Does Russia need to explore space?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Since the times of the Soviet Union, we have become accustomed to the realization that the leading place in space belonged to our country. Most of the space achievements were made during the Soviet era. In space launches in 1967-1993, the USSR was head and shoulders above the United States.

The citizens of the country could really be proud of such achievements and rank themselves among the people making their way in space.

Thirty years have passed since the collapse of the USSR. What has become of Russian cosmonautics since then?

It is worth recognizing that for the past few years, our country is no longer a leader in space. Moreover, in terms of the number of launches in 2020, the largest state corporation Roscosmos is bypassed by the private company SpaceX. Just think: Roscosmos, with over 180,000 employees and government funding, has bypassed a private company with only 8,000 employees.

In 2020, Elon Musk's company carried out 26 launches. Roskosmos is only 17 (2 of which are from the French platform).

But that's not all. In 2020, 1,263 spacecraft were launched into orbit. Of these, 833 belong to Space X, 104 to the British company One Web. Do you know how many new Russian satellites were launched in 2020? This information is difficult to find, but if we consider that there are 169 Russian satellites in orbit in total, and at the end of 2018 there were 156 of them, then we can conclude that in 2020 a meager number of new Russian satellites were launched.

Even if we assume that some of the 156 satellites could be replaced, which means there should be more new ones, the resulting figure will still be many times less than the number of new satellites from Space X.

What can you be proud of in Russian cosmonautics today?

Personally, it seems to me that there is no reason for pride left. Most of the space developments in our country were inherited from the USSR. Since 2009, there have been good opportunities for building up Soyuz launches, since the United States has curtailed its own Space Shuttle program. But a new player on the market in the person of Elon Musk allowed the United States and Europe to get a good alternative to the Russian Unions.

In 2011, the Russian station Phobos-Grunt, which was intended to deliver soil samples from the Mars satellite - Phobos. However, the station was unable to leave the LEO and burned up in the atmosphere. In 2016, a joint project of ESA and Roscosmos crashed on the surface of Mars. Many Russian space programs have since been simply closed or postponed "indefinitely."

And what do we see in the foreign space program? The United States landed the Persevance rover on Mars and now it sends photos and videos in good quality to Earth. The Chinese interplanetary station Tianwen-1 is in the orbit of Mars and the rover is planned to land in April.

One feels that in space they do without Russia. But some 10 years ago, many were convinced that Russia could not do without Russia in space. I would also like to add that in 2024 the service life of the ISS will end and it is not yet known what will happen next, and in fact the delivery of astronauts to the ISS brought significant income to Roscosmos.

According to the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeev: "we can no longer compete in space with other leading powers in this area."

How is it that the number of employees in Roscosmos is high, funding is increasing, revenues are growing (according to Dmitry Rogozin), and we are losing competition in space on many fronts?

In 2001-2003, funding can be estimated at about $ 300 million. Subsequently, it increased to $ 5 billion by 2013, approximately 18 times. But the space group all these years practically remained at the same level, without visible development.

Maybe Russia doesn't need space at all?

Let's think about it: should the government's first priority be the welfare of its citizens or leadership in space? I suppose that of course the first. But if the country is sliding down economically, perhaps it should reconsider its attitude to such financial costs of space?

- Roscosmos is an absolute state monopoly that sets tasks for itself, fulfills them and evaluates the results, moreover, like a “black hole” pulls in all resources, absorbs or suppresses competitors in the field of space activities inside the country, especially the new “private astronautics. (New Newspaper)

Why in the United States, after curtailing its own space program, Space Shuttle were able to compete in space again? It seems to me that the answer is on the surface - private players have appeared in the country who are interested not only in status, but also in profit and development. In our country, Roskosmos is funded by the state.

The state plans to allocate 77.7 billion rubles in 2021. on "exploration and use of outer space." At the same time, the government will allocate 154.3 billion rubles to Roscosmos itself. in 2021 and 151-153 billion rubles. in 2022–2023. (Data from RBC).

I have a question for readers: Do you think Russia needs space and is our country capable of regaining its competitiveness in space programs?