Progress spacecraft

ISS Progress cargo spacecraft

The Progress is a Russian an expendable freighter spacecraft. The spacecraft is unmanned during its flight but upon docking with a spacestation it allows astronauts inside, hence it is classified manned by the manufacturer ^[1][2][3]. It was derived from the Soyuz spacecraft, and is launched with the Soyuz launch vehicle. It is currently used to supply the International Space Station, but was originally used to supply Russian space stations for many years. There are three to four flights of the Progress spacecraft to the ISS per year. Each spacecraft remains docked until shortly before the new one arrives. Then it is filled with waste, disconnected, deorbited, and destroyed in the atmosphere.

It has carried fuel and other supplies to all the space stations since Salyut 6. The idea for the Progress came from the realisation that in order for long duration space missions to be possible, there would have to be constant source of supplies. It had been determined that a cosmonaut needed 30 kg of consumables a day; this equates to 5.4 tonnes over a six-month stay. It was impractical to launch this along with passengers in the small space available in the Soyuz.

Design

Progress is of much the same size and shape as Soyuz. It consists of three modules:

• A pressurised forward module. This carries the supplies for the crew such as scientific equipment, clothes, prepackaged and fresh food, and letters from home. The docking drogue is similar to that of the Soyuz but features ducting for the UDMH fuel and N₂O₄ oxidiser.
• A fuel compartment. The reentry module of the Soyuz was replaced with an unpressurized propellant and refueling compartment with ducting along the outside of the spacecraft. This meant that if a leak occurred, the poisonous gas would not enter the station's atmosphere. The fuel is carried in two tanks.
• A propulsion module. The propulsion module, at the rear of the spacecraft, remained unchanged and contains the orientation engines used for the automatic docking. It may be used to boost the orbit of the station once docked.

Reduction in weight was possible because the Progress was designed to be unmanned and disposable. This means that there is no need for bulky life support systems and heat shields. The spacecraft also has no ability to split into separate modules. After undocking, the spacecraft performs a retrofiring and burns up in the atmosphere.

Versions

There were many small variations between the different flights, but the major upgrades are reflected in the change of name.

Progress

There were 42 spacecraft under the name Progress, the last one being launched in May 1990.

The bureau in charge of designing the freighter was TsKBEM (now RKK Energia). They began work on the design in mid-1973, assigning Progress the rather cryptic designation 11F615A15. The design was complete by February, 1974, and the first production model was ready for launch in November 1977. Progress 1 launched on January 20, 1978 aboard the same rocket used to launch the Soyuz. It still featured the same launch shroud as the Soyuz, though this was purely for aerodynamic purposes as the launch escape system had been deactivated.

This first version of Progress had a mass of 7,020 kg and carried 2,300 kg of cargo, or 30% of its launch weight. It had the same diameter as the Soyuz at 2.2 metres, but was 8 metres in length—slightly longer. The autonomous flight time was 3 days, the same time as that of the Soyuz ferry. It could spend one month docked. Progress always docked to the aft port of the station it was resupplying.

• Launch weight 7,020-7,249 kg
• Weight of cargo (Progress 1-24) ~2,300 kg
• Weight of cargo (Progress 24-42) ~2,500 kg
• Length 7.94 m
• Diameter of cargo modules 2.2 m
• Maximum diameter 2.72 m
• Volume of cargo compartment 6.6 m³

Progress M

The upgrade Progress M was first launched in August 1989. The first 43 flights all went to Mir; following Mir's re-entry, there have been about 14 flights to the International Space Station, and more are scheduled.

It is essentially the same spacecraft as the Progress, but it features improvements from the Soyuz T and TM. It can spend up to 30 days in autonomous flight and is able to carry 100 kg more to Mir. Also, unlike the old Progress crafts, it can return items to Earth. This is accomplished by using the Raduga capsule, which can carry up to 150 kg of cargo. It is 1.5 m long and 60 cm in diameter and has a "dry weight" of 350 kg. Progress M can dock to the forward port of the station and still transfer fuel. It uses the same rendezvous system as the Soyuz, and it features solar panels for the first time.

• Launch weight 7,130 kg
• Cargo weight 2,600 kg
• Dry cargo weight 1,500 kg
• Liquid cargo weight 1,540 kg
• Length 7.23 m
• Solar array span 10.6 m
• Dry cargo compartment volume 7.6 m³
• Diameter of cargo modules 2.2 m
• Maximum diameter 2.72 m

Progress M1

Progress M1 was another variant, capable of carrying more propellant (but less total cargo) to the stations. There have been 11 of these flights.

• Mass: 7,150 kg
• Capacity cargo: 2,230 kg
• Capacity propellant: 1,950 kg
• Capacity dry cargo: 1,800 kg

Progress M2

Progress M2 was another variant, which was a proposed design for the proposed Mir-2 space station, but was dropped to financial issues. The M2 variant would have a larger service module for larger cargo or space station modules and would have been launched on a Zenit launch vehicle.^[4]

Current status

This spacecraft is still in use today for the International Space Station. Between February 1, 2003 and July 26, 2005, it was the only spacecraft available to transport large quantities of supplies to the station, as the Space Shuttle fleet was grounded after the breakup of the Columbia at the end of STS-107. For ISS missions, the Progress M1 variant is used, which moves the water tanks from the propellant and refueling module to the pressurized section, and as a result is able to carry more propellant.

Like the Soyuz (and unlike most American space ships), the Progress has an autonomous navigation system that usually allows for automatic docking with the space station. It can be manually overridden if necessary.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is planning its own supply freighter called the Automated Transfer Vehicle. The first of these, the Jules Verne, is due for launch in mid 2007. It will be able to carry up to 7.5 tonnes of cargo into space, roughly three times as much as the Progress, and will be launched every 12 months by an Ariane 5 rocket.

The new Crew Exploration Vehicle, which will replace the Space Shuttle after 2010, will have, like Progress, two unmanned variations. One version will retain the pressurized crew module, but will be outfitted with storage lockers that can allow astronauts to bring fresh equipment onboard, along with being able to return experiments to Earth. Another version, with the crew module replaced with a docking ring on an enlarged service module, will allow the ISS to be boosted into a higher (350+ mi.) orbit, allowing the ISS to avoid most of the atmosphere and reducing the need to reboost the station on a regular basis.

RKK Energia has proposed as a replacement for the Progress spacecraft a new spacecraft by the name of Parom which means ferry in Russian. This new spacecraft would retrieve either the proposed Kliper or any other cargo container with a Russian airlock up to 15 tons back to the ISS.

See also

• List of unmanned spaceflights to the ISS

References

External links

• NASA - Russian Progress Spacecraft - NASA page discussing the Progress spacecraft, updated May 2005.

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