The Russian Federation is getting closer to the moment when its space capabilities will be equal to a second-tier country. For the past two decades, it has been saved by the Soviet backlog - technology, technology, trained personnel, all the legacy of the fallen Red Empire.
In recent years, we do not have our own scientific apparatus in orbit, more and more satellites, or their components, are being created abroad. And the satellites produced are of low quality, short duration of operation, and unsuccessful launches occur more and more often.
In the last 2 months alone, the Russian Federation has lost 3 satellites of the GLONASS system (national global positioning system), on February 1, the geodetic satellite "Geo-IK-2" was lost.
It was found by the Americans, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), found the device and reported to Roscosmos. The device went out of the wrong orbit. The damage from recent failures alone amounted to almost 6 billion rubles.
The main directions of the modern space industry, and the participation of the Russian Federation in them
Satellites
The electronics industry in the USSR lagged behind the advanced developments of the West and Japan. The situation has now become even worse. The development of electronics ensures the life of a satellite, Western satellites "live" for 7-12 years, Russian satellites for up to 5 years.
National Global Positioning System
This system began to be created back in Soviet times (the first satellite was launched in 1982), as an analogue of the States GPS system. In order for it to work stably, the system must have at least 24 satellites, by 1996 they were launched into orbit, but by 2001 there were only 6. Due to the low quality of electronics, they are very short-lived.
In 2001, a plan was adopted that by 2009 the group was restored, but as usual in the Russian Federation, they did not have time. The problem is the same as in the 80s and 90s of the 20th century, satellites quickly break down. The Russian Federation is forced to launch new satellites almost every year in order to compensate for the elimination of old ones, the manufacturers benefit, but the budget is a big minus.
Telecommunications
The Russian Federation buys ready-made telecommunication satellites, or assembles it from components from Western companies. Therefore, the service life is on average 8-12 years.
In their creation, Italian, French, Belgian, Japanese, German, and Yusovsk companies participated and are still participating.
Meteorology
In 2004-2009, after the Meteor satellite failed, it did not have a single meteorological satellite and bought meteorological data from the USA and Japan.
In 2000-2001. The Lavochkin Research and Production Association began the development of the second-generation meteorological satellite "Electro-L"; it was planned to launch it in 2006. But, it was launched only in January 2011. Now the Russian Federation has only two meteorological satellites. By 2015, they plan to launch five more satellites, but planning is one thing and doing another.
Mars exploration
The last exploration of Mars was carried out by the Soviet Union in 1988 - the Phobos project. The Russian Mars-96 program has failed, the new Phobos-Grunt program is constantly being postponed - the launch of the station was planned in 2004, then in 2006, postponed until 2009, then until November 2011, but will it fly?
Moon exploration
The lunar exploration program was frozen back in the USSR. In 2013, they plan to land the station "Luna-Resource", the station is to put an Indian satellite into the orbit of the moon, and land a lunar rover on the moon itself. In fact, this is a complete repetition of the Soviet Union's 1966 program (Luna-9).
Lunar programs of other powers
USA
Since 2009, the NASA LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) satellite, which has already found water on the Earth's satellite, has been in orbit around the Moon, and a three-dimensional map of the Moon has been compiled from its data. In 2011, 2 scientific devices will be launched to study the gravity of the Moon. In 2013, they plan to launch a probe to study the atmosphere of the moon. In late 2013 - early 2014 The United States plans to land robots on the moon, the humanoid robot Robonaut-2 has already been prepared and is being tested on the ISS. This will be the first step towards establishing a permanent base on the moon.
China
Two Chinese satellites were working in the orbit of the moon. By 2020, the PRC plans to land its astronauts on the moon.
India
2008-2009 the first Indian satellite worked in the orbit of the moon satellite. In 2013, with the help of Russia, they plan to launch the 2nd satellite and land the lunar rover.
Japan
In 2010, an ambitious program was adopted: to land robots on the Moon by 2015 and create a permanent automatic station. They want to make it habitable by 2025.
European Union
European Space Agency (ESA), plans in 2016-2018. to land a research apparatus to study the surface and geology of the moon. Until 2020, the EU wants to create an automatic station.
Outcomes
- In fact, all the leading countries-leaders of the planet are in the lunar race, the undisputed leader of the race is the United States of America. The plans are very ambitious - in fact, soon the exploration of the moon will begin, first by robotics, then by humans. RF is, against the background of such plans, a complete outsider.
- RF is absent in such areas as automatic interplanetary scientific probes, orbital astronomy (there are no orbiting telescopes), there are no orbiting scientific satellites, there are no our satellites in the orbit of Mars and Venus.
-The only industry where the Russian Federation still retains a leading position is launch vehicles. But, this is also not for long, the United States by 2013-2014. plan to create new launch vehicles.
In the conditions of depletion of the resources of the planet Earth, space expansion is becoming the only possibility for the survival of mankind. And the Russian Federation, in order to save itself in the new world, it is necessary to create a plan for the grandiose exploration of the Near Space and the study of the Far, practically re-creating the space industry and science.
