The conflict over the eROSITA orbital telescope, which the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin is trying to turn on without authorization, is gaining momentum. A number of Russian scientists opposed him. They claim that such actions on the Spektr-RG observatory without coordination with Germany can have disastrous consequences.
“Spectrum-RG” conflict continues
Attempts by the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, to gain unauthorized access to the eROSITA space telescope placed on the Spektr-RG apparatus received an unexpected continuation. Even scientists from the aggressor country opposed his initiative.
Spektr-RG is a Russian orbital observatory operating in the X-ray range. But its main tool, eROSITA, was developed by the Max Planck Institute. The Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation owns only an additional telescope. And with the beginning of the war, the Germans transferred their property to a safe mode.
Rogozin’s attempt to actually appropriate the telescope unexpectedly ran into resistance from the scientific consultant of Spektr-RG, Academician Rashid Syunyaev. He expressed concern that an attempt to include eROSITA without the participation of Europeans could end badly. In addition, in his opinion, such actions “do not contribute in any way to mutual understanding between people”.
Exchange of views
But Rogozin once again demonstrated firmness in his stupidity and continued to insist on trying to turn on the telescope. But this time the chairman of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Alexander Sergeev, answered him. According to him, an attempt to turn on the telescope without European partners may damage it. And right now, Russian astronomers are negotiating on this issue with their European colleagues.
Yes, the head of Roscosmos did not even agree with him. It seems that he has finally turned from the chairman of a civilian scientific agency into a supplier of ballistic missiles for the army. Rogozin urged scientists to act exclusively in the interests of national science.
After that, Lev Zelenyi, the head of the Russian Space Research Institute, made a statement about the significant negative consequences of unauthorized access attempts to eROSITA. On behalf of the scientists of his institution, he opposed this.
This statement is the most interesting, because the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences is exactly the institution that should process eROSITA data. And it is in the interests of its scientists that Rogozin seems to be acting. This means that he is lying about it banally.
Conflict in Russian Space
Of course, the words of Zelenyi did not make any impression on Rogozin. He has already stated that “it will take from two to four months to understand the algorithms and connect to the telescope without causing any mess”. Simply said, he proposes to carry out a hacker attack on eROSITA.
It is absolutely clear that for Rogozin to steal a German telescope is as natural as for some Russian soldier to steal a washing machine from a Ukrainian house. Perhaps he could even boast of “trophy” scientific data.
But Russian scientists are struggling to give out that they have nothing to do with all the horror that Russia is doing in Ukraine. They are “out of politics”. And such behavior is still unacceptable for them. In particular, the same Syunyaev said that he would like Europeans to be confident in the possibility of placing their scientific instruments on Russian spacecraft in 10-20-30 years.
Over the past few months, Rogozin has made every effort to sever all ties with the Western world in the space sphere. And this causes a conflict with the desires of Russian scientists who are interested in cooperation. But this time Rogozin seems to have decided to “cover up” them in dirty deeds.
The conflict is still ongoing and it is not known how it will end. Germany refuses to turn on the device, but does not stop negotiations with the Russians. It looks like this story will have a sequel.
According to www.nasaspaceflight.com
Follow us on Twitter to get the most interesting space news in time
https://twitter.com/ust_magazine
