Space technologies are becoming more accessible, and the number of countries wishing to benefit in the national economy from the use of space data is growing. Yury Borisov, CEO of Roskosmos, spoke on the sidelines of the Russia-Africa forum about which states are now interested in Russian plasma engines, what should be done first by a country that wants to join space technologies, and what proposal in the field of manned space exploration Russia will make to South Africa. » in an interview with a correspondent .
— Which countries of the African continent are you negotiating with about the possibility of their cosmonauts flying on Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS?
— The Russian manned program today is connected with the operation of the International Space Station, which will cease to exist sometime after 2030. Russia is developing its Russian orbital station. Therefore, in contact with our African colleagues, we made them an offer of a broader plan — not just in the training of cosmonauts, but to take part up to the creation of a national module for the Russian orbital station. Maybe even under the auspices of the BRICS. On my last visit to South Africa, where the heads of space agencies met, we voiced this proposal and it, in principle, found a response there.
And if we talk specifically about the training of astronauts, then South Africa, indeed, expressed a desire to send two astronauts into space, so we will prepare a proposal for them. Will this flight be made on the Soyuz?
– Yes, we don't have another carrier for manned astronautics yet.
– Which African countries are interested in Russian plasma thrusters for satellites, how much do they need and how can such cooperation be organized?
– In general, plasma electric thrusters have a fairly long history. They are used to bring the payload to a given orbit, to keep the satellite at a given point in orbit.
Now interest in them has renewed and warmed up due to the fact that there is a rapid development of the creation of multi-satellite systems in low orbits. And the lower the orbit, the more effort must be spent in order to keep the satellite in a given orbit. They fall down, and the time of their active existence becomes shorter and shorter. But these engines raise the orbit and the satellite continues to work.
Interest in these engines is directly related to the possibility of creating multi-satellite systems. You probably know that at one time we actively worked with Western countries. In particular, OneWeb purchased these engines from us. We have serious competencies, we have established mass production of these engines of various types. At Fakel in Kaliningrad, we have the Keldysh Research Center, which, in close cooperation with university science and the Academy of Sciences, is developing new promising engines.
Therefore, there is great interest in them. We are discussing issues and transferring licenses for those engines, new ones are already mass-produced for us and have already become commonplace for us, and we are talking about simply supplying these engines for the needs of a particular country.
To be specific about countries, almost all countries that are interested in creating multi-satellite constellations are all interested in these engines
— How did South Africa react to the proposal to build on its territory a station for receiving information from Earth remote sensing satellites?
— This direction, remote sensing of the Earth, is perhaps the most priority today. All contacts that we had with African countries, and not only with African ones, are primarily interested in information from Earth remote sensing satellites. Probably because it has a more applied application. This includes environmental monitoring, emergency situations, monitoring of farmland and water resources. Even those countries that are just starting to master space technologies, as a rule, we recommend them, and they themselves understand this, to start with the creation of ground-based infrastructure, that is, ground-based complexes that allow receiving and processing information.
South Africa already has such stations, they want to improve and develop the network of such stations. Not only South Africa. Today's talks with Uganda and Zimbabwe show that all countries want to follow this path.