Space Stations, Mir

On June 1, 1970, the USSR launched the Soyuz-9 spacecraft as part of the initial preparation for a reorientation of the Soviet space program in the direction of establishing a permanent human presence in orbit. The Soyuz-9, manned by Andrian Nikolayev and Vitali Sevastyanov, orbited the earth for 18 days.

The purpose of the Soyuz flight was to break the record of days spent in orbit, previously set when the crew of the U.S.’s Gemini-7, Frank Borman and James Lovell orbited the earth for 14 days in 1965. While the USSR, like the U.S., had focused its efforts on lunar landings, it now sought to set up an earth-orbiting space station that would serve as a continuing research center and space science laboratory. It was hoped that the research results would aid the Russian economy as well.

Salyut-1, the first of seven satellite stations, was launched on April 19, 1971. It relied on four solar panels for charging its batteries. Salyut-7 was used from 1982 to 1986, and also employed solar panels. It was the ‘‘second generation’’ of the past Salyut models. In 1975, the U.S. and the USSR established the joint Apollo-Soyuz Project. This relationship established through the Apollo-Soyuz Project was the international precursor to the Mir Space Station.

The Mir Space Station was designed as a third generation of the Salyut series, utilizing most of the basic original constructs. The first component of the station complex, the Mir Core, was launched on February 20, 1986. The station complex was built in orbit over a period of ten years, with new modules added slowly over time.

The Mir Core contained the living quarters and control center. This first module originally had two solar panels, seven computers running off the Strela system, and six ports for the docking of up to two Soyuz crafts. This meant that the station could house up to six people for short periods of time.

The Mir Core had a mass of 20,100 kilograms, was 13.13 meters long, and had a diameter of 4.15 meters. Its three solar panels supplied up to 11 kilowatts of power. Because of the specifications of the Proton rocket used to launch it, the Mir Core was similar in structure to the earlier Salyut craft, and a Proton SL-13 launch vehicle sent the Mir Core into orbit. It contained sleeping compartments, a toilet with a door (the Salyuts had no door for privacy on the toilet), washing station, table, refrigerator, stove, treadmill, and stationary bicycle.

Cosmonauts on the space station had a fairly regimented working day. Everyone was required to bicycle 10 kilometers per day and ‘‘walk’’ (they were harnessed to the treadmill to add friction and stability) 5 kilometers per day to prevent muscle and general health deterioration.

In 1987, the Kvant-1 was launched and added to the space station as the second module. The Kvant- 1 was 8 meters long, with a pressurized volume of 40 cubic meters. It contained an astrophysics laboratory, but lacked its own solar panels. In December of 1989, the Kvant-2 module was added. The Kvant-2 had a pressurized volume of 60 cubic meters and two solar panels of 50 square meters total area, supplying 7 kilowatts of power.

This module, which had its own propulsion system, did not have a singular purpose like the Kvant-1’s astrophysics laboratory. The Kvant-2 added six gyrodynes, two tanks for the Rodnick system, two oxygen generators, a shower, a toilet, and myriad other scientific equipment. Kvant-3, or Kristall, provided even more research capabilities when the module was added in June of 1990. Kristall had no gyrodynes, but it did contain two Rodnick tanks, six Ni-Cd batteries, and newly designed solar panels. Kristall had a pressurized volume of 60 cubic meters and its two retractable solar panels, with a combined area of 72 square meters, provided 9 kilowatts of power. In 1995, the Spektr module was added to expand the complex, although this had originally been scheduled for 1991.

It had four solar panels and provided more living quarters, mainly used by American cosmonauts. The Spektr had a pressurized volume of 62 cubic meters and 126 square meters of solar panels, which could generate 16 kilowatts of power. In 1996, the final two modules were added, the Priroda module and the Docking module, providing the station complex with remote sensing instruments and a port for a shuttle, respectively.

The Priroda module had a pressurized volume of 66 cubic meters. Its earth remote-sensing instruments examined both environmental and ecological changes, such as the spread of industrial pollutants, the height of waves, temperature changes in the ocean, the structure of clouds, and even plankton concentrations.

The last crew left the Mir complex in June of 2000. Up until that point the station had been almost constantly occupied. In total, 43 cosmonauts lived in Mir and 59 others have visited the station for less than one month. On March 23, 2001 the Mir Space Station was brought back to earth and crashed into the South Pacific Ocean.

Mir proved man’s ability to live in space for extended periods of time, and provided extensive research in numerous fields of study. The Mir provided information on subjects ranging from new galaxies, patterns of ocean and wind direction, and the influence of gravity on biological processes.