Joe wrote: > > > An experimental nuclear reactor power system, the SNAP 10A which used The former Soviet Union put on orbit toghether 33 RORSAT satellites with nuclear reactor (electrical power output 1 kW) of type Buk (in English Beech), later with Topaz-1 reactor, and powerfull radar. The operational orbit was rather low (cca 250 km), but the rector core containing 31 rods of 90% enriched U-235 (cca 31 kg = 68 lbs) was injected into a higher circular orbit (cca 1000 km) shortly before the propellant for orbit adjustments and orientation control was exhausted. The Russian name of this RORSAT system was "Sistema morskoi kosmicheskoi razvedki i tseleukazanija" (= Ocean space reconnaisance and targeting system), probably developed in KB Yuzhnoe in Dnepropetrovsk (now Ukraine) and built in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) at NPO Arzenal im. M. W. Frunze. Only two of those satellites were lost before Soviets succeeded in putting the reactor core in higher "graveyard" orbit (our descendants - take care of them!!!! lifetime given in RAE tables is cca. 600 yr.) and decayed in the atmosphere, with some parts of reactor reaching the Earth surface, namely in the case of Kosmos 954 (1977-090A = 10361). Remnants of this craft were found in Canada near Great Slave Lake. The Russians incorporated in the desing of the nuclear reactor a selfdestructive charge in the wake of this accident, which was used during the loss of the second spacecraft, Kosmos 1402 (1982-084A = 13441). Spacecraft entered Earth's atmosphere over southern Atlantic Ocean, destruction device probaly succesfully dispersed radioactive materie, because in the vicinity of splashdown point on traces of radioactivity were found. The command link was also lost with Kosmos 1900 (1987-101A = 18665), but onboard control system was able to put the reactor on graveyard orbit. After only one further test (Kosmos 1932, 1988-019A = 18957) program was terminated, mainly due international protests. Therefore from the Soviet Union there are (at least) 31 reactors circling the Earth in 1000-km orbits. It is also known that at least one spacecraft was lost during launch (1973-04-25). Most complete report can be found in literature: Staring at the Sea: The Soviet RORSAT and EORSAT Programmes / A. Siddiqi. - J. Brit. Interplanet. Soc. 52 [11/12] 397-416 (1999). (You may also follow the programm on my pages, starting at first prototype without nuclear reactor at http://www.lib.cas.cz/www/space.40/1967/I104A.HTM) using link between spacecraft. Those links are placed in the line preceding the heading "Prubeh letu" (ie. Flight history, rightmost button on the bottom of the screen). Sorry, text is in Czech, but the introductory table for each spacecraft is rather self-explanatory). Excuse please my poor English (I am autodidact only). -- Mgr. Antonin Vitek, CSc. Office: Main Library, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Narodni 3, CZ-11522 Praha 1 - Phone: +420(2)21403255, fax +420(2)24240611 Home: Kytin 127, CZ-25210 Mnisek p. B., Czech Republic Phone: +420(305)592865 - Coord.: 14.2194 deg E, 49.8488 deg N, 442 m ASL My satellite home page: http://www.lib.cas.cz/www/space.40/index.html ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Aug 24 2001 - 12:56:37 PDT