Preliminary conclusions: damage to the spacecraft "Progress MS-21" caused by external influence

The State Commission continues to analyze emergency situations with the Soyuz MS-22 manned spacecraft and Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft that occurred on the International Space Station. The Soyuz MS-23 unmanned spacecraft will be launched to the station on February 24.

Survey of the outer surface of the Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft

After undocking from the ISS on February 18, a detailed photo and video survey of the Progress MS-21 spacecraft was carried out.

According to preliminary data from the Rocket and Space Corporation Energia named after S.P. Korolev (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation), Progress MS-21, like Soyuz MS-22 before, was subjected to external influence. Such conclusions are made on the basis of photographs that show changes on the outer surface of the ship, including on the radiator of the instrument-aggregate compartment and solar panels. Holes were found on them that were not fixed either during the manufacture of Progress MS-21 at the plant, or during its preparation for launch at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, or during the flight and docking of the spacecraft with the ISS.

In addition, in order to exclude the version of a manufacturing defect, RSC Energia analyzed the history of comments on the thermal control system of the Soyuz and Progress spacecraft over the past 15 years.

“Remarks that could lead to such an emergency situation were not identified. The reliability reserve of the thermal control system is one year from the date of launch of the ship, so the system is guaranteed to be reliable in the design conditions of its operation,” follows from the report of the enterprise.
Image above: Photographs that show changes on the outer surface of the Progress MS-21 cargo spacecraft.

Experts continue to analyze the information received. It is also planned to conduct a series of ground experiments to simulate damage similar to what was detected on the Progress MS-21. This will help to finally check all versions and develop measures to counter such threats in the development and production of spacecraft and vehicles.

The information received allowed the state commission to decide on the possibility of an unmanned launch of the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft on February 24 and its docking to the ISS on February 26. This ship is designed to replace the emergency Soyuz MS-22, the regular return to Earth of the crew consisting of Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergei Prokopiev, Dmitry Petelin and NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, as well as their urgent descent in case of an emergency.
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Hubble captures the start of a new 'spoke' season of Saturn: NASA

FEB 14, 2023 In a latest image of Saturn captured by National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) Hubble Space Telescope, the appearance of spokes on the planet's rings heralded the start of a new 'spoke' season, according to a statement by NASA. Scientists will be looking for clues to explain the cause and nature of the spokes, the statement said. The suspected culprit for the spokes is the planet's variable magnetic field, the statement said. Planetary magnetic fields interact with the solar wind, creating an electrically charged environment. On Earth, when those charged particles hit the atmosphere this is visible in the northern hemisphere as the aurora borealis, or northern lights, NASA said. Scientists think that the smallest, dust-sized icy ring particles can become charged as well, which temporarily levitates those particles above the rest of the larger icy particles and boulders in the rings, NASA said. Like Earth, Saturn is tilted on its axis and therefore has four seasons, though because of Saturn's much larger orbit, each season lasts approximately seven Earth years, the space agency said. Equinox occurs when the rings are tilted edge-on to the Sun. The spokes disappear when it is near summer or winter solstice on Saturn, which is when the Sun appears to reach either its highest or lowest latitude, respectively, in the northern or southern hemisphere of a planet, the space agency said. As the autumnal equinox of Saturn's northern hemisphere on May 6, 2025, draws near, the spokes are expected to become increasingly prominent and observable, the statement said. The latest image captured by Hubble is heralded the start of Saturn's "spoke season" with the appearance of two smudgy spokes in the B ring, one of the rings, of Saturn, the statement said. The ephemeral features don't last long, but as the planet's autumnal equinox approaches, more will appear, the statement said. The ring spokes were first observed by NASA's Voyager mission in the early 1980s. The transient, mysterious features can appear dark or light depending on the illumination and viewing angles, the statement said. NASA senior planetary scientist Amy Simon, head of the Hubble Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program said, "Thanks to Hubble's OPAL program, which is building an archive of data on the outer solar system planets, we will have longer dedicated time to study Saturn's spokes this season than ever before." NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observation time devoted to Saturn each year, thanks to the OPAL program, and the dynamic gas giant planet always showed something new, said the space agency. Saturn's last equinox occurred in 2009, while NASA's Cassini spacecraft was orbiting the gas giant planet for close-up reconnaissance, the agency said in the statement. With Cassini's mission completed in 2017, and the Voyager spacecrafts long gone, Hubble is continuing the work of long-term monitoring of changes on Saturn and the other outer planets, the space agency said. "Despite years of excellent observations by the Cassini mission, the precise beginning and duration of the spoke season is still unpredictable, rather like predicting the first storm during hurricane season," Simon said. While our solar system's other three gas giant planets also have ring systems, nothing compares to Saturn's prominent rings, making them a laboratory for studying spoke phenomena, the statement said. Whether spokes could or do occur at other ringed planets is currently unknown, NASA said. "It's a fascinating magic trick of nature we only see on Saturn for now at least," Simon said. Hubble's OPAL program will add both visual and spectroscopic data, in wavelengths of light from ultraviolet to near-infrared, to the archive of Cassini observations, NASA said. Scientists are anticipating putting these pieces together to get a more complete picture of the spoke phenomenon, and what it reveals about ring physics in general, the statement said.Copyright © Jammu Links News, Source: Jammu Links News
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