According to the world-famous scientist, Russia's participation in international space projects will be limited to the International Space Station. And given the recently announced exit of Roscosmos from the ISS, further prospects are vague.
Vyacheslav Turyshev gave a voluminous interview to RTVI channel on Friday, August 19. Among other things, the astrophysicist answered Naked Science's question about Russia's prospects as a partner in international scientific and applied space projects. The opinion of a person who has worked for both domestic and American aerospace structures is especially valuable.
According to Turyshev, cooperation between NASA and Roscosmos will go exclusively to the level of providing for the needs of the ISS. The Russian side is responsible for a number of key operations, including the correction of the station's orbit. It is also important to exchange experience and the possibility of sharing manned ships in case of unforeseen circumstances.
As for international scientific activities or other international space projects, they have become practically impossible for political reasons. At the same time, Turyshev noted that the relations between the employees of NASA and Roscosmos structures, despite everything, remain professional and to some extent even friendly.
© RTVI, YouTube Commenting on the exit of the Russian side from the ISS, the astrophysicist recalled the technical complexity of this process.
Since the station was conceived to be international at a fundamental level, no one will be able to "slam the door" just like that (and if they succeed, it may be even more difficult to open it back). The problems are conditionally divided into two groups: the creation of alternative solutions for the operations performed by Roscosmos for the operation of the station and the safe separation of the Russian segment. Moreover, from the first the difficulties are solved relatively simply: At a minimum, the Cygnus spacecraft can adjust the ISS orbit, and a minor corresponding upgrade is being considered for Dragon.
Speaking about the risks of the Russian side physically withdrawing from the project, Turyshev described the difficulties as follows: "Working groups from both sides are required to understand that when we leave, we have not hooked someone else's string bags with our suitcase."
For what an example of international cooperation the ISS is, the station has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize more than once (although it was never awarded). Regardless of the geopolitical situation, all project participants have always conducted their activities respectfully and professionally towards each other. The photo shows the orbital laboratory in May 2011, the shuttle Endeavour (USA), the ATV cargo ship (European Union), the Progress cargo ship and the Soyuz manned spacecraft (Russia) are docked to it. The picture was taken from the recently undocked Soyuz TMA-20Image source: ESA, NASA Vyacheslav Gennadievich Turyshev has been working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) since 1993.
He participated in many engineering and scientific collaborations. [...]
Turyshev got into the news headlines more than once, but his most famous achievement is the explanation of the anomaly of the "Pioneers" that made a noise. In short, the speed of both probes launched in the 1970s (numbers 10 and 11) changed more than the calculations predicted. Even when including in the formulas not only gravitational disturbances from planets, but also from small bodies of the Solar System, as well as relativistic effects.
The solution was proposed at the beginning of the investigation of this effect — uneven thermal radiation from the devices. It's all the fault of the RITEGs ("nuclear batteries") located asymmetrically to the center of mass of the "Pioneers". But Turyshev and his colleagues managed to prove that photons of the infrared spectrum emitted not uniformly in all directions are responsible for the anomalous acceleration. It took a real excavation in the archives of NAS A, JPL and individual engineers to raise telemetry data for the entire duration of the mission.