What is an orbital station? What are the orbital space stations?

We know so little about space, about how many unknown secrets he keeps. No one can even approximately understand the secrets of the universe. Although gradually humanity is moving towards this. Since ancient times, people wanted to understand what is happening in space, what objects, other than our planet, are in the solar system, how to unravel the secrets that they store. A lot of mysteries that hides the distant world, led to the fact that scientists began to think about how a person can go into space to study it.

So the first orbital station appeared. And behind it - there are many other, more complex and multifunctional research objects aimed at conquering outer space.

What is an orbital station?

This is an extremely complex setup, designed to send researchers and scientists into space for experiments. It is in Earth's orbit, from there it is convenient for scientists to observe the atmosphere and the surface of the planet, to conduct other studies. Similar goals are also faced to artificial satellites, but they are controlled from Earth, that is, the crew is not there.

Periodically, crew members at the orbital station are replaced by new ones, but this happens extremely rarely due to the costs of transportation in space. In addition, ships are periodically sent there to move the necessary equipment, supplies and provisions for the astronauts.

Which countries have their own orbital station

As noted above, creating and testing installations of this complexity is a very time-consuming and expensive process. It requires not only serious means, but also scientists capable of coping with such problems. Therefore, only major world powers can afford to develop, launch and maintain such devices.

Orbital stations have the US, Europe (ESA), Japan, China and Russia. At the end of the twentieth century, the above-mentioned states joined together to create the International Space Station. Also, some other developed countries take part in this.

The Mir station

One of the most successful projects for the construction of space equipment - the Mir station of the USSR. It was launched in 1986 (before that, design and construction were carried out for more than ten years) and continued to function until 2001. Orbital station "Mir" was created literally in pieces. Despite the fact that the date of its launch is 1986, then only the first part was launched, during the last ten years six more blocks were sent into orbit. Not for one year orbital station "Mir" was put into operation, the flooding of which took place much later than the scheduled time.

Provision and other consumables were delivered to the orbital station with the help of transport vehicles "Progress". During the existence of the "World" four such ships were created. To transmit data from the station to Earth, there also existed special installations - ballistic missiles called "Rainbow". Over the period of the station's existence, more than a hundred astronauts visited it. The longest was the presence on it of the Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov.

Flooding

In the 90s of the last century, the station started multiple problems, and it was decided to stop research. This is because it lasted much longer than the expected time, initially it had to work for about ten years. In the year of the flooding of the Mir space station (2001), it was decided to send it to the southern region of the Pacific Ocean.

Causes of flooding

In January 2001, it was decided to flood the station in Russia. The enterprise became unprofitable, a constant need for repairs, too expensive maintenance and accidents did their job. Several projects for its re-equipment were also proposed. The Mir orbital station was of value to Tehran, who was interested in tracking the movements and launches of missiles. In addition, there were questions about the significant reduction in jobs that will have to be eliminated. Despite this, in 2001 (the year of the flooding of the Mir space station), it was liquidated.

International Space Station

ISS Orbital Station is a complex created by several states. To some extent, fifteen countries are engaged in its development. For the first time the idea of creating such a project came in the distant 1984, when the American government together with several other states (Canada, Japan) decided to create a super-powerful orbital station. After the beginning of development, when the complex under the name "Freedom" was being prepared, it became clear that the expenditure on the space program was too high for the state budget. Therefore, the Americans decided to seek support from other countries.

First of all, they, of course, turned to the country that already had experience in conquering outer space - to the USSR, where there were similar problems: lack of financing, too expensive implementation of projects. Therefore, the cooperation of several states turned out to be a reasonable solution.

Agreement and launch

In 1992, an agreement was signed between the United States and Russia on the joint development of outer space. Since that time, countries organize joint expeditions and exchange experiences. Six years later, the first element of the ISS was sent into space. To date, it consists of many modules, to which it is planned to gradually connect a few more.

ISS Modules

The ISS consists of three research modules. This is the American laboratory Destiny, which was established in 2001, the Columbus Center, founded by European researchers in 2008, and Kibo, a Japanese module delivered to orbit in the same year. The Japanese research module was last installed on the ISS. It was sent to parts in orbit, where it was mounted.

Russia does not have its own full-fledged research module. But there are similar devices - "Search" and "Dawn". These are small research modules, which in their functions are slightly less developed in comparison with the devices of other countries, but they are not particularly inferior to them. In addition, now in Russia a multifunctional station called "Science" is being developed. It is planned that it will be launched in 2017.

"Firework"

The orbital station Salyut is a long-term project of the USSR. In total, there were several such stations, all of them were manned and intended for the implementation of the civil program DOS. This first Russian orbital station was launched into a near-earth orbit in 1975 with the help of the Proton rocket.

In 1960, the first development of the orbital station was created. By this time, there already existed a Proton rocket for transportation. Since the creation of such a complex device was a novelty to the scientific minds of the USSR, the work was extremely slow. A number of problems arose in the process. Therefore, it was decided to use the developments created for the "Union". All the "Salutes" were very similar in design. The main and largest compartment was a worker.

"Tiangun-1"

The Chinese orbital station was launched quite recently - in 2011. So far, it has not been fully developed, its construction will continue until 2020. As a result, it is planned to build a very powerful station. In the translation, the word "tyangun" means "heavenly palace." The weight of the device is approximately 8500 kg. To date, the station consists of two compartments.

As the Chinese space industry plans to launch next-generation stations in the near future, the tasks of "Tiangun-1" are extremely simple. The main objectives of the program are to work out a docking with Shenzhou type ships, which now deliver cargo to the station, debug existing modules and devices, modify them if necessary, and create normal conditions for long-term stay of astronauts in orbit. The following stations of Chinese production will already have a wider range of goals and opportunities.

Skylab

The only American orbital station was launched into orbit in 1973. It was aimed at carrying out research on various aspects. Skylab carried out technological, astrophysical and biological research. At this station there were three long expeditions, it existed until 1979, after which it collapsed.

Skylab and TianGong had similar tasks. Since space exploration was just beginning , the Skylab crew had to investigate how the process of human adaptation in space is going on, and conduct some scientific experiments.

The first expedition Skylab lasted only 28 days. The first cosmonauts repaired some damaged parts and practically did not have time to conduct research. During the second expedition, which lasted 59 days, a heat shield was installed and the hydroscope was replaced. The third expedition aboard the Skylab lasted 84 days, a number of studies were carried out.

After the completion of the three expeditions, several options were proposed for how to proceed with the station in the future, but because of the impossibility of its transportation to a more distant orbit, it was decided to destroy Skylab. What happened in 1979. Some fragments of the station were preserved, now they are exhibited in museums.

Genesis

In addition to the above, at the moment in the orbit are two more stations without crew - inflatable Genesis I and Genesis II, which were created by a private company engaged in space tourism. They were launched in 2006 and 2007 respectively. These stations are not aimed at exploring outer space. Their main distinguishing ability is that, being in orbit in folded form, they unfold, begin to expand considerably in size.

The second model of the module is better equipped with the necessary sensors, as well as 22 CCTV cameras. According to the project, organized by the company that created the ship, any person could send a small item on the second module for $ 295. Also on board Genesis II there is a machine for playing bingo.

Results

Many boys in their childhood wanted to become cosmonauts, although few of them understood how difficult and dangerous the profession was. In the USSR, the space industry was a source of pride for every patriot. The achievements of Soviet scientists in this field are incredible. They are very important and noteworthy, since these researchers were pioneers in their field, they had to create everything themselves. The first orbital space stations were a breakthrough. They opened a new era of conquering the universe. A lot of astronauts who were sent to near-earth orbit managed to reach incredible heights and contribute to the exploration of outer space, revealing its secrets.