The companies are ready to create a machine capable of cooling the mirror of the device to 60-70 degrees Kelvin, said Deputy director of FIAN Larisa LikhachevaMOSCOW, September 3.
/tass/. The Lebedev Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FIAN) is negotiating with two Russian companies to create a cryogenic machine for use in the Spektr-M project to replace the French concern Air Liquide, which announced its withdrawal from Russia. This was reported to TASS on Saturday by the deputy director of FIAN Larisa Likhacheva.
"We are negotiating with two Russian companies," Likhacheva said. - I would not like their names to get into print at this stage. I think we will decide which of the two organizations will do the work at the end of September. While we are discussing the terms of reference with both companies, which of them will take up the project."
As reported, the French concern carried out research work to prepare the possibility of creating a cryogenic machine for space use in accordance with the requirements of the FIAN. On September 2, Air Liquide announced its intention to cease operations in Russia and transfer its business to local management. The French concern is one of the world's largest producers of gases, technologies and services for industry.
According to the deputy director of FIAN, at this stage Russian companies are ready to create a machine capable of cooling the mirror of the device to 60-70 degrees Kelvin. "And we needed them to create a machine capable of cooling up to 20 degrees Kelvin (-253.15 degrees Celsius), she added. "The way we planned with Air Liquide."
Likhacheva clarified that cooperation with the French concern was at the first stage of development work (R&D) and already at this stage Air Liquide faced a number of problems. "They tried to create a model of one machine that can provide us with 20 degrees. It seems that they got this layout, but even at the stage of final development of this machine there were problems due to difficulties with the supply of components," the specialist stressed.
The cryogenic device is being created for the first time specifically for the unique parameters of Spectrum-M. "We hope that the Russian organization that we have set up now will first make a machine that cools to 70-60 degrees Kelvin, since cooling is planned on board in two stages, and then will take up the development of a 20-degree machine," Likhacheva said.
According to her, there is a possibility that the Russian organization will immediately begin the first stage of OCD, since it already has experience in creating a machine capable of cooling up to 60-70 degrees Kelvin. "While it is impossible to assume how much time it will take to create a machine, these deadlines should be designated by the organization itself," said the deputy director of the institute.
The Spektr-M Observatory is designed to study deep space objects in the millimeter, submillimeter and far infrared ranges of the spectrum. With its help, scientists expect to obtain data on the global structure of the Universe, the structure and evolution of galaxies, their nuclei, stars, planetary systems, objects with super-strong gravitational and electromagnetic fields, as well as organic compounds in space.
Spektr-M is planned to be launched at a distance of 1.5 million km, in the area of the Lagrange point L2 of the Sun-Earth system, in which the forces of attraction of the Sun and the Earth are balanced. The main organization for the creation of the space complex is the S. A. Lavochkin NGO.
