Аннотация: Inspiration4 and the movement to the first private space station. A scientific and historical essay.
Inspiration4 and the movement to the first private space station. A scientific and historical essay.
A space flight is scheduled for the 15th (or 16th) of September 2021 as a realization of the Inspiration4 mission. In this regard, we can recall some historical details and to execute some mental projections into the future time
1. Differences between a space station and a spaceship and a satellite.
2. The first space station.
3. Inspiration4: on the way to the first private space station?
1. Differences between a space station and a spaceship and a satellite.
In the first satellite, launched by Sergei Korolev in 1957, there were signs of a satellite, of a spaceship and of a cosmic station.
The differences between a satellite, a spaceship and a space station are very conditional ones.
What are the signs that make it possible to name a space device as a space station?
First, a stationarity. If the purpose of a spaceship is to move the payload to the destination (and return to a necessary point), then the space station is characterized by the task of not so much moving anywhere the payload as being (presence) in space orbit or in another, conventionally stationary, position.
Secondly, the multi-elementness. Space stations are characterized by a complex structure. They usually consist of several modules.
Third, a versatility. Satellites usually have a specialization: communication satellites, reconnaissance satellites, etc. Space stations, unlike satellites, are multifunctional.
Fourthly, a habitability. The first satellite was equipped with a radio transmitter. For satellites, the presence of living beings in them is not typical. When a living creature appears in a satellite, especially if it is a human, a satellite get the right to be called a spaceship or a space station.
These are some of the differences between a space station and satellites and spaceships.
The differences are very conditional, which is confirmed, for example, by the concept of an automatic (interplanetary; lunar ...) station.
This is not a complete list of differences. We have listed the most essential and illustrative ones. This list can be supplemented.
2. The first space station.
Here is what Boris Chertok writes in the book 'Rockets and People. Moon Race" (Book 4): "On January 14 and 15, Soyuz-4 with cosmonaut Vladimir Shatalov and Soyuz-5 with cosmonauts Boris Volynov, Aleksei Yeliseyev and Yevgeny Khrunov were launched. Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5 made an automatic docking, after which Yeliseyev and Khrunov moved through open space into Shatalov's ship." "After the docking of Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5, in January 1969, it was announced that "the world's first orbital station is the Soviet one." ".
Prior to that, the automatic docking of Kosmos-186 and Kosmos-188 (1967), and Kosmos-212 with Kosmos-213 (1968) had been carried out.
The signs of habitability, stationarity, and multi-elementness (possibly, multifunctionality) made it possible to name the docked spaceships Soyuz-4 and Soyuz-5 an "orbital space station."
3. Inspiration4: on the way to the first private space station?
It will be quite natural for the participants of the Inspiration4 mission to be busy with observing the outer space, a celestial bodies and the planet Earth.
According to media reports, a transparent dome will be created on the spaceship intended for the Inspiration4 mission for easy observation. ("...instead of the docking module in the front part, the ship is equipped with a large glass dome' - https://pda.kp.ru/online/news/4426996/). [unofficial translation]
Thus, this spaceship turns into a space substation (almost station).
We can assume that there is a movement towards the creation of the first private space station.
If so, then we are witnessing not only the implementation of the Inspiration4 mission, but, also, a gradual movement towards the creation of the world's first private space station.
[MMСCCLXI. SpaceX and Inspiration4. A social design in space orbit is performing by space missionaries. The note. - September 7, 2021.].
September 15, 2021 07:25
Translation from Russian into English: September 15, 2021 11:10.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Inspiration4 и движение к первой частной космической станции. Научно-исторический очерк'.