Moscow. June 6. INTERFAX - Roscosmos specialists will be able to control the German eROSITA telescope without causing damage to it, the risk of which is warned in the Russian Academy of Sciences, said the head of the state corporation Dmitry Rogozin
"Roscosmos specialists are world-class professionals. They will be able to solve the task assigned to them without damaging the control circuit of the German telescope. The time will come when the Germans will thank us themselves. Even if our own critics remain silent at the same time," Rogozin wrote in his telegram channel. "I hope that the friends of Roscosmos at the Russian Academy of Sciences and the President of the Academy, Alexander Mikhailovich Sergeev, will treat my arguments with respect and understanding," he added.
Earlier on Monday, the President of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexander Sergeev told Interfax that Russian scientists are concerned about the plans of Roscosmos for the independent operation of the German telescope.
"We did not create this device, and we did not operate it. This technique is very serious, unique, and our scientists have concerns, will we be able to manage properly in principle? Colleagues express concern about whether we will spoil the device with this," Sergeyev said.
He also said that a letter was sent for his signature to the general director of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin explaining the position of the academy.
In addition, in June it is planned to discuss the situation with the telescope at the RAS Space Council. "We will discuss this situation at the Space Council. We will definitely invite our colleagues from the Scientific and Technical Council of Roscosmos," the head of the Russian Academy of Sciences added.
On June 4, Rogozin announced that he had given instructions to restore the operation of the German eROSITA telescope, which is part of the Russian-German orbital observatory "Spectrum-RG. "We will correct the mistake of the Germans and turn on their telescope at our Spektr-RG observatory," he said.
On June 2, the head of Roscosmos reported that the state corporation was studying the possibility of independently turning on the telescope due to the fact that "Russian specialists insist on continuing its work."
Later, academician Rashid Syunyaev, scientific director of the Spektr-RG observatory project, told Interfax that the resumption of the work of the German eROSITA telescope is possible only with the approval of the German side, uncoordinated actions can lead to a breakdown of the device. According to Xiunyea, "unilateral actions in such a situation only add even more distrust between people."
On February 26, the German Space Agency notified Roscosmos of its intention to turn off its telescope at the Russian-German Spektr-RG orbital observatory.
The Spektr-RG spacecraft was launched on July 13, 2019 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It was created with the participation of Germany within the framework of the federal space program of Russia by order of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The observatory is equipped with two X-ray telescopes: ART-XC (ICI RAS, Russia) and E-ROSITA (MPE, Germany), operating on the principle of oblique X-ray optics. The telescopes are installed on the Navigator space platform (NPO Lavochkina, Russia), adapted to the tasks of the project.
The main goal of the mission is to build a map of the entire sky in the soft and hard ranges of the X-ray spectrum with unprecedented sensitivity.
