Cosmic Penguin
Geek Penguin in GTO
Wait a moment - what's going on!? How come there's the legendary spherical return module that we all link to the names of Yuri Gagarin, Vostok and Sergei Korolev appearing in 2013 - being integrated into a spacecraft yet to fly? Is this the scene for a space race movie?
Hmm, it doesn't look like the Vostok or its film return spysat derivative either.....
Oh, the workers are loading containers into the return module:
I wonder what are loaded inside? :hmm:
Huh? :huh:
Oh, so no Gagarin; instead we got black mice, gerbils, geckos and fish?
Ah!
Say hello to the newest astro....erm....animals chosen for what may be an exceedingly dangerous mission - to survive in space for 30 days! Their flight will start tomorrow at 10 am UTC (6 am EDT) on a Soyuz-2 rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
Launch location:
Baikonur Launch pad no. 31/6 45°59'46.16"N, 63°33'51.29"E
Time Zone | Australia - Sydney/AEST | Baikonur (UTC+6) | Moscow / MSKS (UTC+4)/ | Universal / UTC | Washington / EDT Launch time: |22:00|16:00|14:00|10:00|06:00
on: | Apr. 19, 2013 | Apr. 19, 2013 | Apr. 19, 2013 | Apr. 19, 2013 | Apr. 19, 2013
{colsp=6}
[highlight][eventTimer]2013-04-19 10:00?before|after;%dd% Days %hh% Hours %mm% Minutes %ss% Seconds %c%[/eventTimer] Bion-M 1 Launch[/highlight]
Live Coverage Of The Launch:
TSENKI video streams (Russian + English)
http://www.tsenki.com/broadcast/broadcast/
PAYLOAD
Bion-M 1 spacecraft
Spacecraft Overview
This is exactly what the newest member of a long running Russian science spacecraft will do - to serve as an "orbital Noah's Ark" for exposing animals, plants and other life-science experiments to microgravity for a prolonged time (this time 30 days) and then return them safely to Earth for analysis. A spacecraft series not flown for more than 15 years, the Bion-M promises less disturbance to microgravity conditions than on the ISS (which probably don't have places to store them either) or on similar flights on the Space Shuttle in the 1990s.
The Bion-M spacecraft is the latest descendant (along with its material science experiment sibling Foton-M) of the amazingly long lived series of spacecraft that started with the legendary Vostok spacecraft and its spysat derivative Zenit - the first of which flew in 1960! One major difference with the earlier series though is that the service module was replaced with one descend from the other main Soviet film-return spysat series - named "Yantar" (amber), which is still in active service since the first flight in 1975. The larger fuel tanks and the use of solar arrays means that future flights may be as much as 3 months long.
Various experiments on the spacecraft includes flying animals to observe their reactions in microgravity as well as launch and re-entry. The chosen ones include 8 Mongolian gerbils, 45 black mice, 15 geckos, 15 snails and also some fish (contributed by Germany). Other experiments include microbe reactions in space, radiation monitoring on organisms and plants, cell tissues actions and protein crystals growth.
Unfortunately the animals are not going to have a smooth flight - far from it! In the very small space that they will live for the next month, they will need to survive the G-forces and accelerations of launch, the weird environment of weightlessness and then another G-force peak during re-entry. And spaces for food and drink is sparse - since the gerbils can survive for a long time without water - so they don't serve drinks for them on this flight!
At least the geckos have worms for food.... h: And even before roll-out, the drama is already unfolding! Apparently inside one of the mice cages three male mice fight against each other and killed one of them. :facepalm: The group will be replaced with another group that is at least less aggressive.....
Interestingly, the spacecraft will also serves as the carrier for 6 different cubesats worldwide - including ones from institutions in Russia and Germany and an American company that will test various technology experiments and also available for ham radio operators for tracking. The most interesting one, however, is from a South Korean group lead by an artist - that cubesat will try to flash Morse Codes from orbit with LED lights!
Bion-M
Picture:
|
Customer:
|- Roscosmos
Prime contractor:
|- Samara Space Centre (Energia Holding enterprise)
Mass at Separation:
|- 6840 kg
Stabilization:
|- 3 axis stabilized
Dimensions:
|- ?
Batteries:
|- 0.4 kW
Life time:
|- 30 days
Weight of science experiments and payloads:
|- 900 kg (650 kg in return module)
Gravity forces in orbit:
|- 10^-5 - 10^-6 G
Operation orbit:
|- 575 km circular orbit, inclination 64.9 degrees
Launch Vehicle:
Soyuz-2.1a
Prime contractor:
|- Samara Space Centre (Energia Holding enterprise)
GRAU Index:
|- 14A14
Height:
| 51.1 mDiameter:
| max 10.3 mLiftoff mass:
| 313 metric tonnesPayload mass:
| up to 6830 kg (a launch to LEO from Plesetsk)1st stage (boosters B, V, G, D):
|- 4 X RD-107 engines
- Propellants (T-1 Kerosene and LOX)
- Thrust/ISP in vacuum - / 320.2 s
- Thrust/ISP at sea level 85.6 tonnes / 263.3 s
2nd stage (core A):
|- 1 X RD-108 engine
- Propellants (T-1 Kerosene and LOX)
- Thrust/ISP in vacuum 94 tonnes / 320.6 s
- Thrust/ISP at sea level 80.8 tonnes / 257.7 s
3rd stage (block I):
|- 1 X RD-0110 engine
- Propellants (T-1 Kerosene and LOX)
- Thrust/ISP in vacuum 30.38 tonnes / 326 s
Payload Fairing:
|- Diameter 3.2 m
- Length 8.4 m
The launch vehicle's reliability standings
According to http://www.spacelaunchreport.com/log2013.html#rate:
Code:
================================================================
Vehicle Successes/Tries Realzd Pred Consc. Last Dates
Rate Rate* Succes Fail
================================================================
Soyuz 2-1a/Fregt 12 13# .92 .87 10 5/21/09 2006-
# Does not include one successful suborbital Soyuz 2-1a test
flight performed in 2004.Weather forecast for Baikonur, Kazakhstan for April 19, 2013 (4 p.m.)
Partly cloudy. High of 18C. Winds from the NE at 10 to 15 km/h.
5 PM|18°C|-6°C|18%|0%|26%|1018 hPa|NNE 10 km/h|
Source References
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/bion_m_preparation.html
http://www.roscosmos.ru/main.php?id=400
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com
http://www.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru
http://www.tvroscosmos.ru
http://www.tsenki.com
http://www.spacelaunchreport.com
http://english.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=44.84999847,65.50000000
Last edited:
