Soyuz-Laptop

## Soyuz-LTP

Soyuz LTP-2 in Low Earth Orbit over Antarctica during Expedition 13 in December 1982

### Country of origin

United States (designs supplied by Roscosmos of Russia)

### Applications

Primarily transporting astronauts to and from orbital space stations; can also be used for deep space missions.

## Specifications

### Design life

4 years docked to a station, 15 days during independent flight

### Dimensions

3.5 m width, 12.4 m long, 17 m span with solar panels deployed

## Related spacecraft

### Derived from

Soyuz-Classic, Soyuz-2

Official commemorative patch

The **Soyuz-Laptop (LTP)** (Russian: **Союз Ноутбук**) is the latest generation of Soyuz spacecraft. As the name implies, it's fitted with new state-of-the-art laptops for every kerbal astronaut inside. An evolution of the Soyuz-Classic and Soyuz-2 spacecraft, it boasts new navigation technology, stowage bags and safety systems.

It's used primarily by the European Space Agency to send up kerbals to and from the Skylab Workshop Station and the International Space Station in Low Earth Orbit.

## Design

The Soyuz Laptop (like all previous models) contains three main parts:

* A cylindrical passenger module (which contains all the crew, cargo and food bags, and can be controlled independently during reentry)
* A small forward control module
* A service module at the back containing the solar panels, battery, fuel cells, avionics and more importantly the propulsion system

The first two portions are habitable living space for up to 18 kerbals. The cylindrical passenger module section can safely support 17 kerbals from launch to reentry, while the control module can support an extra kerbal for launch and station docking only.

### Control Module

The forward part of the spacecraft is the control module. It houses the control seat and other equipment that will not be needed for return to Earth, so it blows up during reentry. A hatch made from heat resistant tungsten sheets separates this module from the passenger module.

The control module functions as the main (and ideal) launch control, rendezvous and docking compartment where a single kerbal can easily manage via numerous display monitors and joysticks. The main autopilot button is located here. In case of a rare malfunction or glitch, there are backup control seats and monitors located in the main passenger module front and rear (which are normally used during reentry after separation) where up to 4 kerbal astronauts can use and fly the ship. The main spacecraft docking port is located at the top, which can be easily swapped with a Common Berthing Mechanism or APAS port in the Vehicle Assembly Building, depending on the expedition or mission.

Outside this module is the rendezvous and docking antennae, cameras and docking lights, used for receiving signals from the target space station and satellite positioning.

### Passenger module

The passenger module is the main habitable component of the spacecraft. It has 17 very comfortable seats for the astronauts, each with their own storage bags overhead and around, and most of all they each have a small tray table that holds a laptop, so that the crew can watch videos, play games, read e-books and more, to keep them occupied for the duration of the mission or the station rendezvous process.

The module is cylindrical in shape and has an outer cladding of tungsten sheets to shield the intense heat of reentry, along with an inner hull of ceramic blanket, a structural hull of titanium, and an inner lining of brown-gray felt fabric for interior aesthetics. Like a plane's cabin, it has windows made from heat resistant bulletproof glass. Below deck is the oxygen tanks, water storage, food containers, control gyroscopes and life support system.

This component separates from the service module before reentry, and with its on-board control console, this enables it to be steered until touchdown. A set of parachutes deploy after reentry while the spacecraft is still around 7 km above the ground.

### Service module

The service module contains the propulsion engines, which burn hypergolic fuels (N2O4 and UDMH), and can give the vehicle around 940 m/s ∆*v.*

It has two Salyut-era solar panels, which provide 1500 watts each; along with nickel-cadmium batteries and fuel cells for electrical storage when orbiting in the night side of the Earth. The service module also has spare oxygen and water tanks for the crew in case of a need to stay in orbit for longer than 10 days.

## Operation and cost

The Soyuz-Laptop is launched on a special custom-variant of the Soyuz-FD launcher with four re-usable Solid Rocket Boosters, as the main design has insufficient payload capacity to Low Earth Orbit. For this reason, and among other factors, the Soyuz-Laptop is expensive to launch (cost per passenger), compared to the Space Shuttle orbiter. It costs $384 million per launch, and per passenger is $22.6 million. The space shuttle on the other-hand costs $437 million per launch, where it is $10.1 million per seat (on the standard orbiters with crew capacities maximum 43); and for the largest orbiter in the fleet (*Olympus -* which costs $610 million per launch and a capacity of 84), it is $7.2 million per seat.

The Soyuz-LTP is best practically used for very long duration missions (lasting no shorter than 240 days docked to a space station), and for deep space missions (where the shuttle cannot travel, or stay in space for longer than 35 days).

## Gallery

Soyuz LTP-02 being stacked onto the Soyuz rocket in the Vehicle Assembly Building for Expedition 13Inteior of the Soyuz-LTP passenger module, showing the bags, laptops and the front display screensRocket launch cameraKerbal engineer astronauts enjoying themselves during the test flight of the spacecraft, November 1982View of the laptops and overhead cargo bagsWindow seat, a very cozy experienceThe Expedition 13 Soyuz LTP-02 approaching the Skylab Workshop Station, viewed from the station's north cupolaZoom view of the whole Skylab Workshop Station with the Expedition 13 Soyuz-Laptop docked to the US Odyssey laboratory