Russia's ISS Multipurpose Laboratory Module launches after years sitting on a shelf, immediately runs into issues Russia's latest contribution to the International Space Station (ISS), successfully launched yesterday, but appears to have run into problems on orbit. Dubbed "Nauka" (meaning "Science"), the Multipurpose Laboratory Module predates the ISS itself. Construction started in the late 1990s, and continued in stops and starts during …
You really do not understand how it works...
US companies are constantly hacked by Russia/China or both at same time... stealing valuable production secrets...
looks like it backfired this time... as it did when the Russians (then known as Soviets) cloned the b-29 bomber to make the TU-4
( great story how exact the copy was: https://tu-95.net/soviet-b-29-clone-the-tupolev-tu-4/ )
Posting anonymously as no desire to be target for Putin's thugs and have a bad case of 'food poisoning'
Speaking as an Elite vet, you're going to be far better served by asking for a Kerbal space program veteran with 10 year experience in flying rendezvous orbits (usually by planning but mostly by the seat of their pants.)
You see the latest batch of elite pilots have been spoiled by something called 'an autopilot' whereas us true kerbalnauts distain the use of such devices and thus able to calculate orbital mechanics in our heads.
Plus we have a rather nifty universal docking claw...
"Sounds like a job for Bruce Willis - or possibly Flash Gordon"
Just send up Team Daedalus - Clint will rewire the spare PAM rockets and get it into the right orbit...he's done it before !!
Unless Russia has their own "Space Cowboys" available?
Having followed the Nauka's issues for the past 20-odd years (sorry - ad coming: http://www.www.russianspaceweb.com/ - not affiliated, but have paid for access & lots of other reading) the reporting by ElReg is very good and seems accurate as far as I can tell. (Well done - tricky topic!) They have a contingency (which involves docking with the ISS) that if the main engine completely fails then they can still proceed with the manoeuvring engines (DPK), but will be much slower. It seems that a software error (oh Spaghetti Monster, how we programmers fail!) caused the premature pressurisation of the propellant tanks which has meant that the over-pressure (not dangerous) has meant they cannot use the main engine (at the moment). This explains the wild pressure readings received regarding the tank pressure. They seem convinced there is no leak. They are performing a test burn early this evening and if that succeeds then they can progress & move to a higher orbit to plan the much slower rendezvous with the ISS. There is apparently enough fuel for two docking attempts (though how much for rendezvous I do not know). The main issue is to get it to a higher orbit I think. Sadly due to the previous contamination of the tanks, refuelling the Nauke is probably off the cards, so sending a Progress to refuel it is most unlikely.
But sending an unmanned Progress, or unmanned Soyuz (recall they can both be controlled remotely, from the ISS or ground) to provide extra propulsion might work, if they can a) stabilise the orbit of Nauka and b) send one up in time. (They may not have a "hot spare" and want about the launcher - that too. The crash programmes of the 60s are long gone. I'd imagine to launch such an rescue would take about 3-4 days if they had everything at hand and worked 24hrs a day in multiple shifts (not unknown) as finessing, placing on the pad & fuelling of either takes time... By which time the Nauka would have long since burnt up: recall 30 orbits at about 2hrs per orbit is 60hrs. The clock is ticking and they are under the hammer (and possibly sickle!)......
BTW: it is standard procedure for the Russians to place items "just-sub-orbital" in case they fail to prevent them lurking around, defunct in orbit, so the orbit will automatically decay and the lost item burn up. (Or more perhaps a hold-over from Cold-War paranoia and fear that the Decadent Capitalists might somehow "steal" their secrets.)
There's an ISS pass due over the UK starting just after 22:50* this evening. Watching last night I saw the ISS itself with two objects chasing it, one of those was Nauka and I suspect the other was the second stage of the Proton.
* Use something like Heavens Above to get exact timings for your location.
in many eastern-european languages that have words with proto-slavic etymological roots in the term "neukъ" the adopted word usually has some meaning of "ignorant, uneducated, unschooled"
e.g.
in Bulgarian неук (neuk), Macedonian неук (neuk, “ignorant”), Serbo-Croatian neuk (“ignorant”), Serbo-Croatian nieuk (“dunce”).
or in Romanian: năuc (m or n) (feminine singular năucă, masculine plural năuci, feminine and neuter plural năuce) "disoriented", "confused", "bewildered"
So, i think we have the wrong translation for "Nauka" ... instead of "science" it should be "disoriented". It's a very accurate description in this case.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%83%D0%BA
I resemble that! There is a big difference.
Being disoriented means that there is a correct direction, it’s just that you don’t know which one is correct, at least temporarily.
Being a scientist (and I consider myself one), most times it’s not even clear that there is a correct direction out of the predicament.
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