TKS - better pictures?

[G'th]

Reaching out to you guys here for some help with the TKS. Namely, I'm having trouble confirming how its RCS is set up. Utilizing the graphics on Wikipedia gives me an idea of where -some- of the blocks went (it appears to use two sets of 4 blocks offset 45 degrees in-line with the solar panels for port/starboard translation and roll control, and has I believe two large blocks that serve as aft and ventral/dorsal control) but I'm still missing forward control and I 'm not actually entirely sure if what I see as the RCS is actually accurate. 

I'd also be interested if you guys have some good resources for it to see some looks at the spacecraft in more than just the two directions Wikipedia gives me.  In particular I'd love to see the rear of the craft where the docking mechanism goes. 

[kerbiloid]

Mostly VA photos are available. Not so many FGB. Almost all of them here:
http://cosmopark.ru/ur500/tks.htm
http://cosmopark.ru/ur500/tks2.htm
http://cosmopark.ru/ur500/tks3.htm

Also you can have to use some TKS-derived modules like these:
https://translate.google.ru/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=ru&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fgeektimes.ru%2Fpost%2F288366%2F&edit-text=
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/iss_fgb2.html
, but mostly their front part (i.e. this one

Spoiler

), as the rear end is totally redesigned.

TKS engines:

2x1 "engines of correction and approaching", "DKS" — at "zenith" (i.e. "top") and "nadir" (i.e."bottom") sides of the ship, thrust 447 kgf (not kN!) each. "Main" engines.
Covered on launch with flap caps (which in "closed position" is placed inside the shroud) - those small trapezoids, part of black protective covers. In flight ("opened" position as on wiki pic) these caps deflect the engines flame from VA

4 blocks of RCS engines on "left" an "right" sides, 2 rear, 2 front.
Basically all of them are same (as you can see at the upper links, where FGB is semi-assembled), 5 nozzles rotated about 45° ("engines of docking and stabilization", "DPS"), max 40 kgf each.
Three nozzles to rear/front, two - sideways.
The rear end (the end where VA sits) RCS blocks additionally have 2x8 low-thrust "engines of precise stabilization" "DTS", 4 pairs of mini-nozzles behind each of them. 1.2 kgf each. You can see them on th wiki screenshot, they are behind the rear RCS block as eight smaller pipes.
(some photos are here http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:eLUB9M8aVfAJ:novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/forum/forum9/topic9992/%3FPAGEN_1%3D4+&cd=1&hl=ru&ct=clnk&gl=ru&client=opera )

Upd.
"Rear" and "front" sides of TKS are confusing. The VA capsule is indeed the rear side of the ship, it starts with its rear side up.
"Front" part (from orbital pov) is what you can see on this photo, biconical 4m-wide compartment).
Wide (4m) side - front, narrow (3 m) side - rear. VA - at the rear.

Be aware about the wiki pictures.
This one mostly corresponds to what we can see on the photos, but its VA looks rotated 180° upwards, and VA tower looks partially fictious. Also VA looks horizontally mirrored. Maybe I'm wrong, but looks so.
Look at the round bulb on the VA top side. It is a sight shroud and it decouples during the launch. The triangle below is a cable shroud.
Both of them are separate parts, but probably the artist thought that they are elements of VA hull.
Obviously, the sight should look "down" to the Earth, not upwards to stars (as we can see this on other pictures).
While FGB is placed correctly, solar panels on the "upper" tanks - up, to the Sun, while radiator panels on the "down" tanks - down, from the Sun. The pipe on the spine is an astronavigational sensor, of course it's on the "upper" side (like on other pictures).
Looking again at Va we can see that the artist had understood that VA airlock is placed 120° from the sight, but as we can see on other photos, it's 120° to the right from the sight, not to the left.
(120° to the left there is a small and dull round technical port covered with a round cap). Also the airlock door shouldn't be extruded from the hull as on this picture, it's aligned with VA hull.
Btw, it can't be opened in space, and it doesn't have external red structures as on other photos and in some KSP mods. Red structures are put on the Earth for servicing. Because once you open the airlock from inside, its door gets thrown away with springs, not just opens (Apollo-1 ancestry).

Spoiler

 

This one is a piece of abstract art, combined from TKS, derivative modules and artist's imagination.  A sleeping of mind, beyond good and evil, misheard lyrics.

Spoiler

Additionally a picture with 3 views.
http://mykosmos.ru/transportnyj-korabl-snabzheniya/

A small photo of the TKS+OPS testing
http://www.npomash.ru/history/en/history.htm?prn=y.

Spoiler

A screenshot from a movie with (schematic?) view of the docking side.
http://www.astronautix.com/t/tks-2.html

A bigger version of the testing photo and photos of TKS-derived modules.
https://www.taringa.net/comunidades/inteligenciacolectiva/9696965/Estaciones-espaciales-Mir-Iss-Almaz-y-Saliut.html

Still schematic.

Spoiler

http://www.arms-expo.ru/articles/124/86921/

Spoiler

(also contains a slideshow:

and this picture looks relatively accurate

)

(pay attention: unlike that wikipic, VA sight looks "down", not "up")

Nice pic of TKS+OPS
https://ciudad-futura.net/2011/01/11/nave-secreta-urss/
(Don't be confused with the 6-crew VA detailed picture from this link, it's actually not a real VA, but a proposed extended version).
 

Also you can refer to TKS as to Kosmos-1443 (unmanned TKS flight).

Do not forget that VA RCS (the cone on the VA top) is disabled from the very beginning.
It gets enabled only when VA separates from the FGB and is used only to stabilize VA during the re-entering.
(Btw, it even uses another oxidizer - nitric acid (AK-27) instead of FGB's NTO).

Edited October 11, 2017 by kerbiloid

[DDE]

9 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

Btw, it even uses another oxidizer - nitric acid (AK-27) instead of FGB's NTO

That's a really odd move. IRFNA is usually about its lower freezing point...

[kerbiloid]

2 minutes ago, DDE said:

That's a really odd move. IRFNA is usually about its lower freezing point...

Yes, the acid allows not to warm VA's RCS through the VA body. It just doesn't freeze.

[DDE]

46 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

Yes, the acid allows not to warm VA's RCS through the VA body. It just doesn't freeze.

I guess I'm still too stuck on the "space isn't cold" revelation to think about warming.

[kerbiloid]

53 minutes ago, DDE said:

I guess I'm still too stuck on the "space isn't cold" revelation to think about warming.

This is from the last part of Afanasiev's "Another Spaceship" (Афанасьев, "Другой корабль")

[kerbiloid]

Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics has a scale model of Almaz+TKS where TKS face is more or less visible.
(Never met its portrait before, usually they depict only its VA end.)

From

and

https://news.rambler.ru/troops/37425464-tsentr-hrunicheva-otmetil-40-let-pervomu-zapusku-transportnogo-korablya-snabzheniya/?updated

[kerbiloid]

Some nice views of TKS-derived main and RCS engines.

https://www.kosmonavtika.com/vaisseaux/mir/tech/kvant2/kvant2.html

[kerbiloid]

@sh1pman just has posted a video of another project.

At 01:40 there are two static photos of VA parachute system.

(The thick axial cylinder is the soft landing engine.)

Spoiler