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the more recent soyuz crews have been

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taking six hour trips um to the

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international space station this one's

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taking two days and that's to test out

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the variety of upgrades that have been

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added to the newly modified soyuz

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vehicle this includes thrusters debris

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shielding power and digital video

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as well as many other things

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but what makes this soyuz so different

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from uh other previous models

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a few

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sat down with mark bowman the chief

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engineer of the soyuz branch of the

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astronaut office here at the johnson

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space center to find out and he asked

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bowman to begin by explaining the goals

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of the russian designers had in mind

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when they set out to improve this

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they stated two major reasons for

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performing the modifications the first

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is to increase the reliability of the

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spacecraft and the second is to enhance

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performance and technical specifications

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there were a lot of changes the first is

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a structural change they added

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additional shielding for micro meteorite

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and orbital debris to the habitation

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module and the intent of this is to

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increase what we in space parlance call

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the probability of non-penetration in

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other words to reduce the chance that a

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micro meteorite or some piece of orbital

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debris would actually punch a hole

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through the spacecraft

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the second change is a modification to

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the electrical power system

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to increase the the reserves of power

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the first thing they did was to add a

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fifth battery assembly to the spacecraft

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each battery assembly consists of a

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prime battery and a backup battery so by

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adding a fifth unit that's a 20 increase

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in the energy storage capacity on the

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spacecraft and to provide the power that

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go into those batteries there are solar

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arrays on the spacecraft and they added

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some additional surface area of the

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photoelectric cells on the solar arrays

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which increased surface area by a little

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over a square meter of area and they

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used additional or modern photoelectric

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cells on those arrays to increase the

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efficiency by about two percent so that

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helps to increase the power reserves on

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the spacecraft

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in addition they change the telemetry

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system the radio system that sends

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telemetry down to the ground and

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receives commands from the ground in the

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spacecraft to go to a much more modern

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system what they're calling an

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integrated

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command and telemetry system this makes

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use of the new russian looch satellites

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which are analogous to our tracking and

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data relay satellites and will greatly

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increase the amount of coverage that the

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communications systems on the spacecraft

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so ground controllers would be able to

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send commands as you know now they can

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only command to the spacecraft for about

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a maximum of 20 minutes per orbit and

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that's when they happen to be in an

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orbit that goes over a russian ground

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station

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once this system is fully up and running

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and tested they'll be able to send

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commands for at least 45 percent to

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perhaps 80 or 90 percent of an orbital

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coverage

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as also as part of that yakitaya system

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they've transitioned to an s-band system

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they removed the old antennas that

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supported the the old radio system and

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replaced those with four

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omni-directional antennas that provide

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access to the spacecraft from all of the

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russian ground sites and additionally

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they added a phased array antenna that

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will point at the looch satellites which

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are in geosynchronous orbit so phase

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deray antenna allows them to point more

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precisely to

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get communication with those satellites

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they also improve the communication

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system the vhf communications radios in

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the descent module which the crew

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members used for voice communications

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with the ground um the yakata system

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includes a backup capability that will

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eventually enable them to have ground

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voice command voice communications

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in addition to vhf but that's not

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functional yet on this first spacecraft

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but the improvements to the vhf radios

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in the descent module provide provide a

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lot of additional safety to the crew

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members because they've added a global

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positioning satellite receiver on the

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hatch of the spacecraft so once the

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parachutes have opened during re-entry

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they start taking data from a gps which

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tells the spacecraft where it's located

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then the radio system also has a new

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transponder that sends then that

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location to

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the coast bar and sarsat rescue

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satellite systems it's a universal

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system that's used all over the world

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and this will allow the search and

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rescue crews to quickly locate a

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spacecraft in the event say of bad

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weather or a ballistic entry so it

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greatly improves the the reliability the

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other thing they did was change the

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coors rendezvous radar system which has

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been used for many years on the soyuz

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the new coors includes much upgraded

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avionics modernized electronic systems

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new antennas they have actually had

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reduced the the antenna footprint on the

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spacecraft as you know

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you've seen the the iconic photo looking

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out of the blister of the soyuz as they

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approach the the iss and you can see an

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antenna that's rotating in the field of

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view that is a coors antenna that is no

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longer needed it was very complicated

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mechanically and also it had to be

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retracted prior to docking with the

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space station so that it didn't come in

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contact with station structure the new

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coors allows them to put a small phased

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array antenna on a fixed bracket that

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doesn't have to be retracted it weighs

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less uses less power it's much less

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complicated also you might recollect a

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boom on the aft end of the spacecraft

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that had two coors antennas that boom

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has been removed and the antenna has

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been placed on fixed locations on the

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spacecraft body so that simplifies the

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spacecraft and reduces weight all in all

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the the coors modifications

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reduced the weight of the the cool

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system by about 25 kilograms and takes

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about 30 less volume and it uses about

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24 less power so plus is all the way

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around

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another thing that they did to this

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spacecraft is change the

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approach and attitude control thrusters

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which in russian we call the depeo

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thrusters that are used to maneuver the

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spacecraft and change its orientation

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the previous depaol thrusters there were

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28 of them 16 of them were large

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thrusters of about 13 kilograms of

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thrust and 12 of them were small

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thrusters about 3 kilograms in thrust

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the new configuration uses 28 all large

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thrusters and it provides a lot of

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redundancy now by by

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uh 14 pairs of thrusters around the

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spacecraft so that there's a redundant

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thruster for every other thruster and

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they're operated on separate completely

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redundant manifolds for propellant so if

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one thruster fails the other thruster

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immediately in its pair immediately

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picks up and assumes control you recall

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in december when the 45 soyuz approached

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and they had a false indication of a

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thruster failing that required the crew

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members to manually take over and dock

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to the space station with the new

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thruster configuration that would not

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have been a problem a threat failure of

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one thruster just transitions to the

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thruster on the backup manifold

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the other advantage of the new thruster

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configuration is that on the aft end of

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the spacecraft there are eight thrusters

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instead of four so if during say a

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deorbit burn for example if the main

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engine were to fail now you have four

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large thrusters to be able to perform

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your deorbit burn instead of only four

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and so that provides additional level of

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redundancy as well

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how have all these modifications been

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tested mark

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well the testing has been comprehensive

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and extensive most or many of the

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modifications have already flown

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on previous versions of the soyuz even

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though they were tmam vehicles they one

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by one implemented some of the

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modifications they tested the redundant

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drive motors on the docking system they

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tested the core system so they've been

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tested on both progress and soyuz

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vehicles and then finally the last two

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progresses 62.63p

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have included all of the modifications

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comprehensively so that they'll have two

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positive flights and positive test

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results on progress vehicles giving them

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great confidence that the soyuz will be

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fine

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this launch will send kate rubins and

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her crewmates on a deliberate two-day

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rendezvous instead of the more common

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four-orbit six-hour rendezvous that

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we've become accustomed to

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why

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well the main reason for going to a 34

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orbit rendezvous on this flight is to

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provide additional time to test the new

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systems going to 34 orbit gives them

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lots of time to test the new unified or

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integrated command and telemetry system

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it gives them a chance to do some flying

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quality assessments with the new

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thruster configuration and it gives them

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a chance to test communications using

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the new luch satellites as well as the