SPACE STATION OPERATIONS

The main focus for humans in space until at least 2020 will be in low Earth orbit and in operations associated with space stations; primarily the International Space Station but also the Chinese series of stations called Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace”). At both facilities, successive expeditions are expected to perform a wide range of experiments and research programs focusing attention towards our own planet Earth. Some will investigate the mysteries of the space environment, while others will develop the technologies to support operations for our eventual return to the Moon and on to Mars, the asteroids, or other strategic deep-space points. These could potentially lead to future manned explorations throughout our solar system later this century and into the next.

International Space Station operations

With the majority of the construction completed, the ISS has finally been able to become the leading scientific research facility it was always intended to be. Expedi­tions comprising up to six crew members are now utilizing the international facilities and resources to conduct a range of investigations in research fields that have been promoted as the reasons for the existence of large space stations for over 30 years.

The known crewing (as of October 31, 2012) for ISS operations through 2015 are presented in Table 5.1.

The subtle change from constructing the ISS to learning from it was not an overnight event. Indeed, “science” had been conducted on the facility almost from the start of operations, but it was not until the arrival of the U. S. laboratory Destiny in 2001 that “real” science on the ISS could begin. Gradually over the years (and over 30 expeditions), the science program has expanded, apart from the hiatus caused by the tragic loss of Columbia in 2003. The completion of the truss and solar array assembly, the arrival of the European and Japanese science facil­ities during 2008, and the increased permanent crew size from three to six the following year have enabled the scientific research program to reach its true poten­tial. Regular reports are posted on the internet from the partner agencies, detailing the latest daily operations and activities across the station. Among the most useful sites are

• http://www. nasa. gov/directorates/heo/reports/iss_reports/

(daily reports on ISS activities)

• http://www. esa. intlSPECIALSIColumbuslSEMBQ84S18H_0.html

(regular weekly reports on activities aboard the European Columbus laboratory)

• http: //kibo. jaxa. jp/en/experiment/

(latest news on activities on the Japanese Kibo laboratory)

• http: / /www. federalspace. ru/main. php? id= 2&nid= 19641

(daily updates on activities aboard the Russian Segment—in Russian).

The journey continues, launch of Soyuz TMA-06M in October 2012.

Spaceflight

Mission

Launch date

Landing date

Position

Prime crew

Agency

Nationality

Soyuz TMA-08M

ISS-35/36

Mar 2013

Sep 2013

Commander

Vinogradov, Pavel (ISS 36 Cdr)

RSA

Russian

Flight engineer

Misurkin, Alexander

RSA

Russian

Flight engineer

Cassidy, Christopher

NASA

American

Soyuz TMA-09M

ISS-36/37

May 2013

Nov 2013

Commander

Yurchikhin, Pavel (ISS 37 Cdr)

RSA

Russian

Flight engineer

Parmitano, Luca

ESA

Italian

Flight engineer

Nyberg, Karen

NASA

American

Shenzhou-10

Tiangong 1

Jun 2013

Jun 2013

Commander

?

China

Chinese

Flight engineer

?

China

Chinese

Mission engineer

?

China

Chinese

Soyuz TMA-10M

ISS-37/38

Sep 2013

Mar 2014

Commander

Kotov, Oleg (ISS 38 Cdr)

RSA

Russian

Flight engineer

Ryazansky, Sergei

RSA

Russian

Flight engineer

Hopkins, Michael

NASA

American

Soyuz TMA-11M

ISS-38/39

Nov 2013

May 2014

Commander

Tyurin, Mikhail

RSA

Russian

Flight engineer

Wakata, Koichi (ISS 39 Cdr)

JAXA

Japanese

Flight engineer

Mastracchio, Richard

NASA

American

Soyuz TMA-12M

ISS-39/40

Mar 2014

Sep 2014

Commander

Skvortsov, Alexander

RSA

Russian

Flight engineer

Artemyev, Oleg

RSA

Russian

Flight engineer

Swanson, Steven (ISS 40 Cdr)

NASA

American

Soyuz TMA-13M

ISS-40/41

May 2014

Nov 2014

Commander

Surayev, Maksim (ISS-41 Cdr)

RSA

Russian

Flight engineer

Gerst, Alexander

ESA

German

Flight engineer

Wiseman, Gregory

NASA

American

Soyuz TMA-14M

ISS-41/42

Sep 2014

Mar 2015

Commander

Samokutyayev, Alexandr

RSA

Russian

Flight engineer

Serova, Yelena

RSA

Russian

Flight engineer

Wilmore, Barry (ISS 42 Cdr)

NASA

American

Table 5.1. Future flight manifest.

270 The immediate future: 2012-2020

Europe’s Ariane launch vehicle with an ATV prepares to launch to the ISS with supplies.

Sadly, most of this work does not make the news outside of the partner agencies or “space”-dedicated websites, which makes informing the general public of what the crews are actually doing on the station more difficult. With the growth of social media applications there has been an increase of postings from the ISS over the past few years, but the days of the “right-stuff” headline-grabbing missions are long gone, at least for the foreseeable future.

No space flight can truly be termed “routine” and yet that is exactly what the crews on the ISS are attempting to establish—a regular, smooth running and productive scientific research program to provide genuine advances in space opera­tions, at least in Earth orbit. Quite simply, missions like those being conducted on the station just do not make major headlines, unless something goes wrong.

This “routine” aspect is dependent upon a regular supply of logistics from Earth. Since the retirement of the American Space Shuttle, this has become a little more difficult to achieve using only the smaller vehicles that remain available. The loss of the mass-carrying capability of the Shuttle (in particular for removing trash and redundant equipment from the station) will probably never be replaced in the lifetime of the ISS, even with the proposed new vehicles under consideration (see below). The venerable Russian Soyuz (in operational service since 1967) will con­tinue, in its latest TMA-M version, as the primary resident crew transport ferry and rescue vehicle, but has a relatively small capacity for the return of scientific payload from orbit. The TMA-M could be phased out by 2015 to be replaced by a new variant (Soyuz-MS) which is expected to have further systems upgrades but still resemble the basic Soyuz TMA craft. The unmanned Progress version (now flying as the Progress M-M series), which first flew in 1978 to Salyut 6, continues to provide a regular supply service, ferrying cargo to the station and disposing of trash in destructive atmospheric reentries.

Like the Progress, the European ATV and Japanese HTV unmanned resupply vehicles also have the capability to dispose of waste and unwanted hardware during a destructive reentry, but the return of samples and hardware to Earth is not currently available on these operational craft. This void may, at least partially, be filled by the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft, which, in 2012 completed a successful demonstration mission of its capability to fly to the ISS unmanned, dock and deliver supplies, and then return to an ocean recovery. This was a significant step towards replacing the Shuttle with a (partially) commercially funded vehicle.

There remain a few additional modules to be launched to the station for the Russian segment. These much delayed Russian modules are expected to include

• the Nauka (“Science”) Multipurpose Laboratory Module (replacing the Pirs module) and delivery of the European Robotic Arm (ERA); and

• the Nodal Module for the attachment of both the Scientific and Power Producing Module-1 and the Scientific and Power Producing Module-2.

It has been agreed by the international partners to continue flying expeditions to the ISS on Soyuz through to 2020, and possibly as long as 2028, as long as the hardware can support the program. If this happens, and there is no certainty that this will be possible, it would result in almost 30 years of continuous operational expedition activity, doubling the record established on Mir and setting the stage for the next step in orbital exploitation around our planet. Exactly what form that next step will take is also, at present, far from certain.

As this book was about to go to press news began to emerge about a new challenge to be attempted on the International Space Station. On October 5, 2012

NASA announced plans to launch in 2015 one American and one Russian (but without identifying them) on a 1 yr long expedition to the ISS, this being part of the plans to understand how humans adapt to long-duration spaceflight, with an eye to returning to the Moon or journeying out deeper into space. Using the ISS as a base for these experiments will help better prepare for such journeys. In July 2012 ISS veteran Peggy Whitson stepped down as Chief Astronaut to resume space station training and it was suggested she may be one of the NASA candidates for the yearlong mission.

The announcement of a two-person crew for the yearlong mission also generated media suggestions that an opportunity might arise for the third seat on Soyuz to be occupied by a space flight participant on a short-stay mission to the station. Of course, should this be the case, room would have to be made for the tourist on the returning Soyuz with only two outgoing resident crew members coming home instead of three as is now standard. Perhaps partial crew exchange would be possible, but this would alter the current crewing protocol we have seen since 2009 when the last space flight participant, Canadian Guy Laliberte, was launched to the station. On October 10 it was announced in Moscow that British classical crossover artist Sarah Brightman was a candidate for such a flight with Space Adventures, possibly representing UNESCO as an “artist for peace” and to continue her STEM (Science Technology, Engineering, Math) scholarship work for women. It will be interesting to see how the future of the Space Flight Partici­pant Program develops over the rest of this decade and how such flights will, or will not, feature in the longer term planning for the remainder of ISS operations.

On the same day of the yearlong mission announcement (October 5) JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui had been selected by the Japanese space agency for the Expedition 44/45 mission. A fact overlooked by most of the media, he would serve as a flight rngineer for a 6-month residence commencing around June 2015 and would begin expedition training later that month.

Amidst all this speculation on November 26, 2012, it was announced that NASA had chosen Scott Kelly and Roscosmos had selected Mikhail Komiyenko for the year-long mission. Further crewing assignments through the 50th ISS expedition were expected during the early months of 2013.