http://englishrussia.com/2011/09/28/the-crimean-cosmos/#more-69247
Dish telescope farm


The Crimean Cosmos
Posted on September 28, 2011 by Eric

In the Crimean region you will find many objects that were constructed 
for the Soviet Space program.

Antennas for the first object of this arsenal are noticeable from 
afar. These are gigantic radiolocators in an area known as
Zaozernoye, not far from Evpatoria. They are collectively 
known as the "Deep Space Communication Center."

Just as in the Soviet times, the existence of these objects 
are not secret to date. But the history of its creation, 
equipments and its tasks were for obvious reasons not written 
by the press.

In the mid 1950's the Soviet Union was preparing for space 
exploration. All over the country ground monitoring centers 
and communication facilities were created. And due to its 
geographical location the Crimea was a convenient site for 
the creation of these facilities. On the western peninsula 
are clear, free from relief protrusions at the horizon, a 
greater number of sunny days in the year, rare severe changes 
in temperature are some of the factors that influenced the 
choice of this area.

The first object to be created was the “M-V center” whose 
construction began in March 1960. Then Evpratoria became 
the first transmission and recieving center – near the 
villages of  Vitino and Zaozernoye. Its basis was a 
radiotechnical super-range radio the ADU-1000 “Pluto”. It 
consisted of three high power antenna systems- one 
transmitter and two receivers. Each of them had 8 
parabolic mirrors with a diameter of 16meters. All of 
the rotating parts of the antenna weigh about 1.5 tons.

Signals from the antennas were summed up to provide a 
chart of their focus and their high effectivity area 
of reception which is about 800 sq. ft. for each antenna. 
To transmit signals to a spacecraft the relay system 
was used. The relay system operated in the range of 
39cm with a mazimum capacity of 80 kilowatts, which 
made it possible to enable radio communication to a 
range of up to 300 million kilometers. Such was 
non-existent in any other part of the world.

In 1978 a third site was added to Molochniy. Here, 
have one of the largest antennas in the world - the 
PT-70.The height of the  Radio Astronomy Telescope 
is 86.36 meters, and the diameter of the mirror 
antennas is  70 meters - almost the size of a 
football field! This antenna is steerable, and the 
weight of its moving parts far more than five 
thousand tons. Pointing accuracy of the  swinger 
is 10 arc seconds, or less than a millimeter. The 
transmitter power is up to 200 kilowatts.

In 1996, on the decree of the President of 
Ukraine at the Centre for Deep Space Communication 
Center, a National Office and the Testing of Space
Vehicles (NCSVCT) was  designed to control 
spacecraft in the national and international 
space programs. In July of 1999 and 2003 using 
the RT-70 sent letters to extraterrestrial 
civilizations (“Cosmic call”).

The legacy of the Soviet Ukraine has got a 
number of unique military facilities, which 
are the Russian armed forces simply did not 
need.One of the most interesting “artifacts” 
of the Soviet military-industrial complex, no 
doubt, is the Polygon NITKA, located on the 
airfield Novofedorovka, near the town of Saki 
in the Crimea. Abbreviation NITKA stands for 
“Simulator for Research and testing of naval 
aircraft .”

Often this polygon is reffered to as an 
underground aircraft carrier. Ukraine, not 
having their own aircraft carriers, annually 
rents it to Russian pilots of carrier-based 
aircraft to practice takeoffs and landings.

The complex was built in the early 80s  for 
practicing and improving technological solutions, 
which were laid in the construction of aircraft 
carriers and naval aircraft which was a new 
idea at the time. And of course, to teach 
pilots take off and land on the deck of an 
aircraft carrier. The first takeoff of the 
Su-27 from the ramp was held in August 1982.

According to the algorithm of pilot training 
carrier-based aircraft,land the plane before 
on deck of the ship, the pilots need to work 
out the landing on the ground simulator. Russia’s 
only aircraft carrier “Admiral Kuznetsov” is 
based in Severomorsk Murmansk region,from there 
the pilots fly to train at the NITKA. This 
usually occurs in late summer.

The NITKA complex simulates the deck of a  
cruiser-carrier.The basic equipment of the 
simulator is underground. It is a  Ground 
three-deck ’ship’, equipped with powerful 
steam power and electrohydraulic devices, 
including a landing deck, throwing device 
(similar to a catapult), steam power plants, 
arrester system (which is used to brake the 
aircraft during its landing on the deck of 
an aircraft carrier), trampoline, delaying 
device and a warning network.

Takeoff and landing unit  of the complex 
can sway, simulating the movement of the 
sea like on a real aircraft carrier. The 
length of the runway is 290 m. All the 
hardware, including ramps, weigh 12 000 
tonnes. In order for the catapult (which 
consists of two cylinders, with an inner 
diameter of 500 mm and a length of about 
90 meters) to be able to disperse within 
a few seconds before the aircraft takes-off 
at a  speed of 250-280km / h, it was 
required to accumulate a lot of steam, 
and then instantly send it through 
pipelines using a particular law of  
”increase” under the pistons of the 
catapult. In those years, this had never 
been done. To address this and other 
similar design tasks many innovative 
and unique ideas and inventions have 
been used .

The uniqueness of NITKA is  in the fact 
that the landfill was built taking into 
account the various prospective projects 
of the Soviet aircraft carrier. On some, 
aircraft had to shoot into the sky, like 
a slingshot, or using catapult steam. On 
the other hand, they soared into the air 
with a springboard .Such complexes are in 
the United States and Spain. But NITKA is 
considered to be the biggest in the world. 
Maintenance of the complex needs about 100 
military specialists and it is still in 
working condition.

Over 40 years ago in the Soviet Union had signed a program of the  
development of the Moon. One of its tasks was to submit to the 
surface of the moon a UAV, called “moonwalker”. Management was 
expected to train a special crew for this task on earth. For this 
purpose it was necessary to carry out  ground testing of the 
apparatus, in which the pilots of the “Lunokhod” would be able 
to gain practical skills in the management of this unusual vehicle. 
Testing ground for ”Lunokhod” was selected in the territory 
V/H 14 109, located in a village known as Shkolnoye near Simferopol.

Several years ago, Shkolnoye was a top-secret object with the 
mailing address Simferopol-28. Hence, it has  controlled  the 
first artificial satellites and other automatic stations that 
are on their way to Mars, Venus, and the Moon.Shkolnoye in Soviet 
times, did not officially exist. In the narrow circles of the 
military ”space forces”, it was known as the Single Point 
Measurement Science number 10.

On November 17, 1970 ”Lunokhod-1? was sent to the moon well over 
400 000 km. Management of  the device was done from Shkolnoe with 
a huge antenna,or  ”dish”. All work on the management of the 
Lunokhod ledcrew, which included the commander, driver, navigator, 
flight engineer, the operator of the  pencil beam antenna. The 
commander took over the general management of the work. Rover 
driver was responsible for issuing commands to the motion, carried 
out with remote control, which had levers. He was the navigator. 
He was responsible for planning the course of his pad.

The car performed well according to the team, but all changes 
in the motion of the device on the moon took place with the 
amendment to the delay required for the signal to the moon and 
back, which ranged from 10 to 24 seconds. Therefore, the lunar 
driver had to anticipate emergency situations, to predict and 
assess the situation for 10 – 12 meters away to compute the 
size of a lunar obstacle. Any wrong considerations could have  
ruined the expensive unique apparatus. Extensive practical 
experience of land-based training with an experimental model
”Lunokhod” allowed the crew to cope with all the difficulties 
of moving vehicle on the lunar surface.

Space scientists properly executed research program on the 
moon for almost 11 months. In total, ”Lunokhod-1? covered 
the distance of  10 540 meters and  gave the earth more than 
25 thousand photographs and over 200 panoramas of the lunar 
surface.On January 16, 1973 Lunokhod -2 was sent to the moon. 
Again, its management was carried out from Shkolnoye.

At the checkpoint. Today, the once most powerful set of 
space-based communication remains only a huge dish antenna. 
All other buildings and structures were destroyed and 
actively dealt with by organized groups of ”hunters of metal”.


Location: the Crimea

via frantsouzov