ISS - Station Structure - Pressurised Modules - Scheduled Additional Modules

Scheduled Additional Modules

Nauka (Russian: Нау́ка; lit. Science), also known as the Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) or FGB-2, (Russian: Многофункциональный лабораторный модуль, or МЛМ), is the major Russian laboratory module. It is scheduled to arrive at the station in 2014 and will replace PIRS. Prior to the arrival of the Nauka, a progress robot spacecraft will dock with PIRS, depart with that module, and both will be discarded. It contains an additional set of life support systems and orientation control. Originally it would have routed power from the single Science-and-Power Platform, but that single module design changed over the first ten years of the ISS mission, and the two science modules which attach to Nauka via the Node Module each incorporate their own large solar arrays to power Russian science experiments in the ROS. Nauka's mission has changed over time. During the mid 1990s, it was intended as a backup for the FGB, and later as a universal docking module (UDM); its docking ports will be able to support automatic docking of both space craft, additional modules and fuel transfer. Nauka is a module in the 20 ton class and has its own engines. Smaller ISS modules (less than 10 tons) which dock to the ROS do not have engines of their own, but rely for propulsion upon the spaceship that brings them to the station. Zvezda and Zarya, like Nauka, weigh about 20 tons each and are launched by the larger Proton rockets rather than by Soyuz rockets. They are the only 3 modules on the ISS that contain engines, or navigation computers with star, sun and horizon sensors, to enable flight and station-keeping. Nauka will be separated from the ISS before de-orbit, together with support modules, and become the OPSEK space station.

Node Module (UM)/(NM) This 4-ton ball shaped module will support the docking of two scientific and power modules during the final stage of the station assembly and provide the Russian segment additional docking ports to receive Soyuz TMA (transportation modified anthropometric) and Progress M spacecraft. NM is to be incorporated into the ISS in 2014. It will be integrated with a special version of the Progress cargo ship and launched by a standard Soyuz rocket. The Progress would use its own propulsion and flight control system to deliver and dock the Node Module to the nadir (Earth-facing) docking port of the Nauka MLM/FGB-2 module. One port is equipped with an active hybrid docking port, which enables docking with the MLM module. The remaining five ports are passive hybrids, enabling docking of Soyuz and Progress vehicles, as well as heavier modules and future spacecraft with modified docking systems. However more importantly, the node module was conceived to serve as the only permanent element of the future Russian successor to the ISS, OPSEK. Equipped with six docking ports, the Node Module would serve as a single permanent core of the future station with all other modules coming and going as their life span and mission required. This would be a progression beyond the ISS and Russia's modular MIR space station, which are in turn more advanced than early monolithic first generation stations such as Skylab, and early Salyut and Almaz stations.

Science Power Modules 1 & 2 (NEM-1, NEM-2) (Russian: Научно-Энергетический Модуль-1 и -2)