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Your thoughts on "Orbital Piloted Assembly and Experiment Complex" (OPSEK) ?


Strainborm

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In June 2009, Roscosmos (Russian Federal Space Agency) has officially declared about the intention to "build and prepare for operation the first elements of the orbital assembly and experimental piloted space complex by the end of the ISS life cycle." That means that before the predicted decommissioning of the International Space Station in the 2020s, Roscosmos plans to detach some of its modules, such as the Multipurpose Laboratory Module (to be launched to the ISS in 2017), Nauka, and Node modules, and use them as the basis for a new space station. According to the Russian manned spaceflight contractor RKK Energia, the new station must be able to perform the following tasks: large spacecraft assembly, flight tests and launches, creating, servicing and completing inter-orbital tugs, and providing medical and biological conditions required for the rehabilitation of interplanetary expedition crews after their return to Earth orbit.

In other words, when ISS's time will come, Russian modules will be used to assemble a new station - Orbital Piloted Assembly and Experiment Complex (OPSEK).

What do you think about it? Share your thoughts with me :)

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What do you think about it? Share your thoughts with me :)

Yea, I mentioned that in a topic about ISS fate.

In general idea is good. Whatever they'll actually accomplish it - is another matter. Call me short-sighted, but I don't see any reason why Russians might want to assemble large space craft on an orbit. Or even have a budget for that in the first place.

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Yea, I mentioned that in a topic about ISS fate.

In general idea is good. Whatever they'll actually accomplish it - is another matter. Call me short-sighted, but I don't see any reason why Russians might want to assemble large space craft on an orbit. Or even have a budget for that in the first place.

I think "assemble" in this case could also mean "service", like refueling or adding extra components into an unmanned probe. That would make it much easier sending missions to the gas giants and their moons, like the long-proposed Europa or Titan lander (rover) mission.

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I'm glad somebody's seriously talking about space based infrastructure.

Yea, I mentioned that in a topic about ISS fate.

In general idea is good. Whatever they'll actually accomplish it - is another matter. Call me short-sighted, but I don't see any reason why Russians might want to assemble large space craft on an orbit. Or even have a budget for that in the first place.

Who knows. Say what you want about ole Vlad Putin, but he's always got some surprises up his sleeve. Look at what happened during the Olympics. Very Machiavellian. Got all those troops there to PROTECT THE ATHLETES from terrorists- daap as long as they're there they may as well annex Ukraine.

If Vlad wants it, it'll get done. Hopefully something'll start a new space race ( I'm betting on China's pursuit of the rare Earth's ). I see no other way to cajole the US's legislators into space.

Edited by Aethon
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I think "assemble" in this case could also mean "service", like refueling or adding extra components into an unmanned probe. That would make it much easier sending missions to the gas giants and their moons, like the long-proposed Europa or Titan lander (rover) mission.

Hm... I thought that "áñþрþчýþ" in OPSEK - ÑÂñþрþчýыù - quite specifically refers to assembling from parts (as in: assembly line - ÑÂñþрþчýыù úþýòõùõр). Though my russian is sh...., so I looked up Wiki and from what I seen they got 4 major planned uses for it:

  • Large spacecraft assembly
  • Flight tests and launches
  • Creating, servicing and completing inter-orbital tugs
  • Providing medical and biological conditions required for the rehabilitation of interplanetary expedition crews after their return to Earth orbit.

Nothing about refuelling probes... but who knows - the demand for any of these planned activities is nearly non-existent, so they might go for whatever opportunity arrives.

Who knows. Say what you want about ole Vlad Putin, but he's always got some surprises up his sleeve. Look at what happened during the Olympics. Very Machiavellian. Got all those troops there to PROTECT THE ATHLETES from terrorists- daap as long as they're there they may as well annex Ukraine.

If Vlad wants it, it'll get done. Hopefully something'll start a new space race ( I'm betting on China's pursuit of the rare Earth's ). I see no other way to cajole the US's legislators into space.

Totally agreed :) That's pretty much exactly what I've been talking about last week on this forum :)

Edited by Sky_walker
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Fully behind this and all other peaceful exploits. The sooner we stop dumping GDP into blowing each other up (and I'm specifically NOT going to point any fingers in any directions, just commenting that that seems to be the #1 use of money world-wide) and using it for Research, Development, and Exploration, the better.

Makes an awful lot of sense anyway - why dump the entire ISS when you can reuse bits? Hauling stuff up to orbit is -expensive-. And why stop building now and waiting for end-of-life of the ISS if you can add stuff to ISS now which can be used separately later on? Whole point of a -continued presence in space- is to overlap projects instead of waiting for one to end before starting the next.

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Fully behind this and all other peaceful exploits. The sooner we stop dumping GDP into blowing each other up (and I'm specifically NOT going to point any fingers in any directions, just commenting that that seems to be the #1 use of money world-wide) and using it for Research, Development, and Exploration, the better.

Yeah. Here we have a worldwide community that get's along better than THE world wide community. Jews sharing craft files with Arabs, the (semi) unmoderated exchange between people whose govt's don't agree. It's an incredible coincidence that we all happen to be alive here at the same time. We're amazing. A time traveler from 200 years ago (or 200 years in the future) would LOVE to talk to you about life in our time. Too bad we can't see each other for the miracle that we all are.

The common denominator that draws us here and damps our nationalistic fire is the peaceful exploration of space. In an infinite universe, the answer to every problem we'll encounter is out there- in space. Any money spent going there is better spent than national 'defense' spending, and the consequences thereof. If I could, I'd choose to have my taxes go to space exploration rather than weapons, capable of shooting down civilian airliners full of people like me. Who want nothing to do with war, but have it thrust upon them.

My condolences to the world!

Edited by Aethon
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Hm... I thought that "áñþрþчýþ" in OPSEK - ÑÂñþрþчýыù - quite specifically refers to assembling from parts (as in: assembly line - ÑÂñþрþчýыù úþýòõùõр). Though my russian is sh...., so I looked up Wiki and from what I seen they got 4 major planned uses for it:

  • Large spacecraft assembly
  • Flight tests and launches
  • Creating, servicing and completing inter-orbital tugs
  • Providing medical and biological conditions required for the rehabilitation of interplanetary expedition crews after their return to Earth orbit.

Nothing about refuelling probes... but who knows - the demand for any of these planned activities is nearly non-existent, so they might go for whatever opportunity arrives.

Don't see refueling probes as relevant, yes you might want to launch a separate transfer stage but it can dock and burn automatically.

Refueling and repairing satellites on the other hand is relevant, it should be cost effective to move an satelite to the space station, repair it and put it back.

If you have an high ISP tug using something like vasmir, geo is also very relevant.

This would not make the station go break even however it would be an nice side business who pays part of the cost and also give lot of experience.

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I will believe it when i see it :) Russia needed 20 years to build their newest strategic nuclear submarine. I do not need to add it was already outdated when it left shipyard for the first time - do i? Given that any government will eagerly sink its money in military before giving any scraps to space exploration, i'm not optimistic about new station.

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