"Vual" satellite defense project

[B. Hendrickx]

In late 2011 the Russian Space Agency awarded a contract to the TsNIRTI institute in Moscow for a research project called “Vual” (“veil”), aimed at developing technology to defend Russian satellites from ASAT attacks. The idea is to conceal a satellite from an attacking ASAT weapon by producing a cloud of nanosized particles based on scarbon black. The same technology could just as well be used by Russian space-based ASAT systems to blind sensors of enemy satellites and there is some evidence for a possible link with the Burevestnik ASAT project described in another thread here.

The Vual project marks the resumption of work on satellite defense technology begun back in the Soviet days. That effort included :

- the development of defensive equipment for the Almaz military space stations (which comprised much more than the well-known rapid-fire cannon built by the Nudelman design bureau)
- in-orbit tests of plasma stealth technology on at least two Zenit spy satellites and an uncrewed Soyuz mission in the 1970s
- at least one test flight in 1987 of a "black box" designed to record information on ASAT attacks. This was part of extensive research on satellite defense technology performed in the 1980s by a design bureau in Tashkent (TashKBM).

All the details in this article published on “The Space Review”:
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3536/1


 

[weedenbc]

Bart, thank you. As usual this is excellent work.

One question for you - in your research, did you ever come across any analysis of the orbital mechanics of how some of these systems would world? In particular, things like shells fired from a cannon and space-to-space missiles seem to be described by their designers in terms of Earth ballistics and not orbital mechanics. Testing such systems in ranges on Earth also seems to indicate no one quite knows how they would have performed in space.

[B. Hendrickx]

One question for you - in your research, did you ever come across any analysis of the orbital mechanics of how some of these systems would world? In particular, things like shells fired from a cannon and space-to-space missiles seem to be described by their designers in terms of Earth ballistics and not orbital mechanics. Testing such systems in ranges on Earth also seems to indicate no one quite knows how they would have performed in space.

Brian, good question, but no, none of the sources I've seen go into that kind of detail.