A video produced by Russian media sparked heated discussion after it was posted on social media because the content involved was too explosive. In the video, the Russian astronauts said goodbye to the astronauts of other countries, turned around and entered the Russian module, separated from the International Space Station and sailed into the vast space.
Just a few days ago, Dmitry Rogozzin, president of the Russian National Space Corporation, made his first response to the sanctions imposed by the United States and its little brothers, writing on Twitter: If the United States sanctions Russia, the International Space Station will lose its cooperation significance, and it is not inevitable to fall early! Rogozin concludes with a slightly provocative note: Don't forget that the orbit and location of the International Space Station is controlled by Russia, and it is not difficult to land it on the U.S. mainland or on the European continent.
The 58-second short video, released by Russian media, is clearly a continuation of Rogozin's remarks, suggesting that it is not a joke to separate the U.S. space station. Of course, the Russian astronauts and american astronauts are described in the video as having a "harmonious relationship", but in reality they did not get along satisfactorily, and even once the sword was raging.
At first, Russian astronauts will give the discharged urine to American astronauts, who purify the urine to make drinking water; American astronauts will use their own fitness equipment for Russian astronauts, to know that astronauts in the weightless environment in the body calcium ions will be lost a lot, prone to osteoporosis, resulting in muscle atrophy. The two sides had a honeymoon period.
The turning point came in 2011. In 2003, the US Space Shuttle Columbia unfortunately exploded over Texas during mission 28, killing 7 astronauts, nasa decided to stop the space shuttle after 2011, and the astronauts' mission to the International Space Station fell on the Russian Soyuz.
Russia, on the other hand, treats the transport of astronauts as a business, taking the opportunity to increase the price of "ferry tickets", from the initial $30 million all the way to $90 million, in just 10 years the United States paid $4 billion for 72 ferry tickets, so angry that the United States gritted its teeth, but had no choice but to play some small means. Since then, American astronauts have no longer allowed Russian astronauts to use fitness equipment, and defecations have no longer been willing to let Russia borrow them.
Russian astronauts have a heavy taste, like to eat cheese, ham, fish and other foods, excreted feces are thick and hard, resulting in a strong odor in the air, but also caused obstruction. In 2019, there was a leak in the toilet, about 10 liters of excrement spilled, just think of that scene makes people's scalps tingle. In 2019, the United States sent a $23 million defecation to the space station, and asked Russia to share the cost, but Russia simply ignored it.
The most recent serious disagreement occurred in 2018. During a routine inspection of the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft by Russian astronauts, a small hole with a diameter of 2 mm was found in the "wall" of the spacecraft. The strange thing is that the small hole actually has traces of electric drill polishing, and the astronauts are in a hurry to plug the loophole with Kapton glue made of imide film material, which avoids the disaster.
After the Russian investigation, it was suspected that the American astronaut Serena did it, and Serena was indeed suspicious, because Serena and a male astronaut in the United States had an extramarital affair on the space station, and after a fierce quarrel over triviality, Serena felt unwell and repeatedly asked the ground to return to the ground, but was refused. Russia believes that Serena deliberately damaged the Soyuz spacecraft in order to return to Earth as soon as possible, so that she could return to Earth early on board.
Of course, the United States will not agree with Russia's statement, they believe that the hole is purely caused by the carelessness of Russian workers in processing, and they also explicitly and implicitly say that Russia's wages for workers are too low! In the end, this matter was not resolved, and it became a major unsolved case in 2018.
Therefore, the astronauts of the two countries are really not as harmonious as they think, although they sometimes take group photos, but then they run back to their own cabins. Coupled with this Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the relationship between the astronauts of the two countries can only be worse.
Can the Russian module really be separated from the International Space Station?
The International Space Station can be roughly divided into two parts: the Russian module and the United States module, the two sections of the division of labor are different: the Russian module is responsible for the space station attitude control and orbital landing, take-off, operated by the Progress MS cargo spacecraft and the Zvezda service module; the U.S. module is equipped with a control torque, which can also achieve partial attitude control, but only in the absence of propellant consumption.
Although the Russian cabin can achieve attitude adjustment, it requires multi-party cooperation. Space station orbit lifting, attitude control, etc. all need electrical support, truss solar wing is the main source of electricity, mostly located in the UNITED STATES module. The electricity of the Russian cabin passes through the US module and then enters the Russian module, which simply means that the US module controls the power supply of the Russian module. The Russian module is difficult to separate and achieve attitude control.
Netizens asked, what if the space station fails? Can't be completely annihilated! The space station was designed to consider this extreme situation at the beginning, so an emergency evacuation procedure was designed, and after activation, the astronauts were all squeezed into the axial docking module, so as to achieve partial escape capabilities in the Russian and American modules. But if you really want to reach the earth safely, you also need the cooperation of ground personnel, and even the docking of the spacecraft again to provide the required energy and power.
Russian Space Agency counterattack
In addition to crashing into the space station to "blackmail" the United States, the Biggest Killer of the Russian Space Agency is the rocket engine, and Rogozin has said that it will no longer deliver RD-180s to the United States. The RD-180 rocket engine is currently one of the most advanced engines in the world, transformed from the famous RD-170, which successfully sent the 36-meter-long, 16-meter-high and 5.6-meter-diameter Space Shuttle Windsue into the predetermined orbit.
Russia has delivered a total of 122 RD-180 engines to the United States, 98 of which are already in use, with the remaining 24 surviving until 2025 at most. However, according to the research and development progress of several US airlines, a suitable alternative has not yet been found, which will inevitably affect the US space progress.
Original: Blog post