Russian Space Program: News & Discussion #4

I will be in tears laughing getting myself drunk if Rogozin replaces Zelensky after the war

kvs did a based. Therefore he get a call from based department.

I think they will do it far more efficient though than soviet times.

No one wants to know how hilarious it would be seeing reddit (pro-musk and pro-ukraine) lose their shit completely if Rogozin ran the country and even more hilarious if he has to deal with western leaders

kvs wrote:Rogozin was not a technocrat but a fix it man and politician.   He did the job of rescuing Roscosmos from the rot toilet it was in.
Now a non-politician and proven good manager is taking over to do the long term job.  

Mercouris covered this shuffle in his latest video and it appears that the Russian MIC is going onto the command economy rails.
No more fighting over profits at UralVagonZavod.   I fully support this "commie" approach since what we see in NATO proves that
privatization and bidding does not work at all.   In fact, the private US MIC is acting like a shadow government pushing its profit
interests through wars.  

People do not know what a free market it is.   The car industry, the MIC and other "private" enterprise clusters are all oligopolies
and are manipulated markets.    A free market is when no producer can control the price through restriction of supply and collusion.
A handful of megacorps have a clear incentive to collude and manipulate the market.   Combine that with having only one customer,
the government and you get total corruption.

So the Russian "state planning" approach makes more sense since it leaves the government which is the source of all the money for
the MIC in charge.   No corrupt games and buying and selling of politicians for profits.   The Russian taxpayer saves and Russia
follows a stable mode of operation proven by the experience of the USSR.   I would love to see exotic weapons systems make a
come back.   No grossly inflated prices means that they become affordable again.  

Agreed, and I would add that while the Russian MIC has been far from ideal in this respect, it is positively glowing in comparison with corrupt MIC in the Collective West (which I assume was your core point).  Russian MIC has retained elements of the old Soviet command models, and that is why Russian weapons systems tend to be modestly priced, robust and effective, at least as compared to the hyper-expensive, fragile under-performing junk that passes as military security equipment in the West.  Western "experts", or at least those who are able to advance within the closed-shop establishment echo-chambers, have no friggin idea of the true situation.  These same idiots can't fathom why the Wests sanctions have failed and backfired, or how Russia, with a peacetime economy and using an expeditionary force of only 10% of her available forces, is able to prevail with minimal losses over a NATO-backed and fully mobilised Ukraine that has had 8 years to prepare and fortify behind prepared defenses.  

I see a lot of positives from this move, not least of all that Western pundits will blow gaskets with increasing frequency over their rage that Russia is proving (yet again) that the West is in many ways an empty suit, and that Western ideas are not the only options available to nations that wish to be free.

Edit: Andrei Martyanov daily blog discusses this:  source

His take on Borisov, all very encouraging from my POV:

Borisov is one of those military-technological, engineering and organization geniuses who are a very rare breed and seldom appear at the highest levels of political power. It is especially true for modern military-industrial complex of any superpower, because huge swaths of those complexes are in effect dual technologies producing industries. Borisov was instrumental in turning Russian military-industrial complex into R&D and manufacturing powerhouse it is today. Moreover, Borisov is a former cadre military, a general, with military academy behind his belt. Him, taking the command of Roskosmos may mean very many things and all of them good for Russia. Remember, it was on Borisov's watch that the Russian Armed Forces started to deploy some extremely advanced weapon system, many of which have no analogues in the West. Some--never will. In other words, Borisov is a specialist in the most advanced military and dual use technologies and bringing them to serial production.

So in summary, it seems that the Kremlin believes that Rogozin has essentially completed his task of eradicating the mismanagement and corruption within Roskosmos, fixing its money-leaks, and getting its institutions back on track and working correctly, and now Borisov will be put in charge to ramp up the enterprise and get it producing to meet state needs. Happy days!

Martyanov´s take:

About Borisov's New Post.

kvs wrote:Sounds like pulse detonation engine technology has advanced under covers in Russia.   Any talk of transitional air-space vehicles
requires the thermodynamic performance flexibility such engines provide.   No Brayton cycle engine even deserves a mention.

Pulse detonation or rotating? Either way, I don't buy for even a second that Russia is behind the West (or Japs) in PDE/RDE theoretical physics or tech demonstrators.

thegopnik wrote:I will be in tears laughing getting myself drunk if Rogozin replaces Zelensky after the war

That sort of appointment will be right up Rogozin's alley and the Ukraine will finally get the leader it deserves

Nice vid of Nauka, including some use of the ERA remote manipulator.

Russia to quit International Space Station after 2024, 26.07.2022.

By that time, Russia will start building its own space station, Roscosmos chief says.

Russia is going to withdraw from the International Space Station (ISS) project with the West after 2024, the new head of the country’s space agency Roscosmos, Yury Borisov, said on Tuesday.

Moscow is going to fulfill all its obligations to foreign partners as part of the ISS project, but “the decision to withdraw from this station after 2024 has been made,” Borisov told President Vladimir Putin during a meeting at the Kremlin.

“I think, by that time, we’ll start putting together a Russian orbital station,” the space boss added.

According to Borisov’s vision, Russia’s manned space flights should be carried out in line with a balanced and systematic scientific program, so that each mission would provide the country with new knowledge in the field of space.

The previous head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin had predicted that the ISS, which NASA plans to operate until 2030, would “fall apart” by that time unless “huge amounts of money” are invested in its repair. But work to keep the station in orbit is no longer effective for Russia due to the current geopolitical environment, he pointed out.

Borisov also acknowledged in April that the Russian modules of the station have exhausted their lifespans.

The ISS was launched in 1998 as a joint effort by Russian, American, Japanese, Canadian and European space agencies. It’s divided into the Russian and American sections, with the latter being run by the US and other participants of the project.

https://www.rt.com/russia/559652-space-station-quit-timeframe/

In addition to ROSS there should be a BRICS space station.

owais.usmani wrote:

https://twitter.com/katlinegrey/status/1551960475272896517

I guess this means they won't be reusing any of the modules from the Russian segment of the ISS.

With the upgraded shielding will the space tug be able to transfer parts of the station to other planetary orbits?

TMA1 wrote:With the upgraded shielding will the space tug be able to transfer parts of the station to other planetary orbits?

If you are referring to the Zeus NEP vehicle currently under development, I expect it will be able to transport manned station modules to Martian (or Venusian) orbits. It would be an ideal piece of kit for the assembly of large orbital complexes in either deep space or around planetary bodies.

Agreed. The Mars fetish is too much. The moon is the perfect jumping off point. First a moon station. Then transfer of stations on the surface. With the nuclear tug you finally have the ability to keep adding modules. Eventually with a big enough moon base you can start digging underground and with enough critical infrastructure it can become self sustaining. This will be when mankind is finally an interplanetary being. The space tug is the major step. From there new orbital and moon surface station nodes can be tugged along as well as a couple landing craft and vehicles.

This is how it starts. Mars only comes after this in my opinion. With a moon station and basic base, then we can have space tugs shuttling humans to other orbits. Just imagine a dozen or so tugs shuttling in their respective orbits. Thry get these tugs to an extremely fast speed. Then refueled vehicles from earth or moon space stations and even lunar ground stations can make a timed dash to catch up with the tug to meet with it and catch rides to Ceres
Mining the asteroid belt and eventually settling the jovian moons.

Guys this is all perfectly doable. I wish a great leader could come and make peace with powers in a multipolar world and make some pact with the great powers where each sets aside twenty percent of their military budget in order to compete in space together in friendly rivalry.