The Cosmonautics day in Russia

 April 12 is  the Cosmonautics celebration day in Russia.  Exactly on this day in 1961, Yuri Gagarin on the ship “Vostok” became a space pioneer. Our country has always been proud of   the national cosmonautics success, not to mention the flight of the world’s first female cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova,  the spacewalk, and the longest space flight.

The progress of the space industry is provided by thousands of people, dozens of labor groups. The Institute of High Temperature Electrochemistry of UB RAS takes participation in the development of the space industry as well. Specifically, the employees of the laboratory of electrocrystallization and high temperature galvanotechnics study the technology of manufacturing products made of refractory metals – molybdenum, tungsten, rhenium, iridium, which are used in the newest spacecrafts created within the framework of the “Green Fuel” direction in cooperation with the enterprises of Roscosmos.

  The purpose of these studies is to develop the scientific and technical basis in order to create combustion chambers made of composite iridium-rhenium materials for corrective propulsion installations using the “green fuel”. They are intended for spacecrafts with better characteristics. Moreover, this installations provide improving the competitiveness of products and reduce energy and material costs in its production  using the method of high temperature galvanoplastics.The transition of small spacecrafts to “green” fuel is planned after 2021, the first tests have already  revealed its effectiveness. The operating temperatures of such fuel (2000–2200°C) are twice as high as those based on hydrazine (1000–1200°C), and the material of the combustion chamber, when used in space, must withstand such high temperatures for numerous heating – cooling cycles.