© flickr.com/ DonkeyHotey
TOMSK, Oct 4 – RIA Tomsk. Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) and Tomsk Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science SB RAS (ISPMS SB RAS) will act as initiators of the project on creation of group of small spacecrafts for breakthrough technologies in the sphere of agriculture which is planned to start in 2017, TASS reports.
It is specified that along with TPU and ISPMS SB RAS as initiators of
the project will act the technological platform "Easy and Reliable
Designs", the organizations and enterprises of the Ministry of Education
and Science of the Russian Federation, "Roskosmos", Federal Agency
for Scientific Organizations and agricultural enterprises.
"It is about sounding of certain sites of agricultural grounds –
the monitoring, about how the condition of the soil, biological and
environmental conditions affects a harvest. There is a preparation, the project
can start in 2017", – the agency quotes the adviser to the president of
RSC "Energia" (enters Roskosmos) Alexander Chernyavsky.
© РИА Томск. Павел Стефанский
With reference to the director of ISPMS Sergey Psakhie it is reported
that use of small satellites for domestic agro-industrial complex will allow it
to solve problems of competitiveness in the world food market. Now the
experimental platform of the project is defined. "Perhaps, it will be in
the European part of Russia, or, for example, Altai Krai in Siberia", –
told Psakhie to the agency.
It is noted that the project can become continuation of space launch of
minisatellites groups in 2016-2018, on which engineers and scientists work
options of interaction between small spacecrafts. To further international
development of the project it is planned to attract the program of the European
Union "Horizon 2020" directed to support of researches and
innovations.
Earlier it was reported that Tomsk higher education institutions and
leading enterprises of space branch of Russia agreed about creation of a
cluster and will be engaged in creation of "CubeSat" groups – tiny
artificial Earth satellites used for a research of space and other tasks. In
April the first device from the Russian group of nanosatellites was delivered
to the International Space Station - the TPU nanosatellite.