Russia’s Nauka Module For UPSC
Source : Indian Express
Science and Tech (Space)

What is discussed under Russia’s Nauka Module For UPSC ?

1. About Nauka
2. About Pirs
3. About ISS 
4. What is a space station ?

Why in News ?

Russian module on the International Space Station (ISS) used as a docking port for spacecraft and as a door for cosmonauts to go out on spacewalks, was detached from the 22-year-old floating laboratory.

• Russia’s space agency Roscosmos will be attaching a significantly larger module called Nauka.

Key Facts

• Nauka was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan using a Proton rocket is scheduled to be

  

  integrated with the ISS.

• About Nauka Module
  • 42 feet long and weighs 20 tonnes.
  • Nauka meaning science in Russian.
  • Biggest space laboratory Russia has launched to date
  • Primarily serve as a research facility.
  • It is also bringing to the ISS another oxygen generator, a spare bed, another toilet, and a robotic cargo crane built by the European Space Agency (ESA).
  • It took eight days to reach the ISS.
  • It will take up to 11 Russian spacewalks over seven months to fully integrate Nauka with the ISS.
• About Pirs
  • Meaning pier in Russian
  • Considerably smaller structure that was only used as a docking port for Russian spacecraft.
  • Allowed for cosmonauts to enter or leave the ISS for spacewalks.
  • Pirs was pulled away from the ISS using a Progress MS-16/77P cargo ship, which had remained docked to the module.
  • Pirs and its cargo ship will get burned up as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere, and are expected to fall harmlessly into the Pacific Ocean.

About ISS 

• What is a space station ?
  • Space station is essentially a large spacecraft that remains in low-earth orbit for extended periods of time.
  • It is like a large laboratory in space, and allows astronauts to come aboard and stay for weeks or months to carry out experiments in microgravity.
• ISS is a pathbreaking collaborative effort between five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe) and CSA (Canada).
• 20 years since its launch, humans have continuously lived and carried out scientific investigations on the $150 billion ISS under microgravity conditions, being able to make breakthroughs in research not possible on Earth.
• 243 people from 19 countries have so far visited the ISS.
• The floating laboratory has hosted more than 3,000 research and educational investigations from researchers in 108 countries and areas, carrying out cutting edge research in various disciplines
• The major research including
  • Biology
  • Human physiology
  • Physical, material and space science.

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