New Russian Space Station Will Help Monitor Earth's 'Health,' Design Team Member Says
14:11 GMT 16.08.2022 (Updated: 19:37 GMT 19.10.2022)
© Sputnik / Pavel Bednyakov
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A new space station is being designed, as Russia is poised to withdraw from the International Space Station, in order to ensure “the country is not left without a space station.”
A model of a new Russian space station (ROS for short) was unveiled during the first day of the ARMY-2022 expo that kicked off in the Moscow region on August 15.
The space station, whose design is being developed by Russian spacecraft manufacturer "Energia," is expected to become operational by the time Russia withdraws from the International Space Station project and is supposed to help care for our planet by detecting wildfires and monitoring the melting of glaciers, for example, one of the engineers involved in the station's design told Sputnik.
The engineer, Margarita Sidorova, has explained that they have already finished the first preliminary design of the station and calculated the orbit’s height and angle. Now the team is going to produce preliminary designs for all of the station’s modules, with the modules themselves expected to be rolled out in two stages.
A model of a new Russian space station on display at the ARMY-2022 expo
© Sputnik
The first stage, Sidorova said, will include the sci-tech module, a node section featuring an airlock and base module that will contain crew quarters, while the second stage will feature three dedicated modules, one of them being 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."
A model of a new Russian space station on display at the ARMY-2022 expo
© Sputnik
She also pointed out that the ROS will be able to monitor almost the entire surface of our planet and, most importantly, the entirety of Russia’s territory – something the ISS can’t do.
"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."
A model of a new Russian space station on display at the ARMY-2022 expo
© Sputnik
Representatives of the Energia corporation who manned the company’s stand at the ARMY-2022 expo explained that the station is being designed, as Russia is moving to pull out from the ISS project, in order to ensure that "the country is not left without a space station."
A model of a new Russian space station on display at the ARMY-2022 expo
© Sputnik
The eighth international military-technical forum ARMY-2022 launched on August 15 and is being held at several venues in the Moscow region until August 21.
Sputnik International is an official information partner of the ARMY-2022 international military-technical forum.
