Briefly about the article: The ISS is the most expensive and ambitious project of mankind on the way to space exploration. However, the construction of the station is in full swing, and it is not yet known what will happen to it in a couple of years. We talk about the creation of the ISS and plans for its completion.

space house

international space station

You remain in charge. But don't touch anything.

A joke by Russian cosmonauts about the American Shannon Lucid, which they repeated every time they went out into outer space from the Mir station (1996).

Back in 1952, the German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun said that humanity would need space stations very soon: as soon as it went into space, it would be unstoppable. And for the systematic development of the Universe, orbital houses are needed. On April 19, 1971, the Soviet Union launched the Salyut 1 space station, the first in the history of mankind. It was only 15 meters long, and the volume of habitable space was 90 square meters. By today's standards, the pioneers flew into space on unreliable scrap metal stuffed with radio tubes, but then it seemed that there were no more barriers to man in space. Now, 30 years later, only one habitable object hangs above the planet - "International Space Station".

It is the largest, most advanced, but at the same time the most expensive station among all that have ever been launched. Increasingly, questions are being asked - do people need it? Like, what do we need in space, if there are so many problems left on Earth? Perhaps it is worth understanding - what is this ambitious project?

The roar of the spaceport

The International Space Station (ISS) is a joint project of 6 space agencies: the Federal Space Agency (Russia), the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (USA), the Japan Aerospace Research Authority (JAXA), the Canadian Space Agency (CSA / ASC), the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) and the European Space Agency (ESA).

However, not all members of the latter took part in the ISS project - Great Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Austria and Finland refused this, while Greece and Luxembourg joined later. In fact, the ISS is based on a synthesis of failed projects - the Russian Mir-2 station and the American Svoboda.

Work on the creation of the ISS began in 1993. The Mir station was launched on February 19, 1986 and had a warranty period of 5 years. In fact, she spent 15 years in orbit - due to the fact that the country simply did not have the money to launch the Mir-2 project. The Americans had similar problems - the Cold War ended, and their Svoboda station, which had already spent about 20 billion dollars on one design, was out of work.

Russia had a 25-year practice of working with orbital stations, unique methods of long-term (over a year) human stay in space. In addition, the USSR and the USA had a good experience of working together on board the Mir station. In conditions when no country could independently pull an expensive orbital station, the ISS became the only alternative.

On March 15, 1993, representatives of the Russian Space Agency and the scientific and production association Energia approached NASA with a proposal to create the ISS. On September 2, a corresponding government agreement was signed, and by November 1, a detailed work plan was prepared. Financial issues of interaction (supply of equipment) were resolved in the summer of 1994, and 16 countries joined the project.

What's in your name? The name "ISS" was born in controversy. The first crew of the station, at the suggestion of the Americans, gave it the name "Station Alpha" and used it for some time in communication sessions. Russia did not agree with this option, since “Alpha” figuratively meant “first”, although the Soviet Union had already launched 8 space stations (7 “Salyuts” and “Mir”), and the Americans were experimenting with their “Skylab”. From our side, the name “Atlantis” was proposed, but the Americans rejected it for two reasons - firstly, it was too similar to the name of their shuttle “Atlantis”, and secondly, it was associated with the mythical Atlantis, which, as you know, drowned . It was decided to stop at the phrase "International Space Station" - not too sonorous, but a compromise.

Go!

The deployment of the ISS was launched by Russia on November 20, 1998. The Proton rocket launched the Zarya functional cargo block into orbit, which, along with the American NODE-1 docking module, delivered into space on December 5 of the same year by the Endevere shuttle, formed the backbone of the ISS.

"Dawn"- the heir to the Soviet TKS (supply transport ship), designed to serve Almaz combat stations. At the first stage of the ISS assembly, it became a source of electricity, an equipment warehouse, a means of navigation and orbit correction. All other modules of the ISS now have a more specific specialization, while Zarya is practically universal and in the future will serve as a storage facility (food, fuel, instruments).

Officially, Zarya is owned by the United States - they paid for its creation - however, in fact, the module was assembled from 1994 to 1998 at the Khrunichev State Space Center. It was included in the ISS instead of the Bus-1 module, designed by the American corporation Lockheed, since it cost $450 million compared to $220 million for Zarya.

Zarya has three docking airlocks - one at each end and one on the side. Its solar panels are 10.67 meters long and 3.35 meters wide. In addition, the module has six nickel-cadmium batteries capable of delivering about 3 kilowatts of power (at first, there were problems with charging them).

Along the outer perimeter of the module there are 16 fuel tanks with a total volume of 6 cubic meters (5700 kilograms of fuel), 24 large rotary jet engines, 12 small ones, as well as 2 main engines for serious orbital maneuvers. Zarya is capable of autonomous (unmanned) flight for 6 months, but due to delays with the Russian service module Zvezda, it had to fly empty for 2 years.

Unity module(created by the Boeing Corporation) went into space after the Zarya in December 1998. Being equipped with six docking locks, it became the central connecting node for the subsequent modules of the station. Unity is vital to the ISS. The working resources of all station modules - oxygen, water and electricity - pass through it. The Unity also has a basic radio communications system installed to allow Zarya's communication capabilities to communicate with the Earth.

Service module “Zvezda”- the main Russian segment of the ISS - was launched on July 12, 2000 and docked with Zarya 2 weeks later. Its frame was built back in the 1980s for the Mir-2 project (the design of the Zvezda is very reminiscent of the first Salyut stations, and its design features are of the Mir station).

Simply put, this module is housing for astronauts. It is equipped with life support systems, communications, control, data processing, as well as a propulsion system. The total mass of the module is 19050 kilograms, the length is 13.1 meters, the span of the solar panels is 29.72 meters.

Zvezda has two beds, an exercise bike, a treadmill, a toilet (and other hygienic facilities), and a refrigerator. External view is provided by 14 windows. The Russian electrolytic system "Electron" decomposes waste water. Hydrogen is taken overboard, and oxygen enters the life support system. Paired with Electron, the Air system works, absorbing carbon dioxide.

Theoretically, waste water can be cleaned and reused, but this is rarely practiced on the ISS - fresh water is delivered on board by cargo Progress. It must be said that the Electron system malfunctioned several times and the cosmonauts had to use chemical generators - the same “oxygen candles” that once caused a fire at the Mir station.

In February 2001, a laboratory module was attached to the ISS (to one of the Unity gateways). "Destiny"(“Destiny”) - an aluminum cylinder weighing 14.5 tons, 8.5 meters long and 4.3 meters in diameter. It is equipped with five mounting racks with life support systems (each weighs 540 kilograms and can produce electricity, cool water and control the composition of the air), as well as six racks of scientific equipment delivered a little later. The remaining 12 empty slots will be occupied over time.

In May 2001, the Quest Joint Airlock, the main airlock compartment of the ISS, was attached to Unity. This six-ton ​​cylinder, measuring 5.5 by 4 meters, is equipped with four high-pressure cylinders (2 - oxygen, 2 - nitrogen) to compensate for the loss of air released to the outside, and is relatively inexpensive - only 164 million dollars.

Its working space of 34 cubic meters is used for spacewalks, and the dimensions of the airlock allow the use of spacesuits of any type. The fact is that the design of our "Orlans" involves their use only in Russian transfer compartments, a similar situation with American EMUs.

In this module, astronauts going into space can also rest and breathe pure oxygen to get rid of decompression sickness (with a sharp change in pressure, nitrogen, the amount of which in the tissues of our bodies reaches 1 liter, goes into a gaseous state).

The last of the assembled ISS modules is the Russian Pirs docking compartment (SO-1). The creation of SO-2 was discontinued due to funding problems, so the ISS now has only one module, to which the Soyuz-TMA and Progress spacecraft can be easily docked - and three of them at once. In addition, cosmonauts dressed in our spacesuits can go outside from it.

And, finally, one more module of the ISS cannot be mentioned - the baggage multi-purpose support module. Strictly speaking, there are three of them - "Leonardo", "Raffaello" and "Donatello" (artists of the Renaissance, as well as three of the four ninja turtles). Each module is an almost equilateral cylinder (4.4 by 4.57 meters) transported on shuttles.

It can store up to 9 tons of cargo (tare weight - 4082 kilograms, with a maximum load - 13154 kilograms) - supplies delivered to the ISS, and waste taken away from it. All of the module's baggage is in normal air, so astronauts can get to it without using space suits. The baggage modules were manufactured in Italy by order of NASA and belong to the American segments of the ISS. They are used in sequence.

Useful little things

In addition to the main modules, the ISS has a large amount of additional equipment. It is inferior in size to the modules, but without it, the operation of the station is impossible.

The working “arms”, or rather, the “hand” of the station, is the “Canadarm2” manipulator, mounted on the ISS in April 2001. This high-tech machine worth 600 million dollars is capable of moving objects weighing up to 116 tons - for example, helping to assemble modules, docking and unloading shuttles (their own “hands” are very similar to “Canadarm2”, only smaller and weaker).

Own length of the manipulator - 17.6 meters, diameter - 35 centimeters. It is controlled by astronauts from the laboratory module. The most interesting thing is that "Canadarm2" is not fixed in one place and is able to move around the surface of the station, providing access to most of its parts.

Unfortunately, due to differences in connection ports located on the surface of the station, “Canadarm2” cannot move around our modules. In the near future (presumably 2007), it is planned to install ERA (European Robotic Arm) on the Russian segment of the ISS - a shorter and weaker, but more accurate manipulator (positioning accuracy - 3 millimeters), capable of operating in semi-automatic mode without constant control of astronauts.

In accordance with the safety requirements of the ISS project, a rescue ship is constantly on duty at the station, capable of delivering the crew to Earth if necessary. Now this function is performed by the good old Soyuz (TMA model) - it is able to take on board 3 people and provide them with life support for 3.2 days. "Unions" have a short warranty period in orbit, so they are changed every 6 months.

The workhorses of the ISS are currently the Russian Progresses, the brothers of the Soyuz, operating in unmanned mode. During the day, an astronaut consumes about 30 kilograms of cargo (food, water, hygiene products, etc.). Consequently, for a regular six-month duty at the station, one person needs 5.4 tons of supplies. It is impossible to carry so much on the Soyuz, so the station is mainly supplied by shuttles (up to 28 tons of cargo).

After the termination of their flights, from February 1, 2003 to July 26, 2005, the entire load on the station's clothing support lay on Progress (2.5 tons of load). After unloading the ship, it was filled with waste, undocked automatically and burned up in the atmosphere somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.

Crew: 2 people (as of July 2005), maximum - 3

Orbit height: From 347.9 km to 354.1 km

Orbital inclination: 51.64 degrees

Daily revolutions around the Earth: 15.73

Distance covered: About 1.5 billion kilometers

Average speed: 7.69 km/s

Current weight: 183.3 tons

Fuel weight: 3.9 tons

Living space: 425 square meters

Average temperature on board: 26.9 degrees Celsius

Estimated Completion: 2010

Planned life: 15 years

The complete assembly of the ISS will require 39 shuttle flights and 30 Progress flights. In finished form, the station will look like this: airspace volume - 1200 cubic meters, weight - 419 tons, power-to-weight ratio - 110 kilowatts, total length of the structure - 108.4 meters (74 meters in modules), crew - 6 people.

At the crossroads

Until 2003, the construction of the ISS went on as usual. Some modules were canceled, others were delayed, sometimes there were problems with money, faulty equipment - in general, things were going tight, but nevertheless, over the 5 years of its existence, the station became habitable and scientific experiments were periodically conducted on it.

On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia was lost while entering the dense layers of the atmosphere. The American manned flight program was suspended for 2.5 years. Given that the station modules waiting for their turn could only be launched into orbit by shuttles, the very existence of the ISS was in jeopardy.

Fortunately, the United States and Russia were able to agree on a redistribution of costs. We took over the provision of the ISS with cargo, and the station itself was transferred to the standby mode - two cosmonauts were constantly on board to monitor the serviceability of the equipment.

Shuttle launches

After the successful flight of the Discovery shuttle in July-August 2005, there was hope that the construction of the station would continue. First in line for launch is Unity's connector module twin, Node 2. The preliminary date of its launch is December 2006.

The European Science Module Columbus will be the second, scheduled for launch in March 2007. This lab is ready and waiting in the wings to be attached to Node 2. It boasts good anti-meteorite protection, a unique device for the study of fluid physics, as well as the European Physiological Module (a comprehensive medical examination right on board the station).

Following the "Columbus" will go Japanese laboratory "Kibo" ("Hope") - its launch is scheduled for September 2007. It is interesting because it has its own mechanical manipulator, as well as a closed "terrace" where you can conduct experiments in open space without actually leaving the ship.

The third connecting module - “Node 3” is to go to the ISS in May 2008. In July 2009 it is planned to launch a unique rotating centrifuge module CAM (Centrifuge Accommodations Module), on board of which artificial gravity will be created in the range from 0.01 to 2 g. It is designed mainly for scientific research - the permanent residence of astronauts in the conditions of gravity, which is so often described by science fiction writers, is not provided.

In March 2009, the ISS will fly "Cupola" ("Dome") - an Italian development, which, as its name implies, is an armored observation dome for visual control over the station's manipulators. For safety, the portholes will be equipped with external shutters to protect against meteorites.

The last module delivered to the ISS by American shuttles will be the Science and Force Platform, a massive block of solar panels on an openwork metal truss. It will provide the station with the energy necessary for the normal functioning of the new modules. It will also feature ERA's mechanical arm.

Launches on Protons

Russian Proton rockets are supposed to carry three large modules to the ISS. So far, only a very approximate flight schedule is known. Thus, in 2007 it is planned to add to the station our spare functional cargo block (FGB-2 - the twin of Zarya), which will be turned into a multifunctional laboratory.

In the same year, the European ERA manipulator arm is to be deployed by Proton. And, finally, in 2009 it will be necessary to put into operation a Russian research module, functionally similar to the American "Destiny".

It is interesting

Space stations are frequent guests in science fiction. The two most famous are “Babylon 5” from the television series of the same name and “Deep Space 9” from the Star Trek series. The textbook look of the space station in SF was created by director Stanley Kubrick. His film 2001: A Space Odyssey (screenplay and book by Arthur C. Clarke) showed a large ring station rotating on its axis, thus creating artificial gravity. The longest human stay on the space station is 437.7 days. The record was set by Valery Polyakov at the Mir station in 1994-1995. The Soviet Salyut stations were originally supposed to bear the name Zarya, but it was left for the next similar project, which, in the end, became the ISS functional cargo block. In one of the expeditions to the ISS, a tradition arose to hang three banknotes on the wall of the residential module - 50 rubles, a dollar and a euro. For luck. The first space marriage in the history of mankind was concluded on the ISS - on August 10, 2003, cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, while on board the station (she flew over New Zealand), married Ekaterina Dmitrieva (the bride was on Earth, in the USA).

* * *

The ISS is the largest, most expensive and long-term space project in the history of mankind. While the station is not yet completed, its cost can be estimated only approximately - over 100 billion dollars. Criticism of the ISS most often boils down to the fact that this money can be used to carry out hundreds of unmanned scientific expeditions to the planets of the solar system.

There is some truth in such accusations. However, this is a very limited approach. First, it does not take into account the potential profit from the development of new technologies with the creation of each new module of the ISS - and after all, its instruments are really at the forefront of science. Their modifications can be used in everyday life and can bring huge income.

We must not forget that thanks to the ISS program, humanity gets the opportunity to preserve and increase all the precious technologies and skills of manned space flights, which were obtained in the second half of the 20th century at an incredible price. In the “space race” of the USSR and the USA, big money was spent, many people died - all this may be in vain if we stop moving in the same direction.

It was launched into outer space in 1998. At the moment, for almost seven thousand days, day and night, the best minds of mankind have been working on solving the most complex mysteries in weightlessness.

Space

Every person who at least once saw this unique object asked a logical question: what is the height of the orbit of the international space station? It's just impossible to answer it in one word. The orbit altitude of the International Space Station ISS depends on many factors. Let's consider them in more detail.

The ISS orbit around the Earth is decreasing due to the impact of the rarefied atmosphere. The speed decreases, respectively, and the height decreases. How to go up again? The altitude of the orbit can be changed by the engines of the ships that dock to it.

Various Heights

Over the entire duration of the space mission, several major values ​​have been recorded. Back in February 2011, the height of the ISS orbit was 353 km. All calculations are made in relation to sea level. The height of the ISS orbit in June of the same year increased to three hundred and seventy-five kilometers. But this was far from the limit. Just two weeks later, NASA employees were happy to answer the question "What is the height of the ISS orbit at the moment?" - three hundred and eighty-five kilometers!

And this is not the limit

The height of the ISS orbit was still insufficient to resist natural friction. Engineers took a responsible and very risky step. The height of the ISS orbit was to be increased to four hundred kilometers. But this event happened a little later. The problem was that only ships were lifting the ISS. The orbit height was limited for the shuttles. Only over time, the restriction was abolished for the crew and the ISS. The altitude of the orbit since 2014 has exceeded 400 kilometers above sea level. The maximum average value was recorded in July and amounted to 417 km. In general, altitude adjustments are made constantly to fix the most optimal route.

History of creation

Back in 1984, the US government was hatching plans to launch a large-scale scientific project in the nearest space. It was quite difficult even for the Americans to carry out such a grandiose construction alone, and Canada and Japan were involved in the development.

In 1992, Russia was included in the campaign. In the early nineties, a large-scale Mir-2 project was planned in Moscow. But economic problems prevented grandiose plans from being realized. Gradually, the number of participating countries grew to fourteen.

Bureaucratic delays took more than three years. Only in 1995 was the sketch of the station adopted, and a year later - the configuration.

November 20, 1998 was an outstanding day in the history of world cosmonautics - the first block was successfully delivered into the orbit of our planet.

Assembly

The ISS is ingenious in its simplicity and functionality. The station consists of independent blocks, which are interconnected like a large constructor. It is impossible to calculate the exact cost of the object. Each new block is made in a different country and, of course, varies in price. In total, a huge number of such parts can be attached, so the station can be constantly updated.

Validity

Due to the fact that the station blocks and their contents can be changed and upgraded an unlimited number of times, the ISS can surf the expanses of near-Earth orbit for a long time.

The first alarm bell rang in 2011, when the space shuttle program was canceled due to its high cost.

But nothing terrible happened. Cargoes were regularly delivered into space by other ships. In 2012, a private commercial shuttle even successfully docked to the ISS. Subsequently, a similar event occurred repeatedly.

Threats to the station can only be political. From time to time, officials from different countries threaten to stop supporting the ISS. At first, maintenance plans were scheduled until 2015, then until 2020. To date, there is tentatively an agreement to maintain the station until 2027.

In the meantime, politicians are arguing among themselves, the ISS in 2016 made a hundred thousandth orbit around the planet, which was originally called the "Jubilee".

Electricity

Sitting in the dark is, of course, interesting, but sometimes annoying. On the ISS, every minute is worth its weight in gold, so the engineers were deeply puzzled by the need to provide the crew with uninterrupted electrics.

Many different ideas were proposed, and in the end they agreed that nothing could be better than solar panels in space.

When implementing the project, the Russian and American sides took different paths. Thus, the generation of electricity in the first country is produced for a system of 28 volts. The voltage in the American block is 124 V.

During the day, the ISS makes many orbits around the Earth. One revolution is about an hour and a half, forty-five minutes of which pass in the shade. Of course, at this time, generation from solar panels is impossible. The station is powered by nickel-hydrogen batteries. The service life of such a device is about seven years. The last time they were changed back in 2009, so the long-awaited replacement will be carried out by engineers very soon.

Device

As previously written, the ISS is a huge constructor, the parts of which are easily interconnected.

As of March 2017, the station has fourteen elements. Russia has supplied five blocks named Zarya, Poisk, Zvezda, Rassvet and Pirs. The Americans gave their seven parts the following names: "Unity", "Destiny", "Tranquility", "Quest", "Leonardo", "Domes" and "Harmony". The countries of the European Union and Japan so far have one block each: Columbus and Kibo.

Parts are constantly changing depending on the tasks assigned to the crew. Several more blocks are on the way, which will significantly enhance the research capabilities of the crew members. The most interesting, of course, are the laboratory modules. Some of them are completely sealed. Thus, absolutely everything can be explored in them, up to alien living beings, without the risk of infection for the crew.

Other blocks are designed to generate the necessary environments for normal human life. Still others allow you to freely go into space and make research, observations or repairs.

Some of the blocks do not carry a research load and are used as storage facilities.

Ongoing research

Numerous studies - in fact, for the sake of which, in the distant nineties, politicians decided to send a designer into space, the cost of which today is estimated at more than two hundred billion dollars. For this money, you can buy a dozen countries and get a small sea as a gift.

So, the ISS has such unique capabilities that no other terrestrial laboratory has. The first is the presence of an infinite vacuum. The second is the actual absence of gravity. Third - the most dangerous not spoiled by refraction in the earth's atmosphere.

Don't feed researchers with bread, but let them study something! They happily carry out the duties assigned to them, even despite the mortal risk.

Most scientists are interested in biology. This area includes biotechnology and medical research.

Other scientists often forget about sleep when exploring the physical forces of extraterrestrial space. Materials, quantum physics - only part of the research. According to the revelations of many, a favorite pastime is to test various liquids in zero gravity.

Experiments with vacuum, in general, can be carried out outside the blocks, right in outer space. Earthly scientists can only envy in a good way, watching the experiments via video link.

Any person on Earth would give anything for one spacewalk. For the workers of the station, this is practically a routine task.

findings

Despite the dissatisfied exclamations of many skeptics about the futility of the project, ISS scientists made many interesting discoveries that allowed us to look differently at space as a whole and at our planet.

Every day, these brave people receive a huge dose of radiation, and all for the sake of scientific research that will give mankind unprecedented opportunities. One can only admire their efficiency, courage and purposefulness.

The ISS is a fairly large object that can be seen from the surface of the Earth. There is even a whole site where you can enter the coordinates of your city and the system will tell you exactly what time you can try to see the station, being in a sun lounger right on your balcony.

Of course, the space station has many opponents, but there are many more fans. And this means that the ISS will confidently stay in its orbit of four hundred kilometers above sea level and will show inveterate skeptics more than once how wrong they were in their forecasts and predictions.

April 12 is Cosmonautics Day. And of course, it would be wrong to bypass this holiday. Moreover, this year the date will be special, 50 years since the first manned flight into space. It was on April 12, 1961 that Yuri Gagarin accomplished his historic feat.

Well, a man in space cannot do without grandiose superstructures. This is exactly what the International Space Station is.

The dimensions of the ISS are small; length - 51 meters, width together with trusses - 109 meters, height - 20 meters, weight - 417.3 tons. But I think everyone understands that the uniqueness of this superstructure is not in its size, but in the technologies used to operate the station in outer space. The height of the ISS orbit is 337-351 km above the earth. Orbital speed - 27700 km / h. This allows the station to make a complete revolution around our planet in 92 minutes. That is, every day the astronauts who are on the ISS meet 16 sunrises and sunsets, 16 times night follows day. Now the ISS crew consists of 6 people, but in general, during the entire period of operation, the station received 297 visitors (196 different people). The start of operation of the International Space Station is November 20, 1998. And at the moment (04/09/2011) the station has been in orbit for 4523 days. During this time, it has evolved quite a lot. I suggest you verify this by looking at the photo.

ISS, 1999.

ISS, 2000.

ISS, 2002.

ISS, 2005.

ISS, 2006.

ISS, 2009.

ISS, March 2011.

Below I will give a diagram of the station, from which you can find out the names of the modules and also see the docking points of the ISS with other spacecraft.

The ISS is an international project. 23 states participate in it: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg(!!!), Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, USA, Finland, France, Czech Republic , Switzerland, Sweden, Japan. After all, to financially overpower the construction and maintenance of the functionality of the International Space Station alone is beyond the power of any state. It is not possible to calculate the exact or even approximate costs for the construction and operation of the ISS. The official figure has already exceeded 100 billion US dollars, and if you add all the side costs here, you get about 150 billion US dollars. This is already making the International Space Station the most expensive project throughout the history of mankind. And based on the latest agreements between Russia, the United States and Japan (Europe, Brazil and Canada are still in thought) that the life of the ISS has been extended until at least 2020 (and possibly a further extension), the total cost of maintaining the station will increase even more.

But I propose to digress from the numbers. After all, in addition to scientific value, the ISS has other advantages. Namely, the opportunity to appreciate the pristine beauty of our planet from the height of the orbit. And it is not necessary for this to go into outer space.

Because the station has its own observation deck, the glazed Dome module.

2014-09-11. NASA has announced plans to launch six installations into orbit that will regularly monitor the earth's surface. The Americans intend to send these devices to the International Space Station (ISS) by the end of the second decade of the 21st century. According to experts, the most modern equipment will be installed on them. According to scientists, the location of the ISS in orbit offers great advantages for observing the planet. The first installation, ISS-RapidScat, will be sent to the ISS with the help of private company SpaceX no earlier than September 19, 2014. The sensor is going to be installed on the outside of the station. It is intended for monitoring ocean winds, forecasting weather and hurricanes. ISS-RapidScat was built by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The second instrument, CATS (Cloud-Aerosol Transport System), is a laser instrument that is designed to observe clouds and measure the content of aerosols, smoke, dust and pollutants in them. These data are necessary to understand how human activity (primarily the burning of hydrocarbons) affects the environment. It is expected that it will be sent to the ISS by the same company SpaceX in December 2014. CATS was assembled at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The launches of ISS-RapidScat and CATS, along with the launch of the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 probe into orbit in July 2014, designed to study the carbon content in the planet's atmosphere, make 2014 the busiest year in the NASA Earth research program in the last ten years. The agency is going to send two other installations to the ISS by 2016. One of them, SAGE III (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III), will measure the content of aerosols, ozone, water vapor and other compounds in the upper atmosphere. This is necessary to control the processes of global warming, in particular, the ozone holes above the Earth. The SAGE III instrument was developed at NASA's Langley Research Center in the Hamptons, Virginia and assembled by Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado. Roskosmos took part in the work of the previous SAGE III mission - Meteor-3M. With the help of another device, which will be launched into orbit in 2016, the Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) sensor, lightning coordinates will be detected over the tropical and middle latitudes of the globe. The device will communicate with ground services to coordinate their work. The fifth device, GEDI (Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation), will use a laser to study forests and make observations on the carbon balance in them. Experts note that the operation of the laser may require large amounts of energy. GEDI was designed by scientists at the University of Maryland at College Park. The sixth device - ECOSTRESS (ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station) - is a thermal imaging spectrometer. The device is designed to study the processes of the water cycle in nature. The device was created by specialists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The choice of some parameters of the International Space Station orbit is not always obvious. For example, the station can be located at an altitude of 280 to 460 kilometers, and because of this, it constantly experiences the braking effect of the upper atmosphere of our planet. Every day, the ISS loses about 5 cm/s of speed and 100 meters of altitude. Therefore, periodically it is necessary to raise the station, burning the fuel of ATV and Progress trucks. Why can't the station be raised higher to avoid these costs?

The range laid down during the design and the current real situation are dictated by several reasons at once. Every day, astronauts and cosmonauts receive high doses of radiation, and beyond the 500 km mark, its level rises sharply. And the limit for a six-month stay is set at only half a sievert, only a sievert is allocated for the entire career. Each sievert increases the risk of cancer by 5.5 percent.

On Earth, we are protected from cosmic rays by the radiation belt of our planet's magnetosphere and atmosphere, but they work weaker in near space. In some parts of the orbit (the South Atlantic anomaly is such a spot of increased radiation) and beyond it, strange effects can sometimes appear: flashes appear in closed eyes. These are cosmic particles passing through the eyeballs, other interpretations say that the particles excite the parts of the brain responsible for vision. This can not only interfere with sleep, but once again unpleasantly reminds of the high level of radiation on the ISS.

In addition, the Soyuz and Progress, which are now the main crew change and supply ships, are certified to operate at an altitude of up to 460 km. The higher the ISS is, the less cargo can be delivered. The rockets that send new modules to the station will also be able to bring less. On the other hand, the lower the ISS, the more it slows down, that is, more of the delivered cargo should be fuel for the subsequent correction of the orbit.

Scientific tasks can be performed at an altitude of 400-460 kilometers. Finally, space debris affects the position of the station - failed satellites and their debris, which have a huge speed relative to the ISS, which makes a collision with them fatal.

There are resources on the Web that allow you to monitor the parameters of the orbit of the International Space Station. You can get relatively accurate current data, or track their dynamics. At the time of this writing, the ISS was at an altitude of approximately 400 kilometers.

The elements located at the rear of the station can accelerate the ISS: these are Progress trucks (most often) and ATVs, if necessary, the Zvezda service module (extremely rare). In the illustration, a European ATV is working before the kata. The station is raised often and little by little: the correction occurs about once a month in small portions of the order of 900 seconds of engine operation, the Progress uses smaller engines so as not to greatly affect the course of experiments.

The engines can turn on once, thus increasing the flight altitude on the other side of the planet. Such operations are used for small ascents, since the eccentricity of the orbit changes.

A correction with two inclusions is also possible, in which the second inclusion smoothes the station's orbit to a circle.

Some parameters are dictated not only by scientific data, but also by politics. It is possible to give the spacecraft any orientation, but at launch it will be more economical to use the speed that the rotation of the Earth gives. Thus, it is cheaper to launch the device into an orbit with an inclination equal to the latitude, and maneuvers will require additional fuel consumption: more for moving towards the equator, less for moving towards the poles. An ISS orbital inclination of 51.6 degrees may seem strange: NASA spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral traditionally have an inclination of about 28 degrees.

When the location of the future ISS station was discussed, it was decided that it would be more economical to give preference to the Russian side. Also, such orbital parameters allow you to see more of the Earth's surface.

But Baikonur is at a latitude of approximately 46 degrees, so why is it common for Russian launches to have an inclination of 51.6 degrees? The fact is that there is a neighbor to the east who will not be too happy if something falls on him. Therefore, the orbit is tilted to 51.6 °, so that during launch, no parts of the spacecraft could under any circumstances fall on China and Mongolia.