I don't see any future desire or need for collaboration with them after the current planned missions are over.
That depends on what happens next. There are protests in Russia now - and Putin's no where near a popular as he would like everyone to believe. Some suspect this whole idiotic (and bloody) mess is sort of a last gasp attempt to hold on to power in Russia itself... Putin won't live forever, and he may not live much longer if he's not careful.
not quite space station but still. Kennedy Space Centre is offering some new tours that will into areas not normally open to the public. Kennedy Space Center Is Giving Behind-the-scenes Tours of These Restricted Areas for the First Time Ever (msn.com) Cape Canaveral’s Rise to Space Tour | Kennedy Space Center Cape Canaveral Early Space Tour | Kennedy Space Center
Russia is threatening to deorbit the ISS. Fuck them. SpaceX has already volunteered to keep it aloft. Between them and NGIS it can be done. I say detach Everything from Zarya on and let their two cosmonauts make a go of it alone. This is a farce, now.
Putin put those cosmonauts at risk with his ASAT deal…so they aren’t enamored with him either. Things aren’t looking too good for the AN-225 right now. A lot of good hobby kits come from that part of the world. On top of all that, I lost a co-worker to domestic violence. February is the cruelest month. Some good news. Cure for carbon monoxide poisoning? https://phys.org/news/2022-04-carbon-monoxide-poisoning.html https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04-future-wearable-health-tech-gases.html That can be a killer in many homes--how Weird Al lost his folks--at least they died together in bed. That might help in space stations too. For plants and such in space---How a soil microbe can help us https://phys.org/news/2022-04-soil-microbe-rev-artificial-photosynthesis.html https://phys.org/news/2022-04-algae.html Computer system that can make goods from waste https://phys.org/news/2022-04-chemical-ways-products.html https://phys.org/news/2022-04-lost-landfilled-plastic.html https://phys.org/news/2022-04-hybrid-electro-biosystem-upcycles-carbon-dioxide.html Sunlight into fuels https://phys.org/news/2022-04-decoding-lifecycle-photogenerated.html https://phys.org/news/2022-04-harnessing-powers.html --very fast battery charging https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-lithium-ion-battery-minutes-anode.html Thin films can pull https://phys.org/news/2022-04-viewing-microcosm-physics-lens.html Backbone https://phys.org/news/2022-04-unraveling-human-spine.html Seawater to drinking water at a push of a button https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-seawater-button.html Earth's atmosphere may make it to the Moon https://phys.org/news/2022-04-earth-atmosphere-source-lunar.html Space imaging to help with natural disasters https://phys.org/news/2022-04-satellite-response-natural-disasters.html https://phys.org/news/2022-04-method-summer-rainfall-southwest-months.html ISS doc https://phys.org/news/2022-04-sci-fi-real-life-nasa-doctor.html
The cosmonauts may be, but they're not up there forever (in fact, Shkaplerov and Dubrov are coming home at the end of March - together with NASA's Mark Vande Hei, which could be an issue in itself: an American astronaut flying on a Russian spacecraft, extracted by a Russian ground crew). And I wonder how much the crew is in control of the station when it comes to things like orbital changes (I assume that's done with ground commands to the Progress engines). I suppose Dragon could take over from Progress and Soyuz, but the internation section of the ISS doesn't have any engines to change and maintain orbit and orientation (although it does have gyroscopes...). Only Zvezda does.
There was a module built for the purpose in case Zvezda had further delays, about 20 years ago, the Interim Control Module. As far as anyone knows it is still mothballed, but the problem becomes that it is over 20 years old. Also it was not designed for refueling. but if it could be readied it might give another year or two of emergency life to ISS. Cygnus could provide some of those chores, but the problem, again is that Cygnus launches on Antares rockets, part of which is built in Ukrane and which uses Russian engines so we may not see many more of those. Cygnus can and has flown on Atlas (which is being phased out because of those same Russian engines), but those are being phased out in place of Vulcan, which isn't flying yet, and Cygnus has not been readied for flights on Vulcan, yet. Vulcan relies on Blue Origin for its engines, and like everything else Blue Origin does, it is years behind schedule. Dragon can provide some but not as much boost. Any large satellite bus, ah, for the type of truly large satellite that is found in low earth polar orbits would make a better control module, but again, this would have to be readied rapidly. At some point the decision will have to be made, if the Russians detach their side of the station, how to deorbit the rest carefully, if they cannot get past these problems. It can't just be left to fall anywhere, like Skylab did. If the Russians do decide to detach, they will have to do so without Zarya. It is American property. And it might not be possible to detatch it anymore, anyway.
Whole lot of boosters use the Russian engines. Atlas has all there engines till the end of there run. As said blue origin .. Sucks.. There engine is years and years behind. Don't they land in khsakastan? Not Russia? I'd get Elon to send up a crew dragon for my butt before I go down in a Soyuz.
Any Russian detachment from the ISS would be Zvezda, Poisk Nauka, and Prichal. Rassvet is docked to Zarya, and as XCV330 mentioned above, that is American property. And I have my doubts if Zvezda would have much life lived in her anyway. They do, but recovery operates from Baikonur, which is in Kazakhstan, but leased and staffed by Russia. Soyuz seats have personalised seat liners and cosmonauts wear personal launch and entry suits. Not sure of the same is true for Dragon. If not, they can just send up a new suit for Vande Hei and install an extra seat (Dragon can fit 7 crew members, but ISS crew launches have only used 4 at the same time so far). I wonder if they can do so on short notice though. Vande Hei's mission has already been doubled to accomodate a visit by Japanese space tourist, so let's hope he can come home this month. Still, they're saying joint ISS operations are still nominal.
Read that if he can't Soyuz his way home, he may bump one of the others going home in the next dragon and wear a suit they send up in a resupply.
Scott Manley covers many of the things mentioned here, starting at 10:28: Interesting that the latest Cygnus cargo craft which just arrived at the ISS will be used to test that ship's use in reboosting the station.
ISS command just switched from Anton Shkaplerov to Thomas Marshburn. In the change of command ceremony, Shkaplerov briefly referred to the tensions, saying "People have problems on Earth. On orbit we are... one crew."
Yes. But I have no way to share as my photobucket account went pfft and I haven't set up anything anywhere else.