The creators of satellites in Russia complained about the rise in price of xenon
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Domestic developers of satellites complained about the shortage and rise in price of xenon. This state of affairs strongly influences spacecraft programs. Gennady Abramenkov, Director of the Kaliningrad Experimental Design Bureau (OKB) Fakel, stated this in an interview with journalists.
According to him, the increase in the cost of xenon affects both the economics of the production of individual devices, and the entire space constellation as a whole.
“There is a significant shortage, in principle, of xenon on the market, that is, there is no required volume for refueling,” Abramenkov said.
Roskosmos took up the search for an alternative to xenon a year ago. “We are now planning to study the use of working bodies alternative to xenon, in the near future they are not in demand on board our spacecraft,” Vladimir Koshlakov, general director of the Keldysh research center, told TASS reporters in 2021.
According to him, xenon is used in space because its cost in orbit is very close to the cost of a kilogram of conditional “air” (taking into account the cost of launching this kilogram into orbit). Also, xenon is very well stored for a long time.
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