, more complete and frequent coverage of activities, cooperation with space enthusiasts and dialogue with the Internet audience. We were noticed, and this is a merit of, in fact, everyone who wrote articles on space topics, added views to such articles, reposted and removed the Cosmonautics hub from offtopic ... I hope the current event is only the beginning of a large-scale process of bringing cosmonautics and society closer and, in the end, together
Just a month ago, I was surprised to learn that in addition to the museum, there is still a mysterious place under the ironic name “Hangar 18” in NPOL.
Unlike the American counterpart, he hides not alien ships, but earthly ones. But the wealth of the collection, collected on a small area, can confidently compete with the now-defeated pavilion "Cosmos" at VDNH. Seeing such cosmic abundance, at first I was just stunned. Then he learned that Lunokhod is a running model; "Venus-7" - a technological model that underwent thermal vacuum tests before flight in 1970; and almost all models contain elements that were created for real devices, the successes of which I was inspired in childhood. In short, the state of shock did not release immediately. But first things first.
The creator, keeper and master of this cosmic wealth - Ruslan Vladimirovich Komaev - is a legendary person whose talent as an engineer and leader over the past three decades has led the USSR and Russia to outstanding successes from Venus 13 to Radioastron. Of course, there were failures like “Mars-96” or “Phobos-Grunt,” but there were also such devices as “Grenade” or “Astron”, which almost no one knows about, despite years of successful work.
The plans of Ruslan Vladimirovich and the leadership of NPOL create an educational children's space center that can inspire future generations of space explorers. It is assumed that he will be located in Khimki, not far from the enterprise, and will be focused primarily on working with Khimki youth. Although, it seems to me, the scale of such a center is much wider, it may well have federal significance.
Now there, of course, the opening is still far away. Targeted state funding is not allocated, mock-ups and models are actually restored on the basis of Komaev’s enthusiasm, often at his expense. The management of the enterprise helps as far as possible, so things are not moving there as fast as we would like, but obvious progress is evident.
Hangar 18 is located in the closed part of the plant (yes, in the closed territory of the enterprise there is an even more closed part). Therefore, to bring a camera there would require considerable effort and numerous approvals. However, on Saturday, November 23rd, we, together with the art community of the USSR-2061 , organized a blog tour for NGOs. Unfortunately, it was not possible to see the production itself. They explained to us that every visitor to a clean room where spacecraft are assembled is a source of pollution, and there were twelve of us, so alas. But it was possible to see the museum NPOL and, more interestingly, "Hangar 18".
Ruslan Vladimirovich himself met us at the entrance, and behind the door there was a surprise that no one expected — the Apollo orbital and descent modules! Yes, Komaev decided that once learning to master the cosmos, then it is necessary to learn the world experience, and not just your own. Therefore, he collected all the information, photographs, drawings that are available on the Internet, and creates a full-size model of the American lunar module, which will correspond to the original not only from the outside, but also inside.
When the work is completed, here it will be possible to easily remove Apollo 13 again.
Now, even on Saturday (and maybe only on Saturday), work is underway to recreate Gagarin's descent capsule:
The process did not stop even in spite of a flock of curious bloggers clicking cameras and asking a lot of questions.
The plans of Komaev to ask RSC Energia for another Soyuz ship to complete the collection, but so far there is no place to put it.
Along the walls of "Angara 18" "modestly" are full-size models of automatic interplanetary stations. In the center rises "Luna-24." It is interesting for its drilling device, which allowed to extract lunar soil from a depth of 2 meters.
The predecessors had another soil intake device that produced shallow drilling:
The device of the first generation drill can be carefully studied at the Museum of NPO named after S.A. Lavochkina.
In general, the extraction and delivery of lunar samples is a very interesting mission, which is worth telling separately. For example, I myself only found out that various drilling devices were used. I’ll start preparing the material, but first I’ll try to get pictures from these devices from the bowels of the RAS.
Next to Luna 24 is the Soviet-(Russian) -European astrophysical observatory Granat, which worked from 1989 to 1998:
A part of the telescope was dismantled, otherwise it would have to cut a hole in the ceiling.
And behind the "Moon", lurking ... Guess what?
Yes, it’s Moonbuggy - the American Apollo lunar rover:
The machine still needs to be improved, for example, it is necessary to pull the metal mesh onto the wheels, but soon it will be ready to take on board the first young astronauts.
The creator of the model even prepared the instruments of the lunar expedition, and with pleasure demonstrates the result of his work.
In general, when you look at this white-haired space explorer (without quotes), who, as a boy, boasts of his crafts, you are inevitably infected with his enthusiasm. This is really a man who, over the years, has carried his sincere interest and devotes his life to him. Such people, at one time, made a jerk into space, and such people are sorely lacking in the industry today.
Along the wall farthest from the entrance, the automatic conquerors of Venus lined up. The Venus-7 descent vehicle lies at the foot of the multi-ton tower of the Venus-13. This "Seven" has not only exhibition value, but also historical, because It was created for temperature tests in preparation for the first successful landing on Venus.
The burned pennant Venera-7 on the case eloquently speaks of the experienced trials:
( I thought for a long time why part of the inscription is in mirror reflection, but still did not understand. Apparently the temperature was such that the nameplate moved to the mirror dimension :)
The Vega model is different from the neighboring "Venus-13" in that the casing of the descent vehicle is partially removed and the landing module itself is visible. On the case, dust protection plates were added, which were necessary for the station when approaching Halley's comet. In addition, the structural difference is the massive block of ASP-G cameras for shooting a comet using an external manipulator:
Dimensions, “cameras”, of course, space ones:
But she made observations unique to that time, revealing the secrets of the legendary comet, which for centuries had terrified the inhabitants of the Earth:
“Venus-15” rises in the corner. It also did not fit entirely under the ceiling of the hangar, so the multi-meter radar, which was used to map the North Pole of Venus, lies separately. Shooting from the side of the transmitting antenna:
I could not pass by the old friend "Mars-3":
Here it is packed in full. Few where you can see it in this form. The museum at VDNH has only a lander. At the NPOL Museum there is a descent vehicle with an element of a protective casing and a brake cone. At the Museum of the Space Research Institute - 1/3 model. Possible only in Kaluga "complete set" 1/1.
And finally, Lunokhod-2 is a functional model, though not yet complete. But the wheels are spinning, the antenna is being controlled, and the cameras are being shot.
In the idea of Ruslan Vladimirovich to make a full-fledged lunodrome, on which one could practice in controlling the device. Two modes are supposed: "Lunokhod" when the control is fully consistent with how it was carried out in 1973; and the Mars rover, when it is necessary to write a program of action, send it to the device, and it will already be engaged in the implementation. For the first mode, a control panel will be made that matches the original one. The consultant for its creation will be one of the "drivers" of the lunar rover. In the second mode, the commands will be downloaded from the computer, and it will even be possible to implement some time delay, as when transmitting to Mars.
I had an idea: until the Khimki Space Center had been erected, put Lunokhod-2 on Mars-Tefo - in the Cosmos pavilion at the All-Russian Exhibition Center. Fortunately, the place has been “prayed” since the days of the Soviet Union, and the company specializes in educational and entertaining work with children. In the pavilion, it would be possible to build a lunodrome (it seems that there were still some fragments of the training ground, in which, in fact, the Soviet storming of the Moon was being prepared) and realize the dream of young and adult space fans to steer the Lunokhod. The leadership of NPOL liked the idea, Komaev said that you can try and complete the apparatus by April 12 ...
Lunokhod returns to Cosmos- This news would be worthy of the headlines in the newspapers of the country. But, as it often happens now, the initiative ran into trivial problems: rents are too expensive, they do not offer discounts for space, there are not enough specialists, there is nowhere to wait for help. So, if anyone has a familiar investor who finds $ 1M in space - let me know. Well, or several parts. I thought about kickstarter, but I'm afraid I cannot raise the necessary amount of funds, at least not for Cosmos at the All-Russian Exhibition Center.
But you can try to help in another way. If someone knows how to hold a screwdriver, soldering iron or electric drill and there is a desire to do something for space, we can offer our help to Komaev. It is impossible to say for sure whether it will be possible to realize this, whether there will be an opportunity to go to the closed part of the plant, and whether our help is needed, but we will at least offer it. But if it works out, it will be possible to work together with real space specialists. To do this, I propose to leave a comment in the discussion of VC or, if there is no account, to me in PM. For now, just find out if there are anyone. If there are, then let's go ask for an NGO.
Later I will also tell about the museum of the NGO named after S.A. Lavochkina. There are also many interesting exhibits, although not as large-scale ones - it’s just that the height of the room does not allow.
Getting there is easier than in "Hangar 18", you can even assemble a group from Habr, if there are many who want to. But that's another story.
In conclusion, I would like to note that such an event as a visit to the space company's photobloggers is an extremely rare, if not unique, event in the Russian cosmonautics. Therefore, I would like to thank the leadership of the enterprise NPO them. S.A. Lavochkina, who dared to take such a step. He says that, finally, he finds support for the idea of greater openness of the industry, more complete and frequent coverage of activities, cooperation with space enthusiasts and dialogue with the Internet audience. We were noticed, and this is a merit of, in fact, everyone who wrote articles on space topics, added views to such articles, reposted and removed the Cosmonautics hub from offtopic ... I hope the current event is only the beginning of a large-scale process of bringing cosmonautics and society closer and, in the end, together