From rockets and satellites to fighting asteroids

An international scientific conference, Space Technologies: Present and Future, has opened in Dnipropetrovsk. It is attended by 230 scientists from 22 countries. Over three days, they will be exchanging experience and their visions of the development and application of space technologies for the benefit of humankind. The main subject of discussions at the conference that is held for the fourth time in this city is space launching systems, rocket engines and power plants, present-day and future satellite systems.

Ukrainian rocket builders have a lot of things to speak of and show at this forum. In spite of difficulties, this country’s positions on the space services market are, as before, worthy of respect. As the Russian Academician Anatoly Koroteyev said in the opening speech, Dnipropetrovsk-based specialists have always formed the elite of Soviet, and then Russian, astronautics and determined the main directions of its development. It is they who created a wide range of launch vehicles for Earth satellites and played the main role in developing the reusable spacecraft Buran.

Even now Ukraine has a considerable impact on the development of space technologies in a number of countries. According to the Dnipropetrovsk-oblast-born Cosmonaut Anatoly Artsibarsky, now living in Kazakhstan, that country, which intends to become a space power in the next few years, is counting on closer cooperation with Ukraine. Besides, specialists are being trained in Ukrainian universities and a launching site is being built at Alcantara as part of a joint project with faraway Brazil. Also broadening is the range of international space projects in which our country takes part.

The opening of the Dnipropetrovsk conference coincided with preparations for a test flight of the US launch vehicle Antares for which the Ukrainian Pivdenmash company has designed and manufactured the first stage with a Russian engine. In the words of Daniel Van Hulle, Product Manager at Orbital Sciences, US, this vehicle is to replace Space Shuttle reusable ships and will soon be delivering various cargos to the International Space Station.

Pivdenne General Designer Oleksandr Dehtiariov said at a press conference that a very wide range of subjects would be on the conference’s agenda. In addition to the design and application of rockets and satellites, scientists are also interested in such things as disposal of radioactive waste and space garbage as well as averting the danger of the fall of asteroids and meteorites. This became quite a burning issue after what happened in Chelyabinsk, Russia, last winter.

The Dnipropetrovsk conference is being attended by a representative of the charity foundation established by the well-known US science fiction writer Robert Heinlein. “The writer did not have children of his own, so he willed all his money to be used for charitable purposes,” the Heinlein Prize trustee John Hightower said. “The future of our planet directly depends on young people. So we cannot achieve progress without their participation. It would be very good if we could get as many young people as possible interested in astronautics. One must focus on such problems as generating outer-space energy because traditional methods are causing irreparable damage to the environment, as well as searching for and creating new materials.” On the very first day, the conference resolved to request the International Astronautical Congress, the world’s most prestigious forum of space specialists, to choose Ukraine as host country in 2016. These congresses annually gather about 3 to 4 thousand participants. If the request is satisfied, the congress will be held in Kyiv.