Space-oriented works of Ural scientists were in the center of attraction at a spring session of the General Meeting of the RAS Ural Branch held soon after the Cosmonautics Day, celebrated annually on April 12; this year we honored the 50th anniversary of the first flight of man to near-earth space. This was the topic of the article prepared by journalists Yevgeniya Izvarina, Andrei Ponizovkin and Yelena Ponizovkina for the Nauka Urala (Science of Ural) newspaper. According to the welcoming speech delivered by Acad. Valery Charushin, Chairman of the Ural Branch, local researchers are actively cooperating with the Federal Space Agency and their key partners--State Rocket Center named after V. Makeyev (Miass, Chelyabinsk Region), Scientific

KOMPAS space vehicle in orbit.

Production Association of Automatic Equipment named after N. Semikhatov (Yekaterinburg), Center for Ground-Based Space Infrastructure Facilities Operation (Moscow) and Central Research and Development Institute of Engineering (Korolyov, Moscow Region). Broadly speaking, numerous regional academic institutions, including mathematical, physical, chemical, geological establishments and even the Institute for Plant and Animal Ecology (Yekaterinburg), specializing in studies of consequences of falls of carrier rocket parts in the Sverdlovsk Region, are engaged in the implementation of space-oriented programs. It is not by chance that the RF Federation of Cosmonautics awarded Acad. Vladimir Bolshakov, director of the aforementioned institute, the medal of honor.

The State Rocket Center named after its founder Acad. Viktor Makeyev--one of the closest associates of Sergei Korolev*, who was the key figure of the national space science--is the leading Russian design bureau specializing in the development of rockets launched from the sea. The first sea launch was realized from a submarine on September 6, 1955, by Korolev's Experimental Design Bureau-1 long before the space flight of the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin; starting from 1956 such launches were performed by a special design bureau--a prototype of the present-day Makeyev Center.

In the 1960s, Makeyev Center was a place, where a sound national school of sea rocket engineering originated; in addition to Korolev and Makeyev, it was actively supported and promoted by outstanding designers Alexei Isayev, Nikolai Semikhatov and Yevgeny Zababakhin (the latter two academicians subsequently). For more than half a century the bureau developed and put into commission three generations of rocket complexes that were actively used by the national Navy; besides, each subsequent generation was designed on the basis of brand new technical solutions.**

In the speech delivered at the meeting, Sergei Kalashnikov, Cand. Sc. (Tech.), Chief Academic Secretary of the center, focused on the recent breakthroughs of the research team. In particular, he drew attention to the remodeling of strategic ballistic missiles for Volna and Shtil boosters, designed to perform multipurpose civil launches. A couple of years ago, in 2006, a small satellite Kompas was launched to outer space to perform research programs for the RAS Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio-Wave Propagation (Troitsk, Moscow Region). It will help scientists to monitor areas of seismic hyperactivity, forecast earthquakes and explore physical parameters of near-earth space. At the moment, the center is designing a new installation for remote sounding of the Earth: it will monitor ecological condition of territories and search for areas of high industrial potential.

Employees of the Makeyev Center proposed a unique aviation rocket complex Vozdushny Start, designed to deliver useful goods to near-earth orbits. A two-stage rocket with a run block, installed in a transport container-launcher of AN-124 Ruslan aircraft makes it possible to launch satellites weighing up to 3,900 kg to low orbit, up to 1,500 kg--to geotransitional and 650 kg--to geostationary orbit. Since Ruslan can make direct flights to the distance of 4,500 km, it enables to perform launches from designated areas in a wide range of altitudes and inclinations of orbits, without high-cost ground-based facilities: rarefied air and added speed of the aircraft working on the ecologically sound fuel--liquid oxygen and kerosene--increase efficiency of launches by 30-40 percent as compared with the volume of useful goods that could be launched from the Earth.

* See: N. Koroleva, "His Name and Cosmos Are Inseparable", Science in Russia, No. 1, 2007.--Ed.

** See: Zh. Alferov, A. Rodionov, "Naval Might of Russia Was Born Here". Science in Russia, No. 6, 2001; Zh. Alferov et al., "Main Strike Force of Russian Navy", Science in Russia, No. 1, 2006.--Ed.

Science in Russia, No.5, 2011

As for the ground-based facilities, designers offered the Rossiyanka booster, equipped with a reusable starting gear economically more efficient than the preceding models. On-board equipment is responsible for return of the system to the base and a soft landing on a fitted out field (50x50 m), located 3-5 km away from the launching platform. The high running accuracy is secured by the GLONASS* satellite navigation system and auxiliary navigation aids.

Besides, according to the speaker, the center has been developing starting gear for the Rus-M booster aimed to launch manned spaceships of a new generation from the Vostochny cosmodrome being built now in the Far East (Amur Region).

As Kalashnikov pointed out, the projects are implemented by the center in association with the RAS UB institutions, European scientific centers, as well as with the Republic of South Africa and Brazil.

Lev Belsky, Cand. Sc. (Tech.), Deputy Director General of the Scientific Production Association of Automatic Equipment named after N. Semikhatov, focused attention on the process of development and assembly of a new control system for the Soyui-2 booster. This enterprise has a long history of designing and construction of similar systems for the majority of Soviet spaceships. The first success of the enterprise was creation of a quartz resonator installed on the first artificial satellite of the Earth (1957). Further development of this center is associated with Acad. Nikolai Semikhatov and other outstanding engineers and scientists.

Belsky emphasized: in the course of designing of onboard equipment designers faced and managed to solve a number of nontrivial problems. It is a surprising fact but until recently national space flights were controlled by way of analogous systems designed in the mid-20th century, and new digital systems were put into operation only a couple of years ago. Yekaterinburg scientists assisted by their fellows from the RAS UB achieved impressive results. At the meeting they presented an updated component arrangement scheme for the control system (it is crucially important to reduce mass of the equipment installed on the last booster stage) and upgraded stabilization processes to prevent the rocket body from bending caused by "sailing ability" of a massive head fairing. Soyuz-2 booster successfully passed 10 test launches, 9 of them for launching spaceships to near-earth orbit.

As an illustration, Belsky used a video fragment describing the process of preparation for launches from Baikonur cosmodrome (Republic of Kazakhstan)--all processes are managed by state-of-art control systems. Hardware designed by employees of the Scientific Production Association of Automatic Equipment is also used at the State Plesetsk Proving Ground located 180 km to the south of Arkhangelsk and in the Kuru Space Center in French Guiana in the north-east of South America.

By the way, the enterprise managed to solve ecological problems arising in connection with the launches: used stages of boosters falling to the Earth are now "dry iron", i.e. clean of fuel components. Their area reduced to 10-15 km", which proves high qualification of local designers and experts.

As for the report delivered by Yuri Maidannik, Cand. Sc. (Tech.), from the Institute of Thermal Physics (Yekaterinburg), it was dedicated to the usage of contour heat pipes, developed by the team of the institute, in space technology. The operating principle of these highly efficient heat-transfer devices in the form of insulated hollow pipes covered with unique "capillaries" from inside was discovered in the 1960s in the USA by the National Laboratory of Los Alamos. Simple structure and easiness of exploitation of these devices made them very attractive for "space" specialists. However, it soon became clear: heat-transfer capacity of pipes decreases drastically when they are inclined in the gravitation field

* See: Yu. Nosenko et al., "GLONASS: Today and Tomorrow", Science in Russia, No. 5, 2008.--Ed.

Ammoniac contour heat pipe (length-20 m; energy output-1.7 kW).

Contour heat pipe with a disk-shaped evaporator (diameter-30 mm).

Micro-contour heat pipes.

inevitable in the course of ground tests. Many national and foreign scientists tried to solve this problem, but the most impressive results were achieved by physicists of Sverdlovsk and Yekaterinburg. They designed contour heat pipes with a capillary structure concentrated in one or several areas--so-called evaporators--which makes it possible to use them in extreme conditions.

The laboratory under the Institute of Thermal Physics headed by Maidannik designed insulated heat-transfer devices characterized by superlow thermal resistance operating in a closed evaporation and condensation cycle with the use of the "capillary mechanism" for rolling of a heat carrier. They are able to transfer heat currents from several watts to kW irrespective of their orientation in the gravitation field and zero gravity without additional energy sources.

New technology is actively used by the Scientific Production Association named after S. Lavochkin (Khimki, Moscow Region), specializing in aerospace engineering. For example, it is used as a basis to create a heat control system for the national automatic station Phobos-Grunt planned to be launched to Mars in November 2011.

As explained by the speaker, among other recent developments of the laboratory are micro-contour heat pipes to cool down high-speed laptops and notebooks. Taking into account the fact that about 200 mln computers are produced worldwide annually, Ural scientists who maintain close contacts with international research and development institutions of the USA, Europe, China, South Korea and Taiwan are planning to enter this market as well.

A. Ponizovkin, Ye. Izvarina, Ye. Ponizovkina,

Attraction of Outer Space. "Science of Ural", No. 10, 2011

Illustrations from websites of the State Rocket Center named after V. Makeyev, Scientific Production Association of Automatic Equipment named after N. Semikhatov and RAS UB Institute of Thermal Physics