29 September 2011

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Understanding Space Station or Orbital Station Short History of Space Station

Understanding Space Station or Orbital Station Short History of Space Station
A space station is a complex system with many interrelated subsystems:

1. Structure
2. Electrical power
3. Thermal control
4. Attitude determination and control
5. Orbital navigation and propulsion
6. Automation and robotics
7. Computing and communications
8. Environmental and life support
9. Crew facilities
10. Crew and cargo transportation

What is Space Station or meaning of Orbital or Space Station?


1. A space station (or orbital station) is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space (most commonly in low Earth orbit) for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock.

2. Dock means to couple (two or more spacecraft, for example) in space or a platform at which trucks or trains load or unload cargo.

3. The first space station was Salyut 1, which was launched by the Soviet Union on April 19, 1971.

4. USSR got two types of space stations one civil type and second military type

5. The military stations, Salyut 2, Salyut 3, and Salyut 5, were also known as Almaz stations

6. The civilian stations Salyut 6 and Salyut 7 were built with two docking ports, which allowed a second crew to visit, bringing a new spacecraft with them; the Soyuz ferry could spend 90 days in space, after which point it needed to be replaced by a fresh Soyuz spacecraft. This allowed for a crew to man the station continually.

7. Mir ( Peace or World) was a Soviet and later Russian space station, operational in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001

8. Mir was the first of the third generation of space stations, constructed from 1986 to 1996 with a modular design, and one of the largest artificial satellite orbiting the Earth

9. Mir served as a microgravity research laboratory in which crews conducted experiments in biology, human biology, physics, and astronomy, meteorology and spacecraft systems in order to develop technologies required for the permanent occupation of space.

10. The Mir programme held the record for the longest uninterrupted human presence in space, 3,644 days, until 23 October 2010 when it was surpassed by the ISS

11. The first module of the Mir station, known as the core module or base block, was launched in 1986, and was followed by six further modules, all launched by Proton rockets (with the exception of the docking module). When complete, the station consisted of seven pressurised modules and several unpressurised components. Power was provided by several solar arrays mounted directly on the modules.

12. The cost of the Mir station was estimated by former General Director of the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos Yuri Koptev in 2001 as $4.2 billion over the lifetime of the station, including its development, assembly and orbital operation. The station was serviced by Soyuz spacecraft, Progress spacecraft and (during the Shuttle-Mir programme) U.S. space shuttles, and was visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from 12 different nations.

13. All space stations are designed with the intention of rotating multiple crews, with each crew member staying aboard the station for weeks or months

14. Space stations have been used for both military and civilian purposes. The last military-use space station was Salyut 5, which was used by the Almaz program of the Soviet Union in 1976 and 1977

15. The International Space Station (ISS) is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes.

16. The core module of the International Space Station was launched in 1998.The ISS is divided into two main sections, the Russian orbital segment, and the United States operational segment (USOS).

17. The International Space Station marked its 10th anniversary of continuous human occupation on Nov. 2, 2010. Since Expedition 1, which launched Oct. 31, 2000, and docked Nov. 2, the space station has been visited by 202 individuals.
18. At the time of the anniversary, the station’s odometer read more than 1.5 billion statute miles (the equivalent of eight round trips to the Sun), over the course of 57,361 orbits around the Earth.

19. As of August 2011, there have been 135 launches to the space station since the launch of the first module, Zarya, at 1:40 a.m. EST on Nov. 20, 1998: 74 Russian vehicles, 37 space shuttles, two European and two Japanese vehicles. The final space shuttle mission July 8-21 by Atlantis delivered 4 1/2 tons of supplies in the Raffaello logistics module. A total of 161 spacewalks have been conducted in support of space station assembly totaling more than 1,015 hours.

20. Russian Modular or 'next generation' space stations differ from 'Monolithic' single piece stations by allowing reconfiguration of the station to suit changing needs.

Following is the list of Space Stations –
1. Salyut space stations (USSR, 1971–1986)

2. Salyut 1 (1971, 1 crew and 1 failed docking)

3. DOS-2 (1972, launch failure)
4. Salyut 2/Almaz (1973, failed shortly after launch)

5. Cosmos 557 (1973, re-entered eleven days after launch)

6. Salyut 3/Almaz (1974, 1 crew and 1 failed docking)

7. Salyut 4 (1975, 2 crews and 1 planned crew failed to achieve orbit)

8. Salyut 5/Almaz (1976–1977, 2 crews and 1 failed docking)

9. Salyut 6 (1977–1981, 16 crews (5 long duration, 11 short duration and 1 failed docking)

10. Salyut 7 (1982–1986, 10 crews (6 long duration, 4 short duration and 1 failed docking)

11. Skylab (USA, 1973–1974, 3 crews)

12. Mir (USSR/Russia, 1986–2000, 28 long duration crews)

13. International Space Station (ISS) (United States, European Space Agency, Japan, Russia, and Canada 2000-ongoing, 27 long duration crews as of April 2011)

14. Following the controlled deorbiting of Mir in 2001, the International Space Station is the only one of these currently in orbit; it has been continuously occupied since November 2, 2000.

15. The People's Republic of China is expected to launch its first space station named Tiangong 1 on September 29, 2011. This would make China the third country to launch a space station. China will be launching two more space labs called Tiangong 2 and Tiangong 3 before 2016. It will then launch a three module 60-ton space station by 2022. Project 921-2 is the working name given by the People's Republic of China for plans to create a manned space station. The public is being asked to submit suggestions for names and symbols to adorn the space station.





Reality Views by sm –
Thursday, September 29, 2011

Tags-Space NASA Space Shuttle Space Orbit

Source – Wiki NASA

2 comments:

Amrit September 30, 2011  

Great information