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RedKraken

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1 hour ago, DDE said:

On the one hand, they seem to. But if Novosti Kosmonavtiki forums are an indicator, they think of it as a military asset that doesn’t have to be economically viable (the Shuttle on steroids), and since they’ve actually announced that they’re deemphatizing the commercial launch market, they end up having a combination of a wait and see attitude, and an assymetric response, namely:

  • Accelerated commissioning of Nudol, Nivelir, Burevestnik and whatever the follow-up to the MiG-31D-based Kontakt is called, to enable conventional and nuclear attacks on the BFR in all Earth orbit regimes;
  • Slow and steady commissioning of Energia-5 to enable flag-and-footprints Lunar exploration, followed by an exorbitantly expensive lunar base and potentially mostly non-reusable Mars missions, alongside deployment of large “monobloc” Earth orbit military payloads, including advanced reconnaissance satellites and space-to-space DEWs, all nuclear-powered;
  • Efforts towards a more comprehensive space demilitarization treaty (alongside China) and UN-level prohibition of any commercial space mining.

Rrrright. To paraphrase a comic book character: "Where's the money, honey?" Especially for the second point on the list. Especially with pulling out from commercial launch market. And... why exactly Russia would want a ban on commercial space mining? To protect their share of the market of strategic resources? Fat chance anyone relevant besides China will back Russia on this one.

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5 hours ago, Scotius said:

To paraphrase a comic book character: "Where's the money, honey?"

Honey’s name is Zina, in our case.

Those ASATs appaear to be adequately funded. Nudol is well into test-firing (and handfully bundled into the A-235 ABM upgrade program), Nivelir has already flown in various configurations (as an inspector satellite bundled with Rodnik/Gonets payloads, and as the Kosmos-2519/2521/2523 bundle). The procurement docs for Burevestnik indicate a serious groundside infrastructure investment, including storage facilities, telemetry uplinks and an upgrade to the 821st space surveillance centre; usually the system is mentioned alongside Nivelir, but usually with a separate GUKOS index. The same documents indicate a new SIGINT snooper system, the Sledopyt, and a plan to equip the already well-funded lidar site in Altai with a blinding-class laser; rumours persist that the smaller road-mobile Peresvet DEW is also an ASAT blinder, although I’m more convinced it’s a drone-zapper. As to the Kontakt inheritor, we’ve only seen what amounts to captive tests with a dummy weapon, although they seem rather unnecessary given the repeated tests of MiG-31s with Kinzhal, a much more bulky and awkward payload.

So it looks like the money’s already being spent prodigiously.

5 hours ago, Scotius said:

Especially for the second point on the list. Especially with pulling out from commercial launch market.

Me and my taxes, naturally. Nobody would have expected Roscomos member companies to spend their commercial proceeds on developing a distinctly non-commercial capability; the 2016-2025 Federal Space Program is allocated RUR 1.4 trillion, vs 3 trillion originally requested.

5 hours ago, Scotius said:

And... why exactly Russia would want a ban on commercial space mining?

Pursuant to the spirit of the old Outer Space Treaty, technically. All that “no claims, for the common benefit of mankind” jazz.

Don’t write that approach off just yet. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576516311584 TL:DR; Israeli post-grads played Model UN regarding space mining in 2035; the political battlefied was split between a handful of space-faring nations flanked by developed states that were eager to become even just one part of the value chain - and a swarm of non-spacefaring developing nations. Of the latter, a minority demanded the leaders dragged them into the space age while bearing the costs - while the majority either opposed space mining entirely, or wanted a significant portion of the financial gain seized by the UN (or a similar authority) and directly redistributed to the needy.

So it’s quite possible - especially in the recent political climate - to lead an anti-colonialist zerg rush on the US and Luxembourg.

Edited by DDE
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Spoiler
14 hours ago, DDE said:

Me and my taxes

You and your claimed part of the resource rent, unless you are roleplaying.

 

Spoiler
14 hours ago, DDE said:

Honey’s name is Zina, in our case.

Or Xena. /zi:na/

 

Edited by kerbiloid
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