For two months, space dosimetry telescope TRITEL has been in continuous operation on board the International Space Station. Passive detectors of the eleventh increment of ESA’s DOSIS-3D were retrieved two days ago and the new set is waiting for delivery to the ISS tomorrow!
In our news on the 28th July, 2017, we reported that Soyuz MS-05 was ready for the launch with the detectors of the 11th increment of the DOSIS-3D on board, including the dosimeter package prepared by our colleagues. Soyuz MS-05 was successfully launched; and, after four and a half months of exposure, the DOSIS-3D detectors were returned with the very same Soyuz spacecraft on the 14th of December 2017. If everything will be going as planned, three days later, the next set of detectors (12th increment) will be delivered to the ISS on board Soyuz MS-07.
We are also happy to report that the new Interface Unit of the TRITEL system on board the Russian Segment of the ISS has been in operation since the 19th of October 2017. Although the delayed launch of the Progress MS-07 cargo in October caused some worry, as the delivery of the first flight model back in 2015 failed because the cargo, at that time, did not reach final orbit, this time the mission was successful. Progress MS-07 docked to the ISS on the 16th October, two days after launch. The new Interface Unit was connected to the on-board TRITEL system and switched on on the 19th October 2017 by cosmonaut Sergey Nikolayevich Ryazansky. The peculiarity of the story is that cosmonaut Ryazansky was the last one who performed operations on the TRITEL system back in 2013.
Attila Hirn
Head of MTA EK SVL Space Dosimetry Research Group
Maintenance of the TRITEL system in the Russian segment of the International Space Station is funded by the Government of Hungary, contract number IKF/694/2017-NFM_SZERZ.