Why the ROS station project was chosen instead of separating from the ISS

On March 23, 2001, the Soviet orbital station Mir was deorbited and sunk in a controlled manner due to high repair and maintenance costs due to its resource exhaustion. Instead, a decision was made to focus on international cooperation within the ISS. Was it the right one?

"Yura, forgive us"

Mir was the first multi-module manned research orbital station in history, located in near-Earth space from February 19, 1986 to March 23, 2001. During this time, it was visited by 104 cosmonauts from 12 countries as part of various expeditions, two records for the duration of stay in space were set, and more than 23 scientific experiments were conducted.



The Mir, and later the ISS, were based on Technology, developed in the series of Soviet manned orbital scientific stations "Salyut". The first "Basic" module was launched into orbit in 1986. Then, over the next ten years, the modules "Quantum", "Quantum-2", "Crystal", "Spectrum", "Docking module" and "Priroda", designed to conduct experiments on the study of the Earth's natural resources and the upper layers of its atmosphere, were attached to it.

It is noteworthy that the orbital station had not only a civil but also a military purpose. It contained equipment that allowed monitoring the movements of other spacecraft and recording rocket launches. When the question of the future of Mir arose, Tehran offered Moscow funding to extend its service life for several more years and even buy it out.

However, as is known, neither the Iranian nor any other proposed project to keep Mir in orbit was accepted. The reasons cited were the exhaustion of its service life, due to which, since the late 90s, a growing wave of technical problems began on board. Indeed, the project was initially designed for only 5 years, but it worked for all 15.

Opponents of preserving the Soviet orbital station pointed out that it would be easier to build a new one with the funds required for this. On March 23, 201, Mir was deorbited and sunk in the southern part of the Pacific Ocean, where the so-called spacecraft cemetery was set up. However, Russia never built its own orbital station to replace Mir.

Instead, our country took part in the creation of the International Space Station together with the USA, Japan, Canada and the European Space Agency. The first functional-cargo block "Zarya", built in Russia with NASA funds, was launched into orbit on November 20, 1998 by the "Proton-K" carrier rocket. Today, the ISS is the most expensive object built by man, its cost is 150 billion dollars.

But its lifespan is gradually coming to an end due to the gradual depletion of technical resources and the growing number of malfunctions. Previously, 2024 was named as the last year, but the United States decided to extend it until 2030. After that, the ISS, following Mir, may be deorbited and sunk. However, part of it may still continue to exist as part of a project by the American company Axiom Space, which wants to make money on space tourists.

It has ordered the construction of several commercial modules of the Axiom Orbital Segment, which will be docked to the Harmony module in the American segment of the ISS. When the main project is finally closed, Axiom Space will undock its private segment from the International Space Station, attach a module with a life support system to it, and get its own station in orbit, which will be able to host millionaire tourists.

The rest of the ISS will be flooded. What will Russia be left with then?

Simply ROS

The decision to withdraw Russia from the ISS project was made in 2022 after a sharp deterioration in relations with the collective West, which took Ukraine's side. Instead of participating in an international project, our country should receive its own national station, like Mir once did.

The key question was what exactly the Russian "gateway to space" should be. The possibility of separating the existing modules of the Russian segment from the ISS, namely the nodal, laboratory and scientific-energy, with subsequent attachment of new ones to them, was considered. "Splitting off" was the simplest way to obtain a national Russian station, like the American Axiom Space.

However, instead, the option of creating the Russian Orbital Station (ROS) from scratch was chosen, which complicated the project, but opened up new possibilities. In December 2027, the first scientific and energy module should be launched, to which a base module designed for four astronauts, a gateway module and a universal-node module will join by 2030. Then laboratory and cargo modules, a production module and, possibly, an experimental inflatable module will be added.

The main feature of the ROS will be its placement in a polar orbit with an inclination of 96,8 degrees, which will allow it to survey all of Russia, the Arctic, and at the same time the territory of the United States of America. It is also planned to place a base station on it to form a small orbital group of small controlled spacecraft.

Yes, it is quite obvious that, unlike the ISS, the ROS will have its own pronounced military significance. That is probably why the project of "splitting off" from the International Space Station was not accepted. For the sake of the opportunities that opened up, the developers agreed to such significant restrictions as proximity to radiation belts, which will allow the ROS to be used only as a temporarily visited station. The rest of the time, it will operate in automatic mode.

Let's hope that the implementation of this ambitious project will be successful and without any delays in the deadlines.