#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The Russian spacecraft Arktika-M was launched into a highly elliptical orbit. It will address the challenges of operational meteorology, hydrology, and climate and environmental monitoring in the Arctic.
The satellite was developed on the basis of the unified Navigator platform of the Lavochkin research and production association. A complex of target equipment was installed on it, which will allow to conduct an all-weather survey of the Earth’s surface and the seas of the Arctic ocean around the clock and maintain constant and reliable communication.
Arktika-M weighs 2.2 tons, is capable of flying over the planet at an altitude of 40 thousand kilometers and, as if hovering over the pole, descend to an altitude of one and a half thousand kilometers from the Earth.
“There are no such spacecraft in the world that carry out imagery in the infrared range for the forecasting purpose of in such orbits. That is, this device is the first”, vesti.ru quotate Alexandr Mitkin the deputy general designer for electrical systems of NPO named after Lavochkin.
The new satellite moves away and approaches the Earth’s surface daily, which allows it to provide multi-scale images. Moreover, its speed differs from the speed of the Earth’s rotation, and the shooting angle is constantly changing. Russia will have two satellites of this type – the second device is planned to be launched into orbit in 2023. The satellite equipment is entirely domestic. In the Soviet past, television satellites operated in the orbit along which Arktika-M moves today.
“The orbital constellation of the system at the first stage will consist of two spacecraft Arktika-M, alternately replacing each other in the working sections of the orbits, which will provide a continuous round-the-clock overview of the northern territory of the Russian Federation and the Arctic region of the Earth. Joint use of information from highly elliptical satellites Arktika-M and geostationary Electro-L will solve the problem of quasi-continuous receipt of operational hydrometeorological data”, – said in a statement from Roskosmos.
We add that the device was launched into orbit using the Soyuz-2.1b rocket. The launch took place from the Baikonur cosmodrome on February 28.
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Text: Mikhail Tuaev, Photo: open sources
