In Crimea, they test the system for the return of astronauts from the moon



    Today it became known that Russia plans to begin testing systems for the return of astronauts from the moon. Already this year, parachutes will be tested for a new type of domestic Federation apparatus . On this spacecraft, Russian cosmonauts will fly into low Earth orbit and to the moon. Checking equipment will be carried out at a training ground near Feodosia. According to experts, the parachute system needs to be given special attention, since one of the most dangerous stages of space flight is precisely the return and entry into the atmosphere.

    The company "Technodynamics", which is part of the state corporation "Rostec" reported that tests of the parachute landing system for the new Russian manned spacecraft "Federation" will begin this year. The place of testing is the territory near Feodosia. In this case, spacecraft (SC) models will be used.

    “This year trials will be held with mock-ups weighing 3 tons. They will be parachuted nine times from a Mi-8 or Ka-32 helicopter,” said Igor Nasenkov, Director General of Technodynamics, in an interview with Izvestia. After the tests are completed, the company’s specialists will begin testing the Federation’s nine-ton layout, which is full-size. It will be dropped from the Mi-26 helicopter and the Il-76 aircraft 28 times. This part of the tests will be carried out at the end of 2019.

    The Ministry of Defense confirmed this information, but no specific dates were given.

    So, initially for landing the "Federation" was supposed to use only jet engines. If something happens to them, backup parachutes are put into operation. Unfortunately, such a scenario requires a large supply of fuel. To reduce the weight of the spacecraft and increase the reliability of the entire system, the designers came to the conclusion that to reduce the weight of the spacecraft and increase the reliability, a combined system consisting of parachutes for damping speed and a soft landing engine near the Earth's surface should be used. It is this combination that is used on Soyuz spacecraft.


    Source: RIA Novosti

    The landing program assumes that at an altitude of 4.5 thousand meters, the Federation will open an exhaust parachute, and after it a three-domed main parachute with a total area of ​​3.6 square meters. m. At an altitude of 50 meters above the surface, jet engines will begin to work. They will allow the device to make a vertical landing on retractable suspension struts. Without these supports, Soyuz ships sometimes lie on their side.

    Testing of engines for soft landing will be carried out by the ship’s developer - RSC Energia. “Landing device tests are being conducted, this is one of the key means to ensure the reusable use of the returned apparatus,” the RKK said.

    The scientific director of the Space Policy Institute, Ivan Moiseev, believes that maximum attention should be paid to testing the landing system of the new spacecraft. “At one time, the lack of parachute tests led to the tragic death of the Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov. He was returning from orbit on the Soyuz-1 ship. Due to the rush, a number of tests were reduced, and it was the parachute system that failed during the landing. It is necessary to remember the tragic pages of the history of space exploration in order not to repeat them again, ”said Ivan Moiseev. In addition, the landing stage was fatal for astronauts Vladislav Volkov, Georgy Dobrovolsky and Viktor Patsayev, who died due to the depressurization of the Soyuz-11 spacecraft capsule in 1971.

    Last November, tests began.individual elements of the Russian manned spacecraft Federation. As part of the SIRIUS experiment to simulate flight around the moon, scientists and engineers tested the latest ship’s control systems and crew uniforms. Tests of the spacecraft took place at various stages of the conditional flyby of the Moon: during the conditional docking of the “space ship” with the upper stage in near-Earth orbit, during the correction of the trajectory, the transition from the near-moon orbit to the flight path to the Earth and at the landing stage.

    This year, the SIRIUS experiment (Scientific International Research in Unique Terrestrial Station, an international scientific research in a unique terrestrial complex) provides for four-month isolation, next eight-month isolation, and in 2020-2021 - 12-month isolation.

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