Schwabe holding company (part of Russian Technologies State Corporation also known as Rostech) won the tender for implementation of “National Heliophysics Center of Russian Academy of Sciences” project with a total cost of more than 17 billion rubles, press-service of Rostech reports.

The Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences finalized the tender for construction of National Heliophysics Center of Russian Academy of Sciences (NHC of RAS). Schwabe won the tender.

«Rostech will take part in implementation of one of the largest projects in the modern history of RAS, - CEO of Rostech, Sergey Chemezov, noted. – The establishment of National Heliophysics Center will stimulate the development of different areas of fundamental science. The corporation’s enterprises are able to implement this project because they have enough knowledge and state-of-the-art equipment».

«Thanks to Schwabe holding company comprising all the leading enterprises of Russia in the area of optics and the support of Rostech we have been able to win the tender for construction of the National Heliophysics Center”, - a counselor and the active member of RAS, Heliy Zherebtsov, believes. 

The new center will allow tracking the processes occurring in the near-Earth space, study the impact of solar wind on magnetosphere and ionosphere, track the changes of parameters of the upper atmosphere and study its structure and physics. It will also help find the solution of a fundamental problem – explaining the nature of the heating of solar corona, Rostech noted. 

«In the network of this project Schwabe will have to develop and manufacture optical and radio telescopes, radars and other unique astronomical instruments. The company will also construct necessary infrastructure», - the Holding’s CEO, Sergey Maksin, explained. 

The cost of only one set of design documentation will reach 865,6 million rubles. The enterprise should elaborate a project for construction of radioheliograph in the area of Badara (Tunkinsky District, Buryatia), a number of radars in Listvyanka (Irkutsk Region), solar coronagraph telescope in Mondi (Buryatia) and optical instruments in Tori (Buryatia). The total cost of this project is over 17 billion rubles. It should be completed in 2020. In particular, the new center will have the coronagraph telescope with a primary mirror diameter of 3-4 meters, multiwave radio helicograph, radars, a lidar with a primary mirror diameter of 2.6 meters, interferometers, spectrographs, photometers and control center, Rostech noted. 

Director of Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, associate member of RAS, Alexander Potekhin, believes that “this complex and important project may be implemented using joint efforts”. 

A coordination center will be established on the basis of Lytkarino Optical Glass Factory (part of Schwabe holding company) for the purpose of successful implementation of the “National Heliophysics Center of Russian Academy of Sciences” project. Together with Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences it will consider the possibilities for cooperation between Russian and foreign enterprises in the area of optics and radio astronomy.