The International Space Station, the largest spacecraft in outer space on Earth, is probably about to enter the countdown to decommissioning, and from the current situation, its future is at least uncertain.
According to news from China News Network and other media, on April 30 this year, Russian Space Agency Director Rogozin announced that Russia will suspend its participation in the work of the International Space Station, and the date of withdrawal has been made, but it is not convenient to announce to the outside world, his speech means that Russia has decided to withdraw from the International Space Station, and even the date of withdrawal has been set.
The International Space Station is a space research platform jointly built by the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and the European Union, with a total of 16 participating countries, 5 national space agencies, built since 1998, has been more than 20 years, the current weight of about 430 tons, the average orbital height of about 345 kilometers, can carry out large-scale, multidisciplinary basic and applied scientific research. Although there are 16 participating countries, but there are currently two countries that can send people to the International Space Station, that is, the United States and Russia, if Russia withdraws from the International Space Station, then the other 15 countries can only count on SpaceX's Falcon 9 and Manned Dragon spacecraft to help them pick up astronauts, it is estimated that Musk will tearfully raise the price three times for everyone to serve, who dares to have a temper and even get a ticket.
However, the International Space Station is not only dependent on Musk's Dragon spacecraft can be maintained, the Dragon spacecraft is only a means of transport to transport people and goods, there are many other aspects of work to do, such as the orbit maintenance and attitude control of the space station, because the altitude of the space station is only three or four hundred kilometers, there are still some very thin atmospheres on the orbit, they bring resistance to the space station will reduce the speed and height of the space station, so it is necessary to regularly raise the height of the space station, otherwise the International Space Station will be lower and lower, It will eventually fall into the atmosphere and be destroyed, and Russia is responsible for regularly raising the height of the space station.
In addition, there is the attitude control of the space station, such as when the manned spacecraft or cargo spacecraft docks with the space station, an impact force will be generated between the two, which will change the attitude of the space station, and the work of restoring the space station's attitude to its original state is also Russia's responsibility.
We know that there are a lot of spacecraft in space today, the total number has been more than 10,000, most of them are dead spacecraft that have lost power, and some space debris such as space debris, these flying objects with a speed of more than 7 kilometers per second will pose a certain threat to the International Space Station, if the orbit coincides, then the International Space Station will have to change orbit to avoid them, otherwise it will be destroyed, and this work is also Russia's responsibility.
Therefore, the International Space Station is really not easy to leave Russia, it cannot even be operated in the short term, it cannot be operated on the astronauts, and it will frequently fail over time, and the problems will be not far from scrapping and decommissioning. In fact, today's space station is also a frequent problem, there have been many times of air leakage, long arms have cracks, although the United States and other countries have announced that the International Space Station or will operate until 2031, but if Russia withdraws, then whether the International Space Station still has the need to operate, it will have to be a question mark.
Some friends may ask, the United States is the world's largest space power, can it not support the operation of the International Space Station? In the division of labor in the operation of the International Space Station, the United States is mainly responsible for the power supply, the above solar sail panels, batteries and circuit docking are all engaged in by the United States, but some of Russia's modules are independent power supply, carriers and cargo spacecraft can also supply power to it, not to mention that solar panels can also be installed, so the Russian modules in the International Space Station can be operated independently, but the United States and other countries are difficult to do, and the orbit change and attitude control capabilities can not be solved in a moment and a half. Therefore, Russia's decision to withdraw from the work of the International Space Station under the current situation is really a big problem for other participating countries.
Today, there are 6 Russian modules on the International Space Station, accounting for more than 1/3 of the total number of International Space Stations, so it operates independently and is also a very large space station. So if the Russian space station module and the International Space Station "separate", independent out of it will be merged with the Chinese space station operation, many friends care about this problem, in fact, this is basically impossible, the orbit of the two is not the same, the operating height and parameters are not the same, the interface is not the same, can not be directly docked, and both can operate independently, so there is no need to merge operations. Therefore, after the Russian module withdraws from the International Space Station, it will most likely operate independently, which is equivalent to another space station in space. At that time, the International Space Station, the Chinese Space Station and the Russian Space Station will coexist in outer space.
At the beginning of April this year, Rogozin said that he would build a new module of the space station with the mainland, and it was to be incorporated into the new module of the continental space station, and at the same time, Russian astronauts also said that the development of manned spaceflight on the mainland was "fast and good", hoping to carry out scientific research cooperation on the continental space station, so the cooperation between China and Russia in the space station project is expected and may occur.
Resources:
"China News Network" April 30 article "Russian media: Russia has determined the date of withdrawal from the International Space Station"
"Central Broadcasting Network" April 6 article "The International Space Station wants to "separate"? In the future, only China will have an independent space station? 》
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