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International Space Flight (ESA, Russia, China and others) => Russian Launchers - Soyuz, Progress and Uncrewed => Topic started by: B. Hendrickx on 12/12/2018 03:30 pm
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In November 2011 Roscosmos announced a tender for a research and development project (“OKR”) called UFIK, which is a combination of the Russian acronyms for ultraviolet (UF) and infrared (IK). The tender documentation is here:
http://zakupki.gov.ru/pgz/public/action/orders/info/order_document_list_info/show?notificationId=2018251
The goals of UFIK were literally described as follows :
“Development of technology to create highly sensitive multichannel systems in the ultraviolet and vacuum ultraviolet (0.12-0.38 μm) regions of the spectrum, making it possible to detect low-emissivitiy rocket and space technology objects against the background of Earth since effective means have been developed in these regions to suppress the background."
“Development of technology to create wide-swath multichannel and high-resolution infrared radiometers to take simultaneous images of objects in various spectral bands of the infrared region in order to detect, register and identify low observable and camouflaged objects on the ground, underground, in the air and in space.”
The OKR was to be completed by December 2015 with the construction of an experimental UV sensor weighing no more than 40 kg and an experimental IR sensor weighing no more than 100 kg. The tender also called for preparing a test flight program, but no actual test flights were planned before the end of 2015. No specific platform for the installation of these payloads was mentioned in the tender documentation either.
The contract was awarded to TsNIIMash (Roscosmos’ leading R&D institute) on 23 December 2011 (contract nr. 851-K631/11) and a follow-up contract was signed two days later. The OKR was said to be part of Russia’s “state defense order” for the 2011-2013 period. While the payloads are described in a handful of technical papers, this certainly is a program that Roscosmos has not widely advertised, suggesting that it is at least partially military in nature.
ULTRAVIOLET TELESCOPE
Lead organizations (along with TsNIIMash) are:
- the Lebedev Physics Institute (FIAN) (Moscow)
- the Institute for Physics of Microstructures (IFM) (Nizhniy Novgorod) (since 2016 an affiliate of the Institute of Applied Physics): responsible for building the telescope's mirrors
Fairly detailed descriptions can be found here (all in Russian unless otherwise noted):
- an article in “Kosmonavtika i raketostroyeniye” (TsNIIMash’s in-house journal), 2014 (p. 77-85)
http://tsniimash.ru/upload/ea7/KR_2014_5(78).pdf
- an article in “Applied Optics”, 2016 (in English)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303557739_Reflective_Schmidt-Cassegrain_system_for_large-aperture_telescopes
- a paper presented at a conference in 2017 (p. 93-97)
http://кбсм.рф/uploads/files/sbornik%20trudov%202017.pdf
- an article on the website of the Institute of Applied Physics
http://www.iapras.ru/results/YF-teleskop.html
The UV telescope (no name given) is of the Schmidt-Cassegrain type and consists of two optical assemblies, one sensitive in the UV region (0.2-0.38 μm) and one in the vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) region (0.12-0.2 μm). According to the articles, the UV telescope can be used to detect objects in space and during their re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere, benefiting from the fact that the Earth’s own radiation in this spectral range is virtually absent. One of the papers also mentions applications in hydrometeorology and remote sensing of the Earth such as agriculture and forest management.
Interestingly, the 2017 paper says the design of the UV telescope was inspired by that of one installed on an American military research satellite called MSX (Midcourse Space Experiment). Launched for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO) in 1996 , this technology demonstration satellite carried a suite of ultraviolet, optical and infrared sensors to detect missiles during the midcourse phase of flight (that is the phase of a missile’s flight between boost and reentry). Such observations complement those made by traditional early warning satellites, which are only capable of detecting missiles by picking up their infrared signatures during the boost phase. During the midcourse phase the payload separates into operational re-entry vehicles and decoys and one of the aims was to see if sensors could distinguish between the two in order to facilitate target engagement.
Other objectives of MSX were to collect high-quality data on terrestrial, Earth limb and celestial backgrounds, observe objects in space and gather carefully calibrated data in support of terrestrial and atmospheric remote sensing and astronomy. MSX’s main payload consisted of a cryogenic infrared radiometer (Spatial Infrared Imaging Telescope III or SPIRIT III), a sensor system called the Ultraviolet and Visible Imagers and Spectrographic Imagers (UVISI) and the Space-Based Visible (SBV) surveillance camera. More details on MSX are here:
https://www.jhuapl.edu/techdigest/TD/td1701/index.htm
The 2017 paper compares the Russian UV telescope to the one flown aboard MSX, emphasizing its superior performance. This very much suggests that it was designed for similar purposes.
It is also worth mentioning that one of the co-authors of the aforementioned papers (Yuri Plastinin) has been involved in research on aerodynamic heating of hypersonic vehicles and the signatures that such vehicles and the surrounding plasma leave behind in the UV part of the spectrum. See this paper in a 2014 issue of “Kosmonavtika i raketostroyeniye” (p. 42-48):
http://tsniimash.ru/upload/ea7/KR_2014_6(79).pdf
INFRARED RADIOMETER (BIK-SD1)
Lead organizations (along with TsNIIMash) are:
- Scientific Research Institute of Electro-Optical Instrument Building (NII OEP) (formerly NIIKI OEP) (now a daughter company of the Kometa Corporation) (St.-Petersburg)
- NPO Orion (Moscow) : infrared detectors
- NTK Kriogennaya Tekhnika (St.-Petersburg): cryogenic cooling system
Descriptions can be found here:
- two papers in “Kosmonavtika i raketostroyeniye” (2013) (p. 80-87, 93-201)
http://tsniimash.ru/upload/ea7/KR_2013_4(73).pdf
- a paper presented at a conference in 2015 (p. 85-94)
http://russianspacesystems.ru/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2015-Sbornik-trudov-konferencii.-Raketno-kosmicheskoe-priborostroenie-i-informacionnye-tekhnologii.pdf
- a paper presented at a conference in 2017 (p. 88-93)
http://кбсм.рф/uploads/files/sbornik%20trudov%202017.pdf
The infrared detectors are described in articles in NPO Orion’s journals “Uspekhi prikladnoi fiziki” (2014) and “Prikladnaya fizika” (2015)
http://advance.orion-ir.ru/UPF-14/4/UPF-2-4-353.pdf
http://applphys.orion-ir.ru/appl-15/15-3/PF-15-3-57.pdf
The cryogenic cooling system is described here:
http://www.cryontk.ru/media/files/2016_kvo_0755_000.pdf
The infrared radiometer is called BIK-SD1 and operates in six infrared channels between 3.5 and 12.5 μm. The infrared detectors (having a format of 6x576) are kept at a temperature of about 65°K by a “mini cryogenic cooling system” called MSMG-6G-2,0/65 that uses a so-called pulse tube cryocooler.
Most of the articles focus on the use of the radiometer for Earth remote sensing. However, one of them also links its development to “major research in the US on the use of space-based systems to obtain detailed information about conditions to observe and track ballistic objects entering the Earth’s atmosphere”.
Designers did not meet the objective of keeping the mass of the spectrometer below 100 kg. According to the 2017 article, BIK-SD1 weighs 145 kg and is too bulky to be mounted on small satellites. The authors propose a lighter, 45 kg version of the radiometer with a smaller spectral range (8-12.5 μm), lower resolution (100-150 m vs. 20-30 m from an altitude of 600 km) and a cooling system using the Stirling cycle.
STATUS
It would seem that UFIK was a significant effort, as is evidenced by numerous contracts for the development of subsystems for both payloads published on the procurement website zakupki.gov.ru. in the 2012-2015 timeframe. However, funding for UFIK was terminated (as planned) at the end of 2015. Presumably, the idea was to approve flight tests of the sensors under the Federal Space Program 2016-2025, but those plans may have been shelved or pushed back as a result of the severe budget cuts that hit FSP 2016-2025. It is not clear if any actual flight hardware is currently ready to be launched.
All this hasn’t stopped designers from proposing platforms for the sensors. In early 2016 an article was published in “Kosmonavtika i raketostroyeniye” describing the possibility of installing the sensors on the Russian segment of the International Space Station.
https://elibrary.ru/item.asp?id=26134977
English abstract (the complete article is not online):
The article presents a study on the efficiency of using the International Space Station Russian Segment (RS) modules in conducting flight tests of new electro-optical equipment of infrared (IR) and ultraviolet (UV) ranges, developed in the framework of the «UFIK» research and development work (R&D). It describes basic technical characteristics of the equipment, and determines requirements for its placement onboard the ISS RS in order to provide testing.
The latest available long-term research plan for the ISS Russian segment (dated November 2017) only mentions the BIK-SD1 infrared radiometer, more specifically for a series of experiments called “Bazis” (“Basis”), said to be intended for ecological monitoring and “information support” in the interests of various government agencies such as the Ministry of Emergency Situations.
http://knts.tsniimash.ru/ru/src/CenterInfRes/ДП_2017.pdf
(see p. 23)
“Bazis” was actually conceived at least a decade ago and at the time was supposed to make use of another cryogenically cooled infrared radiometer called Rad-IK (also developed under the leadership of TsNIIMash). See for instance this long-term research plan for the ISS Russian segment published in 2008.
http://www.gastroscan.ru/literature/pdf/17785.pdf
(see p. 30)
The optical technology used for Rad-IK was based on a patent filed by TsNIIMash in 2002.
http://www.freepatent.ru/patents/2220430
In 2007 the then head of the Russian space agency Anatoli Perminov said Rad-IK was being developed by an industrial team consisting of LOMO, the Vavilov State Optical Institute and NIIKI OEP.
https://www.roscosmos.ru/3498/
More information on Rad-IK is on the TsNIIMash website:
http://knts.tsniimash.ru/ru/site/Experiment_q.aspx?idE=85
It would seem that Rad-IK was abandoned in favor of BIK-SD1, which appeared in the ISS longterm research plan by 2016. Before that another platform considered for BIK-SD1 was the Kanopus-V-IK satellite, as described in a paper presented at a conference in 2016:
http://www.vniiem.ru/ru/uploads/files/conferences/160519/sbornik_tezisov_2016.pdf
BIK-SD1 was probably considered too heavy to be flown on the satellite.
There is no sign of the UV telescope in the current ISS research plans, neither is there any evidence that it will be mounted on a satellite platform. A small TsNIIMash ultraviolet camera called Fialka-MV-Kosmos (mounted on a porthole of the Zvezda module) was used between 2002 and 2015 for a series of experiments called “Relaksatsiya”, which included observations of Soyuz and Progress de-orbit burns and re-entries. According to this TsNIIMash document, the results of those observations were used in the UFIK project.
http://knts.tsniimash.ru/ru/site/Experiment_q.aspx?idE=47
In short, Project UFIK appears to have been conceived as a dual-use civilian/military project to demonstrate the technology of using UV and IR sensors for Earth remote sensing and observations of missiles in the midcourse and re-entry phase and possibly also for detecting hypersonic weapons in the atmosphere as well as objects in Earth orbit. While most of the objectives outlined in the 2011 tender seem to have been met, it remains unclear if any flight hardware is currently available and whether there is funding to fly the sensors.
Finally, it is interesting to note that two other Russian military space projects were approved only days after TsNIIMash got the contract for UFIK on 23 December 2011:
- Vual : contract awarded to TsNIRTI on 25 December 2011 for studies of satellite stealth technology
- Neitron : contract awarded to NPO Mashinostroyeniya on 27 December 2011 for a military satellite, now expected to be launched early next year (purpose unknown)
Another military project that appears to have been initiated in late 2011 is the 14F150/Nivelir space surveillance/inspection program, which saw its maiden flight with Cosmos-2519/2521/2523 in 2017. There are also some vague indications that the Burevestnik ASAT project may have been underway by late 2011.
All this suggests that Russia decided in 2011 to press ahead with a variety of new military space projects, possibly in response to developments abroad (Chinese and American ASAT tests in 2007 and 2008, the first flights of US inspector satellites, the launch in 2010 of the Space-Based Space Surveillance Satellite and the first X-37B military spaceplane). UFIK may at least in part have been a reaction to the launch in 2009 of three US satellites that were part of the Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS), designed to spot missiles both during the boost and midcourse phases.