All Space All the Time

Editor’s Note: When you think of Roscosmos, images of powerful launch vehicles, Soyuz spacecraft, cosmonauts and related things immediately come to mind. The business of Roscosmos is space. Right?

Not entirely. Roscosmos oversees a sprawling collection of companies that manufacture a diverse of products. Need medical pressure chambers? Roscosmos has got you covered. Tram cars? It makes them, too. Desktop electric stoves? Yup. Hydraulic fracking technology? You bet.

Roscosmos had a chance to show off these technologies during the Army-2022 International Military-Technical Forum held earlier this month. The state corporation is in the midst of a diversification campaign to move the technologies produced by its sprawling group of companies into the civilian economy. In the process, Roscosmos gains revenues to support its space activities.

Below are Roscosmos press releases about the state corporation’s efforts at diversification. The original Russian text has been rendered into English by Google Translate.

During the Army-2022 International Military-Technical Forum, the State Corporation Roscosmos and a number of its enterprises signed agreements with Novikombank on arranging financing for diversification projects.

Agreements for a total amount of about 3.7 billion rubles [US $61.8 million] concluded with Roscosmos, the Federal Research and Production Center Titan-Barricades, the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering and the Research and Production Corporation Systems of Precision Instrumentation will allow us to fulfill the tasks of digitalizing enterprises and increasing the production of civilian products.

“The State Corporation Roscosmos is interested in the development of promising projects of its organizations. The agreements consolidate the agreements reached between our organizations, and the partnership with Novikombank contributes to the implementation of the tasks set in terms of financing on optimal terms and using state support mechanisms,” said Yury Polyakov, executive director for finance of Roscosmos State Corporation.

“Novikombank supports digital transformation projects of enterprises in high-tech industries. The use of state support measures allows us to offer financing programs that are optimal in terms of cost,” said Elena Georgieva, chairman of the board of Novikombank.

At the Army-2022 International Military-Technical Forum, the MIT Corporation (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) entered into an agreement with Novikombank to finance the creation of complexes for hydraulic fracturing of the post.

An agreement worth 3.3 billion rubles [US $55.1 million] was signed by Yury Solomonov, General Designer of MIT Corporation, and Elena Georgieva, Chairman of the Board of Novikombank.

“The importance of this program for the industry cannot be overestimated. Thanks to the new complexes, oil and gas enterprises will be able to significantly increase production volumes and increase the oil recovery factor at new fields,” said Elena Georgieva.

The project to develop a Russian mobile complex for the extraction of hard-to-recover oil reserves is being implemented as part of the state program for import substitution and diversification of the military-industrial complex in the interests of the domestic oil and gas complex. As part of its implementation, MIT Corporation, with the participation of several dozen Russian enterprises, developed and manufactured 12 high-tech units.

By the end of 2023, a prototype hydraulic fracturing fleet must pass a full cycle of tests, including directly at the oil fields of Gazprom Neft.

State Space Research and Production Center named after M.V. Khrunichev (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) presented medical equipment at the Army-2022 International Military-Technical Forum as part of the diversification program.

Among it is a line of pressure chambers and a functional three-section medical bed.

The plant of medical equipment and consumer goods of the Khrunichev Center produces single-seat medical stationary pressure devices, which are a recognized leader in the segment of medical oxygen equipment. The most famous models – BLKS-303MK, BLKS-307 Khrunichev and pressure chambers for active hyperemia are operated in leading domestic and foreign hospitals.

This is the Research Institute for Emergency Medicine named after N.V. Sklifosovsky, Central Clinical Hospital with a polyclinic of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, Research Institute of Emergency Children’s Surgery and Traumatology, Main Clinical Military Hospital of the Federal Security Service of Russia, Main Military Clinical Hospital of the National Guard Troops of the Russian Federation, Central Military Clinical Hospital named after A.A. Vishnevsky Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and other military and civilian medical institutions.

The hyperbaric oxygenation departments are equipped with hyperbaric chambers of the enterprise for conducting treatment sessions with the effect of pure oxygen on the patient’s body. The advantages of their use are increased efficiency and a wide range of applications after various consequences of injuries and in complex treatment.

Pressure complexes manufactured by the Khrunichev Center have successfully proven themselves in rehabilitation programs for patients who have undergone COVID-19. According to observations, after treatment in the hyperbaric oxygenation department using the barocomplexes of the Khrunichev Center, brain cells and lungs are saturated with oxygen, shortness of breath decreases, sleep normalizes, weakness disappears and the effectiveness of drug therapy increases.

In the line of pressure complexes at the exhibition stand of the Khrunichev Center, a prototype of the pressure chamber for newborns BLKS-160 is exhibited, which is planned to be used for intoxication, hemolytic diseases of newborns, posthypoxic lesions of the central nervous system and other diseases. This product is currently undergoing experimental testing.

On Monday, August 15, 2022, the Okhrana Scientific and Technical Center (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) presented a promising type of radio communication by organizing a remote digital radio channel with the Vostochny cosmodrome at the Army-2022 International Military-Technical Forum.

Using the digital unit Attache developed by the enterprise, a communication session was conducted with the radio network deployed at the Vostochny cosmodrome using the Wave Network protocol. In real time, at the Vostochny launch complex, a radio signal was received from the Roscosmos exhibition pavilion at Army-2022.

The NTC Okhrana is also developing a subscriber module for a communication, signaling and monitoring system based on the Gonets-D1M low-orbit satellite communication system and a radio communication system using the Wave Network protocol, designed to monitor transported goods and communicate with an escort group.

Both technologies are completely domestic developments, quickly deployed and instantly connected.

Advanced radio communication using the Wave Network protocol can be used in emergencies and rescue operations, at construction sites and landfills, in case of network and electricity failures, in mines, tunnels and workshops, and in transport.

The Okhrana Scientific and Technical Center (part of the Roscosmos State Corporation) at the Army-2022 International Military-Technical Forum for the first time presented the Marker robotic complex designed to protect ground-based space infrastructure to the general public.

The Marker robot was developed by the key partner of the Okhrana Research and Development Center – the Android Technology Research and Production Association.

One of Marker’s key technologies is traction electric drives, which allow robotic platforms to develop high speed and high traction characteristics. The technology also allows the installation of universal payload modules that can detect fast-flying objects in real time, accompany them and hit them with small arms.

Currently, NPO Androidnaya Tekhnika, in partnership and commissioned by the NTC Okhrana, is carrying out research work on the application of the results of the Marker project in the interests of protecting critical infrastructure facilities of the State Corporation Roscosmos. The main task of Marker should be round-the-clock patrolling of the Roscosmos infrastructure, detection and interception of unmanned aerial vehicles and other types of intruders.

In the fall of 2021, the Marker platform was tested at the Vostochny Cosmodrome. Technologies for autonomous patrolling of dedicated routes for guarding ground-based space infrastructure facilities and identifying violators of the security perimeter, its identification and interception were carried out.

About 60,000 Mechta-211T household desktop electric stoves manufactured by Zlatoust Machine-Building Plant JSC and six tram cars manufactured by Ust-Katav Carriage Building Plant JSC (both enterprises are part of Roscosmos) will be delivered to the territories of Ukraine.

The first batch of electric stoves has already been sent to Zaporozhye. Within two months, the entire volume of products will be transferred to the customer.

As for the tram cars, they will be transferred to the city of Yenakiyevo of the Donetsk People’s Republic from the use of the St. Petersburg Gorelectrotrans. All wagons will be able to immediately enter the line after standard procedures for preparing for work.

If you had the money, which suborbital spacecraft would you fly on?