The Russian Space Agency has indicated its intention to confiscate a German telescope placed on a Russian-built spacecraft.
The eROSITA telescope’s German developer, the Max Planck Institute, activated the instrument’s sleep mode in February in response to Russia’s aggressive invasion of Ukraine. An X-ray telescope is the major piece of equipment on the joint Russian-German Spektr-RG mission, launched into space in July 2019. In addition to eROSITA, the spacecraft is equipped with the Russian ART-XC X-ray telescope.
However, according to Deutsche Welle, Russia will relaunch eROSITA without the approval of the Max Planck Institute. Dmitry Rogozin, the chairman of Roscosmos and a staunch backer of Putin, stated his aims in a recent televised interview.
“I have been instructed to begin work on restoring the operation of the German telescope in the Spektr-RG system so that it will work in tandem with the Russian telescope,” said Rogozin.
“Despite Germany’s demand to close one of the two telescopes at Spektr-RG, Russian specialists insist on continuing its work. Roscosmos will make the relevant decisions in the near future.”
“They – the people who made the decision to close the telescope – have no moral right to stop this search for humanity just because their pro-fascist views are close to our enemies,” he added.
Even Russian scientists believe that it is a terrible plan.
Lev Zeleny, scientific director of the Russian Academy of Science’s Space Research Institute, spoke out against the decision to restart eROSITA. “Our institute, all scientists, strongly object to this proposal.”
The objection was made “for political and technical reasons,” Zelini said, adding that it was unclear whether Russian astronomers would figure out how to use eROSITA or whether outside journals would continue to publish any scientific findings that might result from the move.
Rashid Sunyaev, the Spektr-RG project’s scientific supervisor, is concerned that Russian astronomers may accidentally harm Germany’s telescope, according to a report.
“This is a great device, absolutely world-class, and it really gave a lot of data,” said Sunyaev.
“We all dream of seeing it return to active work. But it is an amazingly complex device, and if we decide to ignore agreements with partners and turn it on ourselves, it can simply be destroyed,” said Sunyaev.
Russia’s conflict in Ukraine has already wreaked havoc on various fronts, including science. It will take years, if not decades, to repair these broken links. The situation has only worsened due to Rogozin’s space decision-jack telescope. Therefore, Russia should pause and reconsider its plan.
