Space

Salyut 7

‘Salyut 7’ Honours Space Endeavour

Who doesn’t have a penchant for space adventure flicks, huh? In fact, I have proof that I have always been intrigued by space stuff and the idea of space exploration though it’s always been a dream to ride a spacecraft, or at best, even visit a space museum (yup, that’s on my bucket list), or experienced zero-gravity (another moonshot), but the closest that I could get to experiencing space travel was the movie theatres! In Alphonso Querón’s brilliant narration of Gravity about two American astronauts who get stranded after their space shuttle is destructed, showcased the pitfalls of space exploration in all its glory, in which, whether you live or die is a matter of the choices you make. This and several movies later you realize that films are much more than just crucibles of entertainment but actually educational channels. Another movie I’d definitely to mention is the awesome Apollo 13.

In much the same mould of depicting space endeavours, Salyut 7 is a masterpiece portrayal of events surrounding the salvaging of the doomed space station Salyut 7 in 1985. You might have already guessed it from the image, but the noteworthy aspect of this defining blockbuster is that it comes from Russia and not Hollywood as most might have expected it. It begins with a spacewalk by Svetlana Savitskaya, the first woman to perform a spacewalk ever, and cosmonaut Vladimir Fyodorov. Later, a cosmic occurrence renders the ill-fated space station without power and disaster strikes. At which point, the Soviets are wondering whether to shoot a missile at the floating metal and prevent it from falling it into the hands of the Americans or take the unprecedented route and bring it back to life. Although, at the heart of the mission is a complex issue of docking with a 20-ton metal structure in space that spinning on its axis faster than a Ferris wheel. So the cosmonauts are trained in a simulator with the exact parameters, they keep failing until Fyodorov is included in this impracticable mission partnering his fellow cosmonaut Viktor Alyokhin. They are foretold they only have enough fuel for 3 attempts but it’s so critical for the rendezvous to happen flawlessly unless the Soviet military shoots down the ‘dead’ space station hurtling metal debris into low space orbit, or risk falling it into the hands of the Americans who are launching a Space Shuttle to salvage it.

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LEGO NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander

The Eagle Has Landed

Before I begin to write about the LEGO’s Lunar Lander, I thought I’d state a couple of reasons why this commemorative NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander (Creator – 10266) has come at a crucial moment. These are exciting times for space enthusiasts like myself. Firstly, India is preparing to launch the ambitious Chandrayaan-2 mission carrying an orbiter and a lunar rover (named ‘Pragyan’) to the southern pole of the Moon, making India the first nation to attempt landing a rover in that area. And also, we are closing in on the big event, the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing in 1969. So following the Apollo Saturn V here was another Apollo mission engineering masterpiece from LEGO’s creative factory!

Apollo 11 Lunar Lander (Module)

I appreciated the dexterity required in building the Saturn V just this past month from exactly 1969 bricks and right to this day, I continue to look at the 3-ft tall structure as one of the greatest most creative designs to come out of the LEGO studio, yet. Honestly, I was unaware until the Internet started buzzing with the release in the European market of the ‘Apollo Lunar Lander’, which they thankfully launched this month. And unless they’re also planning to add the Command & Service Module into the mix before the anniversary date this would signal the end of the Apollo mission series showcasing NASA’s engineering expertise and the collaborative effort in sending the first humans to the Moon. In a nutshell, the iconic Apollo 11 mission consisted of the behemoth Saturn V which transported the astronauts to the Moon whilst the Lunar Lander placed the Apollo astronauts, most notably Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on the lunar surface and brought them home safely.

This ‘Creator’ Lunar Lander is also special for one more reason — LEGO has worked with NASA in developing this design to mark the historic 50th Anniversary.

I spotted the Apollo Lunar Lander on display at the LEGO Store last week and it was difficult to ignore the temptation of adding it to my growing collection. However, to my pleasant surprise, in addition to the Lunar Lander I also received a ‘Space Rocket Ride’ toy, a LEGO ‘Apollo Lunar Lander’ patch — similar in feel to the ‘Eagle’ patch of the Apollo 11 (pictures in this post), and some miscellaneous items as promo offers for a limited time. The purchase was definitely sweetened with the addition of these extra bricks and added to my fun of building more LEGOs this time.

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Saturn V

Building the LEGO NASA Apollo Saturn V

It so happens that every time I pick a LEGO model I cannot help but feel anxious to see how the outcome might turn out. Although, to be honest, halfway through, the process starts feeling mundane when the activity doesn’t exactly line up with my expectations of achieving the target. This one philosophy of building a LEGO — that of navigating through untenable ambiguity, always provides me with the ultimate dopamine to take up & finish LEGO creations with patience. I call it ‘Brickosophy’. By no means would I consider building a LEGO an easy task of sticking the bricks together. It might seem like a simple job of following the guide book and following the detailed illustrations, but it’s not that straightforward too. It requires perseverance and bucket loads of patience.

You may have heard about the LEGO Ideas NASA Apollo Saturn V assembly and I will spare the details just to keep this concise, but I have to say, it was a fantastic experience assembling this marvellous engineering effort that transported humanity to the Moon and back to earth safely. So at one point while assembling this LEGO set and while I was completing the first stage itself the plans went awry because I fixed a single pivoting brick in the wrong hole. It sent me into a tizzy and after struggling to get it right I had to suspend my work for the day. I had to backtrack by disassembling the pieces. Such was this wonderful experience!

LEGO has put a great degree of emphasis in getting the details on the engineering elements in sync with the original Saturn design. I would like to think that the LEGO 21309 NASA Apollo Saturn V is nothing less than a commemorative token celebrating the Apollo Missions and a must-have for any space enthusiast. There was so much nostalgia & pride in assembling this rocket, it’s only then that you recognize the Saturn V as a symbol of human engineering endeavour, apart from also being a reminder of the July 20, 1969 landing of the Apollo 11 on the Moon. No surprises though, but 2019 is also the 50th anniversary of the moon landing! So, in honouring the Saturn V’s contribution in Apollo missions through the moon landing, this LEGO set contains exactly 1969 pieces, which also makes it my biggest Lego assembly since the 578-brick Fire Plane that I build back in 2016. Take a look at the gorgeous images of the rocket I built, you’ll be amazed at how much LEGO has explored the details!

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Energia/Buran

Buran – The End of The Space-Race Age

Exactly on this day, 30 years ago, the Soviet Union under the Buran programme (meaning “snowstorm}, or “blizzard”) launched the Orbiter K1 (or OK-1K1), a reusable spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in response to NASA’s space shuttle program. If the Sputnik marked the beginning of the space race, then the Buran ended it conclusively, and in the process proved once again that the Soviets could match, or even surpass, the technological prowess of the west on their own. As history suggests, NASA’s Space Shuttle programme had an enormous payload capacity, several times that of the previous US launch vehicles, which made the Soviet military suspicious about its military purposes which provoked them to build one of their own reusable spacecraft. But unfortunately, 1988 was the first and the only time that the unmanned OK-1K1 would lift-off and land in a fully automated mode, a first for any space shuttle variant. On the other hand, the Buran-class spacecraft used the expendable Energia super-heavy lift launch vehicles fitted with the RD-170 liquid-fuel rocket engines, considered the most powerful in the world even today. 

Despite its structural resemblance to NASA’s spaceplanes, the difference between the two orbiters was evident in the payload capacity in which, the Buran proved to be more efficient with a volume of over 90 tons which was due to the use of the Energia vehicle. All things considered, in spite of the ‘Cold War’ rivalry the Soviets developed a pretty advanced space vehicle to surprise the west again; who could forget the supersonic Tupolev Tu-144, the ‘Concordski‘. Quite disappointingly though, this fabulous spacecraft met with a climactic ending when the Buran OK-1K1 was destroyed in 2002 with the roof of its hangar at Baikonur collapsing and crushing underneath the lasting memories of the space-race era.
Buran vs STS Stats

A quick comparison of the OK-1K1 vehicle and the Space Shuttle

Featured Photo: Scale drawings of Russian cosmoplan complex Energia/Buran

GSLV-III And India’s Human Spaceflight Dream

GSLV Mk.III launching from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

Always the one to glorify any news relating to advances made in science & space technology, I couldn’t hide my emotions when I read about the successful mission of one of India’s heaviest launch vehicle systems the GSLV-III (aka GSLV Mark III) which placed a communication satellite payload to its GEO orbit, the 3,423 kg (7,546 lb) GSAT 29. However, when this 13-storey tall heavy rocket took-off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center it not only connected the country’s remotest, most crucial parts with a high-speed network it also marked a step closer in achieving the goal of putting ‘Vyomanauts’ into space.

One of the most ambitious ISRO projects is the proposed manned mission into space, that will lift-off on a homegrown launch vehicle; the GSLV-III, with an all-Indian crew. The project has been named Gaganyaan or ‘sky craft’ and a planned date for the launch is 2022. If you want to truly understand the significance of today’s launch you will have to go back to the 90s when India was prevented from gaining access to the cryogenic engine technology by the US from Russia’s Glavkosmos which cited the dual purpose use of the technology and prohibited its transfer under the provisions of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). That pushed back the development of the GSLV rockets by decades. 

The GSLV-III handles payloads of up to 4-5 tons into the GEO orbit with the cryogenic upper stage providing the extra thrust required by the rocket to carry heavier payloads into deeper space. That (second) stage is designated as ‘C-25’ and contains the CE-20 cryogenic rocket engine which was developed indigenously. It’s one of the most powerful cryogenic upper stages in the world today.

India has plans to orbit an Indian crew into space in 2022 and that mission will be accomplished by GSLV-III (nicknamed ‘Bahubali’). Meanwhile, this mighty launch vehicle is also slated to carry another most anticipated lunar probe with a rover landing, the Chandrayaan 2 in January 2019. In all of this, today’s successful flight of the GSLV-III rocket indeed brings India closer to its human spaceflight dream. Vyomanauts! Let’s go!!

Some GSLV-III stats in a nutshell:

  • Height – 43.4 m
  • Mass – 640,000 kg
  • Payload to LEO – 8,000 kg
  • Payload to GTO – 4,000 kg
  • Stages – 3
  • Boosters – 2x S200

Photo – Indian Space Research Organization