Gazprom and Roscosmos propose to create a geotechnical monitoring system of the hazardous production facilities
On April 20, 2020, a meeting was held under the leadership of Vitaly Markelov, Deputy Chairman of the Management Committee of Gazprom PJSC, and Yury Urlichich, First Deputy General Director of Roscosmos State Corporation.
At the meeting attended by the representatives of federal executive authorities and large corporations, Gazprom and Roskosmos suggested to create a geotechnical monitoring system of the hazardous production facilities in Russia based on the satellite radar interferometry technology with the use of corner reflectors.
The technology has been developed by Gazprom Space Systems, patented and used on the Power of Siberia trunk pipeline, North Stavropol underground gas storage and on the most high-altitude trunk pipeline Dzuarikay-Tskhinval.
With the help of this technology, it is suggested to solve an important state task of hazardous production facilities monitoring throughout the country.
Due to the lack of a domestic constellation of radar spacecraft in near-earth orbit, data from foreign satellites are used to solve geotechnical monitoring tasks, which makes Russia dependent on space data from foreign operators.
At the same time, the Program for the Comprehensive Development of Space Information Technologies – Sphere, being developed by Roskosmos, provides for the creation of a multi-satellite radar space observation system, as well as the construction of the Spacecraft Assembly, Integration and Testing Facility (SC AIT Facility) in Shchelkovo, where these satellites can be produced.
The meeting supported the initiative of Gazprom and Roscosmos and noted that today there are all prerequisites for the development of a unified monitoring system of hazardous facilities throughout the country:
-
the geotechnical monitoring technology based on radar interferometry has been successfully deployed in Gazprom;
-
the development of a small spacecraft for a future orbital constellation of radar satellites is in progress in Gazprom AIT Facility;
-
the Spacecraft Assembly, Integration and Testing Facility is being built by Gazprom with the support of Roskosmos;
-
Gazprom Space Systems successfully operates the existing infrastructure of satellite control and space monitoring data processing.
The meeting recommended to create an interdepartmental working group under the Coordination Center of the Russian Government on the basis of the Analytical Center at the Government of the Russian Federation with the participation of Roscosmos representatives, involved federal executive authorities, energy and energy grid companies to work out the issues of creating a system for geotechnical monitoring of hazardous production facilities in the Russian Federation on the basis of radar observation domestic spacecraft, including resource allocation issues.