BSU revealed details of experiment conducted by Vasilevskaya on ISS
Belarusian cosmonaut Marina Vasilevskaya conducted a scientific experiment on the International Space Station (ISS) during the space mission. It was developed by scientists from the A. N. Sevchenko Institute of Applied Physical Problems of Belarusian State University (BSU), sb.by reports with reference to the press service of the educational institution.
In total, the Belarusian's fourteen-day flight programme included seven work tasks: two social and educational experiments and five scientific research ones.
“One of them is a space experiment to explore the Earth's surface, to study the processes and consequences of natural and man-made phenomena and disasters. Scientists from the BSU and the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus were developing this plan for about a year. The main stages of the experiment included monitoring of agricultural and forest lands of the Belarusian Polesie, and the assessment of their condition and degree of pollution,” the press service noted.
It is noteworthy that this stage was performed using scientific equipment, also developed by the staff of the A. N. Sevchenko Institute of Applied Physical Problems of Belarusian State University. This complex consists of a video spectral system (VSS) and its SOVA guidance platform. The VSS is a survey equipment for remote sensing of the Earth from space by obtaining colour digital photo images of objects on the Earth's surface and other spectral information. This device allows to monitor the environmental situation in the observed territories and the state of the atmosphere above them, to detect man-made emissions from industrial enterprises, to monitor changes in vegetation cover in the vicinity of cities and the exclusion zone of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, etc. In addition, the tasks of the VSS include the detection of adverse anthropogenic impact on the environment and fire outbreaks in forests.
According to the BSU, the equipment is placed on the ISS portholes in order to observe the Earth's surface and take photos. It is for the automation of this process that the SOVA complex was developed, designed for remote control of VSS surveying devices without the operator's participation. So, the cosmonaut receives a file with a list of tasks from the Earth and uploads it to the control programme of the SOVA system, which itself calculates the trajectory of the ISS, the shooting time, and the angles of pointing at objects, turns the camera equipment, gives the command to shoot, and holds the object in view.
“During the experiment, Marina Vasilevskaya received data on the state and environmental situation in the Belarusian regions, which allows to build thematic maps of the captured territories in the near future, to update databases, to predict the consequences of natural, anthropogenic and man-made influences, to develop measures to eliminate and prevent them. Also, within the framework of the experiment, the cosmonaut tested scientific equipment for further adjustment of the parameters of the shooting devices and its guidance techniques using the SOVA complex,” the press service explained.
The university added that the results of the space experiment will be used by the relevant ministries of Belarus.
