What Happens When Russia Leaves The ISS?

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This video is supported by Brilliant. This is Baikonur, Kazakhstan on a cold winter's  morning in 1998. On this day, the world’s   most expensive and impressive engineering project  came to life. This is of course the first module   of the International Space Station being launched  into orbit. Over the next decade, the Americans   and the Russians grew the ISS to be the size of  an entire football field. Since the year 2000,   it’s had a constant presence of humans, living and  working onboard the station. Not only has it been   an incredible engineering achievement, but the  fact that America and Russia have worked together   so closely is almost even more incredible.  But it seems like that collaboration could   be coming to an end. Russia has announced that  it plans to leave the ISS after the year 2024. Before we go into how this will affect the  space station, we need to talk about this guy,   Dmitry Rogozin. This man was the head of the  Russian space agency for the last 4 years,   but he’s more well known for his humorous tweets.  He’s the one who threatened to detach the Russian   part of the space station and crash it  into America. In a rage of insecurity,   he also covered up all of the international  flags on one of his Russian rockets.   So obviously the Russian space program has been  in good hands for the last few years. But just   recently, Dmitry was fired and replaced by a man  named Yuri Borisov. After only being in the job   for a matter of weeks, he announced the big news  that Russia would be saying goodbye to the ISS   and starting its own space station. But according  to him, this had nothing to do with politics. All joking aside, this isn’t actually all that  surprising. The ISS is now over two decades old,   and as the tech on board gets even older, it will  only cause more and more problems. One of the   reasons that Russia wants to leave is that they  are spending more time fixing things than actually   performing experiments. Since it’s so expensive  to send things up to the ISS, it’s not very often   that things get updated. The main computers on the  ISS are from 1988 and have less processing power   than the original PlayStation. But it’s not as  easy as just sending the latest Macbook up there. In order for computer components to work well  in space they have to be radiation hardened.   This is a lengthy process that involves years of  customizing each electrical component, protecting   them from the intense radiation that hits the ISS  every day. It can take years just to certify that   a laptop is ready to survive in space, and  by that time it’s already well out of date.   Of course, NASA also sends regular laptops  and iPads up there, but they are expected to   fail. In fact, there are over 100 laptops on  the ISS and most of them don’t work. Imagine   there being some kind of dungeon with piles  of old ThinkPads stacked on top of eachother. Either way, the ISS is old and if Russia wants to  move on and start its own space station, then let   them do it. But it’s not so easy. After all, it’s  called the International Space Station, and every   member plays its role in keeping it running. The  US provides the Russian segment with all of its   power and most of its communications too. This  section here is the Russian segment and contains   various thrusters that are used to steer the space  station. One of the most important tasks these   thrusters need to carry out is re-boosting the  station. You see, although the ISS is in space,   there are still tiny traces of atmosphere at  this altitude, which slow the station down and   lower its orbit. Because of this, the station  can lose up to 100 meters in altitude every   single day. If nothing was done about this, the  space station would sink lower and lower, before   eventually burning up in the atmosphere. The way  they avoid this is by firing up the thrusters   on the Russian segment about once a month to  accelerate the station and increase its altitude. This process can be seen in this video where  astronauts slowly start to float down the station   as the thrusters are firing. In reality, we’re  actually seeing the station move around the   astronauts. If Russia took away its segment, the  space station would have no way of raising its   altitude or avoiding debris impacts. It would  also cause problems when it came time to retire   the ISS, since it wouldn’t have the control to  carefully deorbit into a safe part of the Ocean. Another possible scenario is that the Russians  save the hassle of detaching their segment and   leave it for the Americans to use, essentially  paying rent to the Russians. This would be great   for the astronauts, since there are only  two bathrooms on the station and one of   them is in the Russian segment. Even if Russia  eventually decides to separate from the ISS,   they will need to work with the US to  figure out exactly how that would be done.   Each module has layers of internal and external  connections that have built up over many years   and they weren’t designed to be disassembled. So  actually detaching the Russian segment would be a   huge logistical challenge. Without being connected  to the US segment, the Russians would have   no power, so the idea of sailing off and using  it by themselves won’t work. That’s why Russia   already has plans to launch its own space station  by around 2028. Of course, Russia is no stranger   to space stations, in fact - most space stations  that have ever been built were Russian. But with   the current state of the Russian space program,  it seems highly unlikely that they’ll have a   brand new space station up and running by then.  But either way, their plan is quite interesting. Their new space station named ‘Ross’ is  designed to be very hands off and automated.   The plan is to operate it mostly without humans,  with crews only visiting the station every   few months to help out with experiments  and maintenance tasks. The station will   feature autonomous robots that hover around the  station, performing maintenance on the outside.   Overall, this space station should be lightyears  ahead of the ISS in terms of its design - at least   more efficient, cost effective and maintenance  friendly. If Russia eventually pulls this off,   we will have 3 space stations orbiting Earth. No  matter what you think of the current situation,   that is pretty cool. And with some ambitious plans  from NASA and SpaceX, it’s possible that we could   have space stations around the Moon and Mars  in the future. But in the end, it’s likely that   Russia’s threat to leave the ISS is no more than  just a threat. According to the engineers on the   ground, it’s clear that the goal is to continue  working with NASA and the international partners   beyond 2024. And so, despite the age of the space  station, it will hopefully continue pushing the   boundaries of science and helping us to further  our understanding of Earth and the Universe. Another great way to learn about the world is  Brilliant.org - an online learning platform   that helps you learn everything STEM related  in an interactive way. Brilliant is such an   effective way to learn stuff, since it  teaches you to think critically about   problems and truly understand them. Using  one of the many interactive courses,   Brilliant takes complex topics and explains  them to you in a way that’s easy to understand.   If you have any interest in things like space,  science, math and engineering - then Brilliant   has you covered. Brilliant has a wide range  of interactive courses, designed to give   you a deep understanding of how and why things  work - so you can apply them to everyday life.   I highly recommend checking out the new course  made by fellow YouTuber Kurzgesagt. This class   looks at the math and science behind black holes  and is a super fun and interactive way to learn   about how they actually work. To get started  for free, visit brilliant.org/primalspace or   click the link in the description. The first 200 of you will also get 20% off Brilliant's annual Premium subscription. Thank you very much for watching and I'll see you in the next video.
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Channel: Primal Space
Views: 559,005
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: iss, space staion, international space station, russia, roscosmos, What Happens When Russia Leaves The ISS?, why is russia leaving the iss, ISS Russia, Russia ISS, russia space station, Nasa Russia, is Russia leaving the ISS?, Who is Dmitry Rogozin?, will russia leave the iss, when will russia leave the iss, Who is Yuri Borisov?, Yuri Borisov, What is Radiation Hardening?, Radiation hardening ISS, ROS, ROSS, Russia, Russian Orbital Service Station, Russian Orbital Space Station
Id: Vh5cfgoT4CY
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 8min 52sec (532 seconds)
Published: Thu Aug 25 2022
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