Soviet/Russian space station that operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001
Mir
|
Mir
insignia
|
|
COSPAR ID
| 1986-017A
|
---|
SATCAT
no.
| 16609
|
---|
Call sign
| Mir
|
---|
Crew
| 3
|
---|
Launch
| 20 February 1986 ? 23 April 1996
|
---|
Launch pad
| LC-200/39
, and
LC-81/23
,
Baikonur Cosmodrome
Launch Complex 39A
,
Kennedy Space Center
|
---|
Reentry
| 23 March 2001
05:59
UTC
|
---|
Mass
| 129,700 kg
(285,940
lb
)
|
---|
Length
| 19 m (62.3 ft)
from core module to
Kvant
-1
|
---|
Width
| 31 m (101.7 ft)
from
Priroda
to docking module
|
---|
Height
| 27.5 m (90.2 ft)
from
Kvant
-2 to
Spektr
|
---|
Pressurised
volume
| 350 m
3
|
---|
Atmospheric pressure
| c. 101.3
kPa
(29.91
inHg
, 1
atm
)
|
---|
Periapsis altitude
| 354 km (189
nmi
)
AMSL
|
---|
Apoapsis altitude
| 374 km (216 nmi) AMSL
|
---|
Orbital inclination
| 51.6
degrees
|
---|
Orbital speed
| 7.7 km/s
(27,700 km/h, 17,200 mph)
|
---|
Orbital period
| 91.9 minutes
|
---|
Orbits per day
| 15.7
|
---|
Days in orbit
| 5,511 (15 years and 32 days)
|
---|
Days occupied
| 4,592
|
---|
No.
of orbits
| 86,331
|
---|
Statistics as of 23 March 2001
(unless noted otherwise)
References:
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[
unreliable source?
]
[11]
[
unreliable source?
]
[12]
|
|
Station elements as of May 1996
|
|
Mir
(
Russian
:
Мир
,
IPA:
[?m?ir]
;
lit.
'
peace
'
or
'
world
'
) was a
space station
that operated in
low Earth orbit
from 1986 to 2001, operated by the
Soviet Union
and later by
Russia
.
Mir
was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to 1996. It had a greater mass than any previous
spacecraft
. At the time it was the largest
artificial satellite
in orbit, succeeded by the
International Space Station
(ISS) after
Mir
's
orbit decayed
. The station served as a
microgravity
research
laboratory
in which crews conducted
experiments
in
biology
,
human biology
,
physics
,
astronomy
,
meteorology
, and spacecraft systems with a goal of developing technologies required for permanent occupation of
space
.
Mir
was the first continuously inhabited long-term research station in orbit and held the record for the longest continuous
human presence in space
at 3,644 days, until it was surpassed by the ISS on 23 October 2010.
[13]
It holds the record for the longest single human spaceflight, with
Valeri Polyakov
spending 437 days and 18 hours on the station between 1994 and 1995.
Mir
was occupied for a total of twelve and a half years out of its fifteen-year lifespan, having the capacity to support a resident crew of three, or larger crews for short visits.
Following the success of the
Salyut programme
,
Mir
represented the next stage in the Soviet Union's space station programme. The first module of the station, known as the
core module
or base block, was launched in 1986 and followed by six further modules.
Proton
rockets
were used to launch all of its components except for the
docking module
, which was installed by US
Space Shuttle
mission
STS-74
in 1995. When complete, the station consisted of seven pressurised modules and several unpressurised components. Power was provided by several
photovoltaic arrays
[
broken anchor
]
attached directly to the modules. The station was
maintained at an orbit
between 296 km (184 mi) and 421 km (262 mi) altitude and travelled at an average speed of 27,700 km/h (17,200 mph), completing 15.7 orbits per day.
[6]
[
page needed
]
[7]
[
page needed
]
[8]
The station was launched as part of the Soviet Union's
crewed spaceflight programme
effort to maintain a long-term research outpost in space, and following the collapse of the USSR, was operated by the new
Russian Federal Space Agency
(RKA). As a result, most of the station's occupants were Soviet; through international collaborations such as the
Interkosmos
,
Euromir
and
Shuttle?
Mir
programmes, the station was made accessible to space travellers from several Asian, European and North American nations.
Mir
was deorbited
in March 2001 after funding was cut off. The cost of the
Mir
programme was estimated by former RKA General Director
Yuri Koptev
in 2001 as $4.2 billion over its lifetime (including development, assembly and orbital operation).
[14]
Origins
[
edit
]
Mir
was authorised by a 17 February 1976 decree, to design an improved model of the
Salyut
DOS-17K space stations. Four Salyut space stations had been launched since 1971, with three more being launched during
Mir'
s development. It was planned that the station's core module (
DOS-7
and the backup
DOS-8
) would be equipped with a total of four docking ports; two at either end of the station as with the Salyut stations, and an additional two ports on either side of a docking sphere at the front of the station to enable further modules to expand the station's capabilities. By August 1978, this had evolved to the final configuration of one aft port and five ports in a spherical compartment at the forward end of the station.
[15]
[
failed verification
]
[
unreliable source?
]
It was originally planned that the ports would connect to 7.5-tonne (8.3-short-ton) modules derived from the
Soyuz spacecraft
. These modules would have used a Soyuz propulsion module, as in Soyuz and
Progress
, and the descent and orbital modules would have been replaced with a long laboratory module.
[15]
Following a February 1979 governmental resolution, the programme was consolidated with
Vladimir Chelomei
's crewed
Almaz
military space station programme. The docking ports were reinforced to accommodate 20-tonne (22-short-ton) space station modules based on the
TKS spacecraft
.
NPO Energia
was responsible for the overall space station, with work subcontracted to
KB Salyut
, due to ongoing work on the
Energia
rocket
and
Salyut 7
,
Soyuz-T
, and
Progress spacecraft
. KB Salyut began work in 1979, and drawings were released in 1982 and 1983. New systems incorporated into the station included the Salyut 5B digital flight control computer and gyrodyne flywheels (taken from Almaz),
Kurs automatic rendezvous system
,
Luch
satellite
communications system,
Elektron
oxygen generators, and
Vozdukh
carbon dioxide scrubbers
.
[15]
[
failed verification
]
[
unreliable source?
]
By early 1984, work on
Mir
had halted while all resources were being put into the
Buran programme
in order to prepare the
Buran
spacecraft
for flight testing. Funding resumed in early 1984 when
Valentin Glushko
was ordered by the
Central Committee
's Secretary for Space and Defence to orbit
Mir
by early 1986, in time for the
27th Communist Party Congress
.
[15]
[
failed verification
]
[
unreliable source?
]
It was clear that the planned processing flow could not be followed and still meet the 1986 launch date. It was decided on
Cosmonaut's Day
(12 April) 1985 to ship the flight model of the
base block
to the
Baikonur Cosmodrome
and conduct the systems testing and integration there. The module arrived at the launch site on 6 May, with 1100 of 2500 cables requiring rework based on the results of tests to the ground test model at
Khrunichev
. In October, the base block was rolled outside its
cleanroom
to carry out communications tests. The first launch attempt on 16 February 1986 was scrubbed when the spacecraft communications failed, but the second launch attempt, on 19 February 1986 at 21:28:23 UTC, was successful, meeting the political deadline.
[15]
[
failed verification
]
[
unreliable source?
]
Station structure
[
edit
]
Assembly
[
edit
]
The orbital assembly of
Mir
began on 19 February 1986 with the launch of the
Proton-K
rocket. Four of the six modules which were later added (
Kvant
-2
in 1989,
Kristall
in 1990,
Spektr
in 1995 and
Priroda
in 1996) followed the same sequence to be added to the main
Mir
complex. Firstly, the module would be launched independently on its own Proton-K and chase the station automatically. It would then dock to the forward docking port on the core module's docking node, then extend its
Lyappa arm
to mate with a fixture on the node's exterior. The arm would then lift the module away from the forward docking port and rotate it on to the radial port where it was to mate, before lowering it to dock. The node was equipped with only two
Konus
drogues, which were required for dockings. This meant that, prior to the arrival of each new module, the node would have to be depressurised to allow spacewalking cosmonauts to manually relocate the drogue to the next port to be occupied.
[6]
[
page needed
]
[17]
[
page needed
]
The other two expansion modules,
Kvant
-1
in 1987 and the
docking module
in 1995, followed different procedures.
Kvant
-1, having, unlike the four modules mentioned above, no engines of its own, was launched attached to a tug based on the
TKS spacecraft
which delivered the module to the aft end of the core module instead of the docking node. Once hard docking had been achieved, the tug undocked and deorbited itself. The docking module, meanwhile, was launched aboard
Space Shuttle
Atlantis
during
STS-74
and mated to the orbiter's
Orbiter Docking System
.
Atlantis
then docked, via the module, to
Kristall
, then left the module behind when it undocked later in the mission.
[17]
: 248?249
[18]
Various other external components, including three truss structures, several experiments and other unpressurised elements were also mounted to the exterior of the station by cosmonauts conducting a total of eighty spacewalks over the course of the station's history.
[17]
[
page needed
]
The station's assembly marked the beginning of the third generation of space station design, being the first to consist of more than one primary spacecraft (thus opening a new era in
space architecture
). First generation stations such as
Salyut 1
and
Skylab
had monolithic designs, consisting of one module with no resupply capability; the second generation stations
Salyut 6
and
Salyut 7
comprised a monolithic station with two ports to allow consumables to be replenished by cargo spacecraft such as
Progress
. The capability of
Mir
to be expanded with add-on modules meant that each could be designed with a specific purpose in mind (for instance, the core module functioned largely as living quarters), thus eliminating the need to install all the station's equipment in one module.
[17]
[
page needed
]
Pressurised modules
[
edit
]
In its completed configuration, the space station consisted of seven different modules, each launched into orbit separately over a period of ten years by either
Proton-K
rockets or
Space Shuttle
Atlantis
.
Module
|
Expedition
|
Launch date
|
Launch system
|
Nation
|
Isolated view
|
Station view
|
Mir Core Module
(Core Module)
|
N/A
|
19 February 1986
|
Proton-K
|
Soviet Union
|
|
|
The base block for the entire
Mir
complex, the core module, or DOS-7, provided the main living quarters for resident crews and contained environmental systems, early attitude control systems and the station's main engines. The module was based on hardware developed as part of the
Salyut programme
, and consisted of a stepped-cylinder main compartment and a spherical 'node' module, which served as an airlock and provided ports to which four of the station's expansion modules were berthed and to which a Soyuz or Progress spacecraft could dock. The module's aft port served as the berthing location for
Kvant
-1
.
[19]
[
page needed
]
|
Kvant
-1
(Astrophysics Module)
|
EO-2
|
31 March 1987
|
Proton-K
|
Soviet Union
|
|
|
The first expansion module to be launched,
Kvant
-1 consisted of two pressurised working compartments and one unpressurised experiment compartment. Scientific equipment included an
X-ray telescope
, an
ultraviolet telescope
, a wide-angle camera, high-energy X-ray experiments, an X-ray/gamma ray detector, and the Svetlana electrophoresis unit. The module also carried six
gyrodynes
for attitude control, in addition to life support systems including an
Elektron
oxygen generator and a
Vozdukh
carbon dioxide scrubber.
[19]
[
page needed
]
|
Kvant
-2
(Augmentation Module)
|
EO-5
|
26 November 1989
|
Proton-K
|
Soviet Union
|
|
|
The first
TKS
based module,
Kvant
-2, was divided into three compartments: an
EVA
airlock, an instrument/cargo compartment (which could function as a backup airlock), and an instrument/experiment compartment. The module also carried a Soviet version of the
Manned Maneuvering Unit
for the
Orlan space suit
, referred to as
Ikar
, a system for regenerating water from urine, a shower, the
Rodnik
water storage system and six
gyrodynes
to augment those already located in
Kvant
-1. Scientific equipment included a high-resolution camera, spectrometers, X-ray sensors, the Volna 2 fluid flow experiment, and the Inkubator-2 unit, which was used for hatching and raising
quail
.
[19]
[
page needed
]
|
Kristall
(Technology Module)
|
EO-6
|
31 May 1990
|
Proton-K
|
Soviet Union
|
|
|
Kristall
, the fourth module, consisted of two main sections. The first was largely used for materials processing (via various processing furnaces), astronomical observations, and a biotechnology experiment utilising the Aniur electrophoresis unit. The second section was a docking compartment which featured two
APAS-89
docking ports
initially intended for use with the
Buran
programme
and eventually used during the
Shuttle-
Mir
programme
. The docking compartment also contained the Priroda 5 camera used for Earth resources experiments.
Kristall
also carried six
control moment gyroscopes
(CMGs, or "gyrodynes") for attitude control to augment those already on the station, and two collapsible solar arrays.
[19]
[
page needed
]
|
Spektr
(Power Module)
|
EO-18
|
20 May 1995
|
Proton-K
|
Russia
|
|
|
Spektr
was the first of the three modules launched during the Shuttle-
Mir
programme; it served as the living quarters for American astronauts and housed
NASA
-sponsored experiments. The module was designed for remote observation of Earth's environment and contained atmospheric and surface research equipment. It featured four solar arrays which generated approximately half of the station's electrical power. The module also had a science airlock to expose experiments to the vacuum of space selectively.
Spektr
was rendered unusable following the collision with
Progress M-34
in 1997 which damaged the module, exposing it to the vacuum of space.
[17]
[
page needed
]
|
Docking Module
|
EO-20
|
15 November 1995
|
Space Shuttle
Atlantis
(
STS-74
)
|
US
|
|
|
The docking module was designed to help simplify
Space Shuttle
dockings
to
Mir
. Before the first shuttle docking mission (
STS-71
), the
Kristall
module had to be tediously moved to ensure sufficient clearance between
Atlantis
and
Mir'
s solar arrays. With the addition of the docking module, enough clearance was provided without the need to relocate
Kristall
. It had two identical
APAS-89
docking ports, one attached to the distal port of
Kristall
with the other available for shuttle docking.
[17]
: 247?249
|
Priroda
(Earth Sensing Module)
|
EO-21
|
26 April 1996
|
Proton-K
|
Russia
|
|
|
The seventh and final
Mir
module,
Priroda'
s primary purpose was to conduct Earth resource experiments through remote sensing and to develop and verify remote sensing methods. The module's experiments were provided by twelve different nations, and covered microwave, visible, near infrared, and infrared spectral regions using both passive and active sounding methods. The module possessed both pressurised and unpressurised segments, and featured a large, externally mounted
synthetic aperture radar
dish.
[17]
: 251?253
|
Unpressurised elements
[
edit
]
In addition to the pressurised modules,
Mir
featured several external components. The largest component was the
Sofora
girder, a large scaffolding-like structure consisting of 20 segments which, when assembled, projected 14 metres from its mount on
Kvant
-1. A self-contained thruster block, the VDU (Vynosnaya Dvigatyelnaya Ustanovka), was mounted on the end of
Sofora
and was used to augment the roll-control thrusters on the core module. The VDU's increased distance from
Mir'
s axis allowed an 85% decrease in fuel consumption, reducing the amount of propellant required to orient the station.
[17]
[
page needed
]
A second girder,
Rapana
, was mounted aft of
Sofora
on
Kvant
-1. This girder, a small prototype of a structure intended to be used on
Mir
-2
to hold large parabolic dishes away from the main station structure, was 5 metres long and used as a mounting point for externally mounted exposure experiments.
[17]
[
page needed
]
To assist in moving objects around the exterior of the station during
EVAs
,
Mir
featured two
Strela
cargo cranes
mounted to the sides of the core module, used for moving spacewalking cosmonauts and parts. The cranes consisted of telescopic poles assembled in sections which measured around 1.8 metres (6 ft) when collapsed, but when extended using a hand crank were 14 metres (46 ft) long, meaning that all of the station's modules could be accessed during spacewalks.
[20]
Each module was fitted with external components specific to the experiments that were carried out within that module, the most obvious being the Travers antenna mounted to
Priroda
. This
synthetic aperture radar
consisted of a large dish-like framework mounted outside the module, with associated equipment within, used for Earth observations experiments, as was most of the other equipment on
Priroda
, including various radiometers and scan platforms.
[19]
[
page needed
]
Kvant
-2 also featured several scan platforms and was fitted with a mounting bracket to which the
cosmonaut manoeuvring unit
, or
Ikar
, was mated. This backpack was designed to assist cosmonauts in moving around the station and the planned
Buran
in a manner similar to the US
Manned Maneuvering Unit
, but it was only used once, during
EO-5
.
[17]
[
page needed
]
In addition to module-specific equipment,
Kvant
-2,
Kristall
,
Spektr
and
Priroda
were each equipped with one
Lyappa
arm
, a robotic arm which, after the module had docked to the core module's forward port, grappled one of two fixtures positioned on the core module's docking node. The arriving module's docking probe was then retracted, and the arm raised the module so that it could be pivoted 90° for docking to one of the four radial docking ports.
[19]
[
page needed
]
Power supply
[
edit
]
Photovoltaic (PV) arrays
[
broken anchor
]
powered
Mir
. The station used a 28
volt
DC
supply which provided 5-, 10-, 20- and 50-
amp
taps. When the station was illuminated by sunlight, several solar arrays mounted on the pressurised modules provided power to
Mir'
s systems and charged the
nickel-cadmium storage batteries
installed throughout the station.
[17]
The arrays rotated in only one degree of freedom over a 180° arc, and tracked the Sun using
Sun sensors
and motors installed in the array mounts. The station itself also had to be oriented to ensure optimum illumination of the arrays. When the station's all-sky sensor detected that
Mir
had entered Earth's shadow, the arrays were rotated to the optimum angle predicted for reacquiring the Sun once the station passed out of the shadow. The batteries, each of 60
Ah
capacity, were then used to power the station until the arrays recovered their maximum output on the day side of Earth.
[17]
The solar arrays themselves were launched and installed over a period of eleven years, more slowly than originally planned, with the station continually suffering from a shortage of power as a result. The first two arrays, each 38 m
2
(409 ft
2
) in area, were launched on the core module, and together provided a total of 9 kW of power. A third,
dorsal
panel was launched on
Kvant
-1 and mounted on the core module in 1987, providing a further 2 kW from a 22 m
2
(237 ft
2
) area.
[17]
Kvant
-2, launched in 1989, provided two 10 m (32.8 ft) long panels which supplied 3.5 kW each, whilst
Kristall
was launched with two collapsible, 15 m (49.2 ft) long arrays (providing 4 kW each) which were intended to be moved to
Kvant
-1 and installed on mounts which were attached during a spacewalk by the
EO-8
crew in 1991.
[17]
[19]
This relocation was begun in 1995, when the panels were retracted and the left panel installed on
Kvant
-1. By this time all the arrays had degraded and were supplying much less power. To rectify this,
Spektr
(launched in 1995), which had initially been designed to carry two arrays, was modified to hold four, providing a total of 126 m
2
(1360 ft
2
) of array with a 16 kW supply.
[17]
Two further arrays were flown to the station on board the
Space Shuttle
Atlantis
during
STS-74
, carried on the docking module. The first of these, the
Mir
cooperative solar array, consisted of American photovoltaic cells mounted on a Russian frame. It was installed on the unoccupied mount on
Kvant
-1 in May 1996 and was connected to the socket that had previously been occupied by the core module's dorsal panel, which was by this point barely supplying 1 kW.
[17]
The other panel, originally intended to be launched on
Priroda
, replaced the
Kristall
panel on
Kvant
-1 in November 1997, completing the station's electrical system.
[17]
Orbit control
[
edit
]
Mir
was maintained in a near circular orbit with an average perigee of 354 km (220 mi) and an average apogee of 374 km (232 mi), travelling at an average speed of 27,700 km/h (17,200 mph) and completing 15.7 orbits per day.
[6]
[7]
[8]
As the station constantly lost altitude because of slight
atmospheric drag
, it needed to be boosted to a higher altitude several times each year. This boost was generally performed by Progress resupply vessels, although during the Shuttle-
Mir
programme the task was performed by US Space Shuttles, and, prior to the arrival of
Kvant-1
, the engines on the core module could also accomplish the task.
[17]
Attitude control was maintained by a combination of two mechanisms; in order to hold a set attitude, a system of twelve
control moment gyroscopes
(CMGs, or "gyrodynes") rotating at 10,000
rpm
kept the station oriented, six CMGs being located in each of the
Kvant-1
and
Kvant-2
modules.
[19]
[21]
When the attitude of the station needed to be changed, the gyrodynes were disengaged, thrusters (including those mounted directly to the modules, and the VDU thruster used for roll control mounted to the
Sofora
girder) were used to attain the new attitude and the CMGs were reengaged.
[21]
This was done fairly regularly depending on experimental needs; for instance, Earth or astronomical observations required that the instrument recording images be continuously aimed at the target, and so the station was oriented to make this possible.
[17]
Conversely, materials processing experiments required the minimisation of movement on board the station, and so
Mir
would be oriented in a
gravity gradient
attitude for stability.
[17]
Prior to the arrival of the modules containing these gyrodynes, the station's attitude was controlled using thrusters located on the core module alone, and, in an emergency, the thrusters on docked Soyuz spacecraft could be used to maintain the station's orientation.
[17]
[22]
[
page needed
]
Communications
[
edit
]
Radio communications
provided
telemetry
and scientific data links between
Mir
and the
RKA Mission Control Centre
(TsUP). Radio links were also used during
rendezvous and docking procedures
and for audio and video communication between crew members, flight controllers and family members. As a result,
Mir
was equipped with several communication systems used for different purposes. The station communicated directly with the ground via the
Lira
antenna
mounted to the
core module
. The
Lira
antenna also had the capability to use the
Luch
data relay satellite system (which fell into disrepair in the 1990s) and the network of Soviet
tracking ships
deployed in various locations around the world (which also became unavailable in the 1990s).
[17]
UHF radio
was used by cosmonauts conducting
EVAs
. UHF was also employed by other spacecraft that docked to or undocked from the station, such as Soyuz, Progress, and the Space Shuttle, in order to receive commands from the TsUP and
Mir
crew members via the
TORU
system.
[17]
Microgravity
[
edit
]
At
Mir'
s orbital altitude, the force of Earth's gravity was 88% of sea level gravity. While the constant free fall of the station offered a perceived sensation of
weightlessness
, the onboard environment was not one of weightlessness or zero gravity. The environment was often described as
microgravity
. This state of perceived weightlessness was not perfect, being disturbed by five separate effects:
[23]
- The drag resulting from the residual atmosphere;
- Vibratory acceleration caused by mechanical systems and the crew on the station;
- Orbital corrections by the on-board gyroscopes (which spun at 10,000 rpm, producing vibrations of 166.67
Hz
[21]
) or thrusters;
- Tidal forces
. Any parts of
Mir
not at exactly the same distance from Earth tended to
follow separate orbits
. As each point was physically part of the station, this was impossible, and so each component was subject to small accelerations from tidal forces;
- The differences in orbital plane between different locations on the station.
Life support
[
edit
]
Mir
's
environmental control and life support system
(ECLSS) provided or controlled
atmospheric pressure
, fire detection, oxygen levels, waste management and water supply. The highest priority for the ECLSS was the station's atmosphere, but the system also collected, processed, and stored waste and water produced and used by the crew?a process that recycles fluid from the sink, toilet, and condensation from the air. The
Elektron
system generated oxygen
electrolytically
, venting hydrogen to space. Bottled oxygen and
solid fuel oxygen generation
(SFOG) canisters, a system known as
Vika
, provided backup. Carbon dioxide was removed from the air by the
Vozdukh
system.
[17]
Other byproducts of human metabolism, such as methane from the intestines and ammonia from sweat, were removed by
activated charcoal
filters. Similar systems are presently used on the ISS.
The atmosphere on
Mir
was similar to
Earth's
.
[24]
Normal air pressure on the station was 101.3
kPa
(14.7
psi
); the same as at sea level on Earth.
[17]
An Earth-like atmosphere offers benefits for crew comfort.
[
citation needed
]
International cooperation
[
edit
]
Interkosmos
[
edit
]
Interkosmos (
Russian
:
ИнтерКосмос
) was a Soviet Union space exploration programme which allowed members from countries allied with the Soviet Union to participate in crewed and uncrewed space exploration missions. Participation was also made available to governments of countries such as France and India.
Only the last three of the programme's fourteen missions consisted of an expedition to
Mir
but none resulted in an extended stay in the station:
European involvement
[
edit
]
Various European astronauts visited
Mir
as part of several cooperative programmes:
[28]
Shuttle?
Mir
program
[
edit
]
In the early 1980s, NASA planned to launch a modular space station called
Freedom
as a counterpart to
Mir
, while the Soviets were planning to construct
Mir
-2
in the 1990s as a replacement for the station.
[17]
[
page needed
]
Because of budget and design constraints,
Freedom
never progressed past mock-ups and minor component tests and, with
the fall of the Soviet Union
and the end of the
Space Race
, the project was nearly cancelled entirely by the
United States House of Representatives
. The
post-Soviet economic chaos
in Russia also led to the cancellation of
Mir
-2, though only after its base block,
DOS-8
, had been constructed.
[17]
Similar budgetary difficulties were faced by other nations with space station projects, which prompted the US government to negotiate with European states, Russia, Japan, and Canada in the early 1990s to begin a collaborative project.
[17]
In June 1992, American president
George H. W. Bush
and Russian president
Boris Yeltsin
agreed to cooperate on
space exploration
. The resulting
Agreement between the United States of America and the Russian Federation Concerning Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space for Peaceful Purposes
called for a short joint space programme with one American
astronaut
deployed to the Russian space station
Mir
and two Russian
cosmonauts
deployed to a Space Shuttle.
[17]
In September 1993, US Vice President
Al Gore Jr.
, and Russian Prime Minister
Viktor Chernomyrdin
announced plans for a new space station, which eventually became the
ISS
.
[29]
They also agreed, in preparation for this new project, that the United States would be heavily involved in the
Mir
programme as part of an international project known as the
Shuttle?Mir Programme
.
[30]
The project, sometimes called "Phase One", was intended to allow the United States to learn from Russian experience in long-duration spaceflight and to foster a spirit of cooperation between the two nations and their
space agencies
, the US
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) and the
Russian Federal Space Agency
(Roskosmos). The project prepared the way for further cooperative space ventures, specifically, "Phase Two" of the joint project, the construction of the ISS. The programme was announced in 1993; the first mission started in 1994, and the project continued until its scheduled completion in 1998. Eleven Space Shuttle missions, a joint Soyuz flight, and almost 1000 cumulative days in space for US astronauts occurred over the course of seven long-duration expeditions.
Other visitors
[
edit
]
Life on board
[
edit
]
Inside, the 130-tonne (140-short-ton)
Mir
resembled a cramped
labyrinth
, crowded with hoses, cables and scientific instruments?as well as articles of everyday life, such as photos, children's drawings, books and a guitar. It commonly housed three crew members, but was capable of supporting as many as six for up to a month. The station was designed to remain in orbit for around five years; it remained in orbit for fifteen.
[34]
As a result, NASA astronaut John Blaha reported that, with the exception of
Priroda
and
Spektr
, which were added late in the station's life,
Mir
did look used, which is to be expected given it had been lived in for ten to eleven years without being brought home and cleaned.
[35]
Crew schedule
[
edit
]
The time zone used on board
Mir
was
Moscow Time
(
UTC+03
). The windows were covered during night hours to give the impression of darkness because the station experienced 16 sunrises and sunsets a day. A typical day for the crew began with a wake-up at 08:00, followed by two hours of personal hygiene and breakfast. Work was conducted from 10:00 until 13:00, followed by an hour of exercise and an hour's lunch break. Three more hours of work and another hour of exercise followed lunch, and the crews began preparing for their evening meal at about 19:00. The cosmonauts were free to do as they wished in the evening, and largely worked to their own pace during the day.
[17]
In their spare time, crews were able to catch up with work, observe the Earth below, respond to letters, drawings and other items brought from Earth (and give them an official stamp to show they had been aboard
Mir
), or make use of the station's ham radio.
[17]
Two amateur radio call signs, U1MIR and U2MIR, were assigned to
Mir
in the late 1980s, allowing
amateur radio operators
on Earth to communicate with the cosmonauts.
[36]
The station was also equipped with a supply of books and films for the crew to read and watch.
[22]
NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger related how life on board
Mir
was structured and lived according to the detailed itineraries provided by ground control. Every second on board was accounted for and all activities were timetabled. After working some time on
Mir
, Linenger came to feel that the order in which his activities were allocated did not represent the most logical or efficient order possible for these activities. He decided to perform his tasks in an order that he felt enabled him to work more efficiently, be less fatigued, and suffer less from stress. Linenger noted that his comrades on
Mir
did not "improvise" in this way, and as a medical doctor he observed the effects of stress on his comrades that he believed was the outcome of following an itinerary without making modifications to it. Despite this, he commented that his comrades performed all their tasks in a supremely professional manner.
[37]
[
page needed
]
Astronaut
Shannon Lucid
, who set the record for longest stay in space by a woman while aboard
Mir
(surpassed by
Sunita Williams
11 years later on the ISS), also commented about working aboard
Mir
saying "I think going to work on a daily basis on
Mir
is very similar to going to work on a daily basis on an outstation in Antarctica. The big difference with going to work here is the isolation, because you really are isolated. You don't have a lot of support from the ground. You really are on your own."
[35]
Exercise
[
edit
]
The most significant adverse effects of long-term weightlessness are
muscle atrophy
and deterioration of the
skeleton
, or
spaceflight osteopenia
. Other significant effects include fluid redistribution, a slowing of the
cardiovascular system
, decreased production of
red blood cells
, balance disorders, and a weakening of the
immune system
. Lesser symptoms include loss of body mass, nasal congestion, sleep disturbance, excess
flatulence
, and puffiness of the face. These effects begin to reverse quickly upon return to the Earth.
[38]
[
page needed
]
To prevent some of these effects, the station was equipped with two
treadmills
(in the core module and
Kvant
-2) and a
stationary bicycle
(in the core module); each cosmonaut was to cycle the equivalent of 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) and run the equivalent of 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) per day.
[17]
Cosmonauts used bungee cords to strap themselves to the treadmill. Researchers believe that exercise is a good countermeasure for the bone and muscle density loss that occurs in low-gravity situations.
[39]
Hygiene
[
edit
]
There were two
space toilets
(ASUs) on
Mir
, located in the
core module
and
Kvant
-2
.
[22]
They used a fan-driven suction system similar to the Space Shuttle Waste Collection System. The user is first fastened to the toilet seat, which was equipped with spring-loaded restraining bars to ensure a good seal. A lever operated a powerful fan and a suction hole slid open: the air stream carried the waste away. Solid waste was collected in individual bags which were stored in an aluminium container. Full containers were transferred to Progress spacecraft for disposal. Liquid waste was evacuated by a hose connected to the front of the toilet, with anatomically appropriate "urine funnel adapters" attached to the tube so both men and women could use the same toilet. Waste was collected and transferred to the Water Recovery System, where it could be recycled back into drinking water, but was usually used to produce oxygen via the
Elektron
system.
[17]
Mir
featured a shower, the
Bania
, located in
Kvant
-2. It was an improvement on the units installed in previous
Salyut
stations, but proved difficult to use due to the time required to set up, use, and stow. The shower, which featured a plastic curtain and fan to collect water via an airflow, was later converted into a steam room; it eventually had its plumbing removed and the space was reused. When the shower was unavailable, crew members washed using wet wipes, with soap dispensed from a toothpaste tube-like container, or using a washbasin equipped with a plastic hood, located in the core module. Crews were also provided with rinse-less shampoo and edible toothpaste to save water.
[17]
On a 1998 visit to
Mir
, bacteria and larger organisms were found to have proliferated in water globules formed from moisture that had condensed behind service panels.
[40]
Sleeping in space
[
edit
]
The station provided two permanent crew quarters, the
Kayutkas
, phonebox-sized booths set towards the rear of the core module, each featuring a tethered sleeping bag, a fold-out desk, a porthole, and storage for personal effects. Visiting crews had no allocated sleep module, instead attaching a sleeping bag to an available space on a wall; US astronauts installed themselves within
Spektr
until a collision with a
Progress spacecraft
caused the depressurisation of that module.
[17]
It was important that crew accommodations be well ventilated; otherwise, astronauts could wake up oxygen-deprived and gasping for air, because a bubble of their own exhaled carbon dioxide had formed around their heads.
[41]
Food and drink
[
edit
]
Most of the food eaten by station crews was frozen, refrigerated or canned. Meals were prepared by the cosmonauts, with the help of a
dietitian
, before their flight to the station. The diet was designed to provide around 100 g of
protein
, 130 g of
fat
and 330 g of
carbohydrates
per day, in addition to appropriate mineral and vitamin supplements. Meals were spaced out through the day to aid assimilation.
[17]
Canned food such as jellied beef tongue was placed into a niche in the core module's table, where it could be warmed in 5?10 minutes. Usually, crews drank tea, coffee and fruit juices, but, unlike the ISS, the station also had a supply of
cognac
and
vodka
for special occasions.
[22]
Microbiological environmental hazards
[
edit
]
In the 1990s ninety species of micro-organisms were found inside
Mir
, four years after the station's launch. By the time of its decommission in 2001, the number of known different micro-organisms had grown to 140. As space stations get older, the problems with contamination get worse.
[
citation needed
]
Molds that develop aboard space stations can produce acids that degrade metal, glass and rubber.
[42]
The molds in
Mir
were found growing behind panels and inside air-conditioning equipment. The molds also caused a foul smell, which was often cited as visitors' strongest impression.
[43]
Researchers in 2018 reported, after detecting the presence on the
International Space Station
(ISS) of five
Enterobacter bugandensis
bacterial strains, none pathogenic to humans, that
microorganisms
on ISS should be carefully monitored to continue ensuring a medically healthy environment for the astronauts.
[44]
[45]
Some biologists were concerned about the mutant fungi being a major microbiological hazard for humans, and reaching Earth in the splashdown, after having been in an isolated environment for 15 years.
[43]
Station operations
[
edit
]
Expeditions
[
edit
]
Mir
was visited by a total of 28 long-duration or "principal" crews, each of which was given a sequential expedition number formatted as EO-X. Expeditions varied in length (from the 72-day flight of the crew of
EO-28
to the 437-day flight of
Valeri Polyakov
), but generally lasted around six months.
[17]
Principal expedition crews consisted of two or three crew members, who often launched as part of one expedition but returned with another (Polyakov launched with EO-14 and landed with EO-17).
[17]
The principal expeditions were often supplemented with visiting crews who remained on the station during the week-long handover period between one crew and the next before returning with the departing crew, the station's life support system being able to support a crew of up to six for short periods.
[17]
[46]
[
page needed
]
The station was occupied for a total of four distinct periods; 12 March?16 July 1986 (
EO-1
), 5 February 1987 ? 27 April 1989 (EO-2?EO-4), the record-breaking run from 5 September 1989 ? 28 August 1999 (EO-5?EO-27), and 4 April?16 June 2000 (
EO-28
).
[46]
[
page needed
]
By the end, it had been
visited by 104 different people from twelve different nations
, making it the most visited spacecraft in history (a record later
surpassed by the ISS
).
[17]
Early existence
[
edit
]
Due to pressure to launch the station on schedule, mission planners were left without Soyuz spacecraft or modules to launch to the station at first. It was decided to launch
Soyuz T-15
on a dual mission to both
Mir
and
Salyut 7
.
[15]
[
unreliable source?
]
Leonid Kizim
and
Vladimir Solovyov
first docked with
Mir
on 15 March 1986. During their nearly 51-day stay on
Mir
, they brought the station online and checked its systems. They unloaded two
Progress spacecraft
launched after their arrival,
Progress 25
and
Progress 26
.
[47]
On 5 May 1986, they undocked from
Mir
for a day-long journey to Salyut 7. They spent 51 days there and gathered 400 kg of scientific material from Salyut 7 for return to
Mir
. While Soyuz T-15 was at Salyut 7, the uncrewed
Soyuz TM-1
arrived at the unoccupied
Mir
and remained for 9 days, testing the new
Soyuz TM
model. Soyuz T-15 redocked with
Mir
on 26 June and delivered the experiments and 20 instruments, including a multichannel
spectrometer
. The EO-1 crew spent their last 20 days on
Mir
conducting Earth observations before returning to Earth on 16 July 1986, leaving the new station unoccupied.
[48]
[
unreliable source?
]
The second expedition to
Mir
,
EO-2
, launched on
Soyuz TM-2
on 5 February 1987. During their stay, the
Kvant
-1
module, launched on 30 March 1987, arrived. It was the first experimental version of a planned series of '37K' modules scheduled to be launched to
Mir
on
Buran
.
Kvant
-1 was originally planned to dock with
Salyut 7
; due to technical problems during its development, it was reassigned to
Mir
. The module carried the first set of six gyroscopes for attitude control. The module also carried instruments for X-ray and ultraviolet astrophysical observations.
[19]
The initial rendezvous of the
Kvant
-1 module with
Mir
on 5 April 1987 was troubled by the failure of the onboard control system. After the failure of the second attempt to dock, the resident cosmonauts,
Yuri Romanenko
and
Aleksandr Laveykin
, conducted an
EVA
to fix the problem. They found a trash bag which had been left in orbit after the departure of one of the previous cargo ships and was now located between the module and the station, which prevented the docking. After removing the bag, docking was completed on 12 April.
[49]
[
unreliable source?
]
[50]
The Soyuz TM-2 launch was the beginning of a string of 6 Soyuz launches and three long-duration crews between 5 February 1987 and 27 April 1989. This period also saw the first international visitors,
Muhammed Faris
(Syria),
Abdul Ahad Mohmand
(Afghanistan) and
Jean-Loup Chretien
(France). With the departure of
EO-4
on
Soyuz TM-7
on 27 April 1989 the station was again left unoccupied.
[17]
Third start
[
edit
]
The launch of
Soyuz TM-8
on 5 September 1989 marked the beginning of the longest human presence in space, until 23 October 2010, when this record was surpassed by the ISS.
[13]
It also marked the beginning of
Mir's
second expansion. The
Kvant-2
and
Kristall
modules were now ready for launch.
Alexander Viktorenko
and
Aleksandr Serebrov
docked with
Mir
and brought the station out of its five-month hibernation. On 29 September the cosmonauts installed equipment in the docking system in preparation for the arrival of
Kvant
-2, the first of the 20
tonne
add-on modules based on the
TKS spacecraft
from the
Almaz
programme.
[51]
[
unreliable source?
]
After a 40-day delay caused by faulty computer chips,
Kvant
-2 was launched on 26 November 1989. After problems deploying the craft's solar array and with the automated docking systems on both
Kvant
-2 and
Mir
, the new module was docked manually on 6 December.
Kvant
-2 added a second set of
control moment gyroscopes
(CMGs, or "gyrodynes") to
Mir
, and brought the new life support systems for recycling water and generating oxygen, reducing dependence on ground resupply. The module featured a large airlock with a one-metre hatch. A special backpack unit (known as
Ikar
), an equivalent of the US
Manned Maneuvering Unit
, was located inside
Kvant
-2's airlock.
[51]
[52]
Soyuz TM-9
launched
EO-6
crew members
Anatoly Solovyev
and
Aleksandr Balandin
on 11 February 1990. While docking, the EO-5 crew noted that three thermal blankets on the ferry were loose, potentially creating problems on reentry, but it was decided that they would be manageable. Their stay on board
Mir
saw the addition of the
Kristall
module, launched 31 May 1990. The first docking attempt on 6 June was aborted due to an attitude control thruster failure.
Kristall
arrived at the front port on 10 June and was relocated to the lateral port opposite
Kvant
-2 the next day, restoring the equilibrium of the complex. Due to the delay in the docking of
Kristall
, EO-6 was extended by 10 days to permit the activation of the module's systems and to accommodate an EVA to repair the loose thermal blankets on Soyuz TM-9.
[53]
[
unreliable source?
]
Kristall
contained furnaces for use in producing crystals under microgravity conditions (hence the choice of name for the module). The module was also equipped with biotechnology research equipment, including a small greenhouse for plant cultivation experiments which was equipped with a source of light and a feeding system, in addition to equipment for astronomical observations. The most obvious features of the module were the two
Androgynous Peripheral Attach System
(APAS-89) docking ports designed to be compatible with the
Buran
spacecraft. Although they were never used in a
Buran
docking, they were useful later during the Shuttle-
Mir
programme, providing a berthing location for US
Space Shuttles
.
[54]
The
EO-7
relief crew arrived aboard
Soyuz TM-10
on 3 August 1990. The new crew arrived at
Mir
with
quail
for
Kvant
-2's cages, one of which laid an egg en route to the station. It was returned to Earth, along with 130 kg of experiment results and industrial products, in Soyuz TM-9.
[53]
Two more expeditions,
EO-8
and
EO-9
, continued the work of their predecessors whilst tensions grew back on Earth.
Post-Soviet period
[
edit
]
The
EO-10
crew, launched aboard
Soyuz TM-13
on 2 October 1991, was the last crew to launch from the USSR and continued the occupation of
Mir
during
the fall of the Soviet Union
. The crew launched as Soviet citizens and returned to Earth on 25 March 1992 as Russians. The newly formed
Russian Federal Space Agency
(Roscosmos) was unable to finance the unlaunched
Spektr
and
Priroda
modules, instead putting them into storage and ending
Mir's
second expansion.
[55]
[
unreliable source?
]
[56]
[
unreliable source?
]
[57]
[
unreliable source?
]
The first human mission flown from an independent
Kazakhstan
was
Soyuz TM-14
, launched on 17 March 1992, which carried the
EO-11
crew to
Mir
, docking on 19 March before the departure of Soyuz TM-13. On 17 June, Russian President
Boris Yeltsin
and US President
George H. W. Bush
announced what would later become the Shuttle-
Mir
programme, a cooperative venture which proved useful to the cash-strapped Roskosmos (and led to the eventual completion and launch of
Spektr
and
Priroda
).
EO-12
followed in July, alongside a brief visit by French astronaut
Michel Tognini
.
[46]
[
page needed
]
The following crew,
EO-13
, began preparations for the Shuttle-
Mir
programme by flying to the station in a modified spacecraft,
Soyuz TM-16
(launched on 26 January 1993), which was equipped with an
APAS-89
docking system rather than the usual probe-and-drogue, enabling it to dock to
Kristall
and test the port which would later be used by US Space Shuttles. The spacecraft also enabled controllers to obtain data on the dynamics of docking a spacecraft to a space station off the station's longitudinal axis, in addition to data on the structural integrity of this configuration via a test called
Rezonans
conducted on 28 January.
Soyuz TM-15
, meanwhile, departed with the EO-12 crew on 1 February.
[46]
[
page needed
]
Throughout the period following the collapse of the USSR, crews on
Mir
experienced occasional reminders of the
economic chaos
occurring in Russia. The initial cancellation of
Spektr
and
Priroda
was the first such sign, followed by the reduction in communications as a result of the fleet of
tracking ships
being withdrawn from service by
Ukraine
. The new Ukrainian government also vastly raised the price of the
Kurs
docking systems, manufactured in
Kyiv
– the Russians' attempts to reduce their dependence on
Kurs
would later lead to accidents during TORU tests in 1997. Various Progress spacecraft had parts of their cargoes missing, either because the consumable in question had been unavailable, or because the ground crews at Baikonur had looted them. The problems became particularly obvious during the launch of the
EO-14
crew aboard
Soyuz TM-17
in July; shortly before launch there was a black-out at the pad, and the power supply to the nearby city of
Leninsk
failed an hour after launch.
[17]
[46]
[
page needed
]
Nevertheless, the spacecraft launched on time and arrived at the station two days later. All of
Mir
's ports were occupied, and so Soyuz TM-17 had to station-keep 200 metres away from the station for half an hour before docking while
Progress M-18
vacated the core module's front port and departed.
[46]
[
page needed
]
The EO-13 crew departed on 22 July, and soon after
Mir
passed through the annual
Perseid
meteor shower
, during which the station was hit by several particles. A spacewalk was conducted on 28 September to inspect the station's hull, but no serious damage was reported.
Soyuz TM-18
arrived on 10 January 1994 carrying the
EO-15
crew (including
Valeri Polyakov
, who was to remain on
Mir
for 14 months), and
Soyuz TM-17
left on 14 January. The undocking was unusual in that the spacecraft was to pass along
Kristall
in order to obtain photographs of the APAS to assist in the training of space shuttle pilots. Due to an error in setting up the control system, the spacecraft struck the station a glancing blow during the manoeuvre, scratching the exterior of
Kristall
.
[46]
[
page needed
]
On 3 February 1994,
Mir
veteran
Sergei Krikalev
became the first Russian cosmonaut to launch on a US spacecraft, flying on
Space Shuttle
Discovery
during
STS-60
.
[58]
The launch of
Soyuz TM-19
, carrying the
EO-16
crew, was delayed due to the unavailability of a payload fairing for the booster that was to carry it, but the spacecraft eventually left Earth on 1 July 1994 and docked two days later. They stayed only four months to allow the Soyuz schedule to line up with the planned Space Shuttle manifest, and so Polyakov greeted a second resident crew in October, prior to the undocking of Soyuz TM-19, when the
EO-17
crew arrived in
Soyuz TM-20
.
[46]
[
page needed
]
Shuttle?
Mir
[
edit
]
The 3 February launch of
Space Shuttle
Discovery
, flying
STS-63
, opened operations on
Mir
for 1995. Referred to as the "near-
Mir
" mission, the mission saw the first rendezvous of a Space Shuttle with
Mir
as the orbiter approached within 37 feet (11 m) of the station as a dress rehearsal for later docking missions and for equipment testing.
[59]
[60]
[61]
Five weeks after
Discovery
's
departure, the
EO-18
crew, including the first US cosmonaut
Norman Thagard
, arrived in
Soyuz TM-21
. The EO-17 crew left a few days later, with Polyakov completing his record-breaking 437-day spaceflight. During EO-18, the
Spektr
science module (which served as living and working space for American astronauts) was launched aboard a
Proton rocket
and docked to the station, carrying research equipment from America and other nations. The expedition's crew returned to Earth aboard
Space Shuttle
Atlantis
following the first Shuttle?
Mir
docking mission,
STS-71
.
[17]
[22]
[
page needed
]
Atlantis
, launched on 27 June 1995, successfully docked with
Mir
on 29 June becoming the first US spacecraft to dock with a Russian spacecraft since the
ASTP
in 1975.
[62]
The orbiter delivered the
EO-19
crew and returned the EO-18 crew to Earth.
[59]
[63]
[64]
The
EO-20
crew were launched on 3 September, followed in November by the arrival of the docking module during
STS-74
.
[18]
[59]
[65]
[66]
The two-man
EO-21
crew was launched on 21 February 1996 aboard
Soyuz TM-23
and were soon joined by US crew member
Shannon Lucid
, who was brought to the station by
Atlantis
during
STS-76
. This mission saw the first joint US spacewalk on
Mir
take place deploying the
Mir Environmental Effects Payload
package on the docking module.
[67]
Lucid became the first American to carry out a long-duration mission aboard
Mir
with her 188-day mission, which set the US single spaceflight record. During Lucid's time aboard
Mir
,
Priroda
, the station's final module, arrived as did French visitor
Claudie Haignere
flying the
Cassiopee
mission. The flight aboard
Soyuz TM-24
also delivered the
EO-22
crew of
Valery Korzun
and
Aleksandr Kaleri
.
[17]
[59]
[68]
Lucid's stay aboard
Mir
ended with the flight of
Atlantis
on
STS-79
, which launched on 16 September. This, the fourth docking, saw
John Blaha
transferring onto
Mir
to take his place as resident US astronaut. His stay on the station improved operations in several areas, including transfer procedures for a docked space shuttle, "hand-over" procedures for long-duration American crew members and "ham"
amateur radio
communications, and also saw two spacewalks to reconfigure the station's power grid. Blaha spent four months with the EO-22 crew before returning to Earth aboard
Atlantis
on
STS-81
in January 1997, at which point he was replaced by
physician
Jerry Linenger
.
[59]
[69]
[70]
During his flight, Linenger became the first American to conduct a spacewalk from a foreign space station and the first to test the Russian-built
Orlan-M
spacesuit alongside Russian cosmonaut
Vasili Tsibliyev
, flying
EO-23
. All three crew members of EO-23 performed a "fly-around" in
Soyuz TM-25
spacecraft.
[17]
Linenger and his Russian crewmates Vasili Tsibliyev and
Aleksandr Lazutkin
faced several difficulties during the mission, including the most severe fire aboard an orbiting spacecraft (caused by a malfunctioning
Vika
), failures of various systems, a near collision with
Progress M-33
during a long-distance TORU test and a total loss of station electrical power. The power failure also caused a loss of
attitude control
, which led to an uncontrolled "tumble" through space.
[17]
[22]
[
page needed
]
[37]
[
page needed
]
[59]
Linenger was succeeded by
Anglo-American
astronaut
Michael Foale
, carried up by
Atlantis
on
STS-84
, alongside Russian mission specialist
Elena Kondakova
. Foale's increment proceeded fairly normally until 25 June when during the second test of the
Progress
manual docking system,
TORU
,
Progress M-34
collided with solar arrays on the
Spektr
module and crashed into the module's outer shell, puncturing the module and causing depressurisation on the station. Only quick actions on the part of the crew, cutting cables leading to the module and closing
Spektr's
hatch, prevented the crews having to abandon the station in
Soyuz TM-25
. Their efforts stabilised the station's air pressure, whilst the pressure in
Spektr
, containing many of Foale's experiments and personal effects, dropped to a vacuum.
[22]
[
page needed
]
[59]
In an effort to restore some of the power and systems lost following the isolation of
Spektr
and to attempt to locate the leak,
EO-24
commander
Anatoly Solovyev
and
flight engineer
Pavel Vinogradov
carried out a risky salvage operation later in the flight, entering the empty module during a so-called "intra-vehicular activity" or "IVA" spacewalk and inspecting the condition of hardware and running cables through a special hatch from
Spektr's
systems to the rest of the station. Following these first investigations, Foale and Solovyev conducted a 6-hour EVA outside
Spektr
to inspect the damage.
[59]
[71]
After these incidents, the US Congress and NASA considered whether to abandon the programme out of concern for the astronauts' safety, but NASA administrator
Daniel Goldin
decided to continue.
[37]
[
page needed
]
The next flight to
Mir
,
STS-86
, carried
David Wolf
aboard
Atlantis
. During the orbiter's stay, Titov and Parazynski conducted a spacewalk to affix a cap to the docking module for a future attempt by crew members to seal the leak in
Spektr
'
s hull.
[59]
[72]
Wolf spent 119 days aboard
Mir
with the EO-24 crew and was replaced during
STS-89
with
Andy Thomas
, who carried out the last US expedition on
Mir
.
[59]
[73]
The
EO-25
crew arrived in
Soyuz TM-27
in January 1998 before Thomas returned to Earth on the final Shuttle?
Mir
mission,
STS-91
.
[59]
[74]
[75]
Final days and deorbit
[
edit
]
Following the 8 June 1998 departure of
Discovery
, the EO-25 crew of
Budarin
and
Musabayev
remained on
Mir
, completing materials experiments and compiling a station inventory. On 2 July,
Roskosmos
director Yuri Koptev announced that, due to a lack of funding to keep
Mir
active, the station would be deorbited in June 1999.
[17]
The
EO-26
crew of
Gennady Padalka
and
Sergei Avdeyev
arrived on 15 August in
Soyuz TM-28
, alongside physicist
Yuri Baturin
, who departed with the EO-25 crew on 25 August in
Soyuz TM-27
. The crew carried out two spacewalks, one inside
Spektr
to reseat some power cables and another outside to set up experiments delivered by
Progress M-40
, which also carried a large amount of propellant to begin alterations to
Mir
'
s orbit in preparation for the station's decommissioning. 20 November 1998 saw the launch of
Zarya
, the first module of the
ISS
, but delays to the new station's service module
Zvezda
had led to calls for
Mir
to be kept in orbit past 1999. Roscosmos confirmed that it would not fund
Mir
past the set deorbit date.
[17]
The crew of
EO-27
,
Viktor Afanasyev
and
Jean-Pierre Haignere
, arrived in
Soyuz TM-29
on 22 February 1999 alongside
Ivan Bella
, who returned to Earth with Padalka in Soyuz TM-28. The crew carried out three EVAs to retrieve experiments and deploy a prototype communications antenna on
Sofora
. On 1 June it was announced that the deorbit of the station would be delayed by six months to allow time to seek alternative funding to keep the station operating. The rest of the expedition was spent preparing the station for its deorbit; a special analog computer was installed and each of the modules, starting with the docking module, was mothballed in turn and sealed off. The crew loaded their results into Soyuz TM-29 and departed
Mir
on 28 August 1999, ending a run of continuous occupation, which had lasted for eight days short of ten years.
[17]
The station's
control moment gyroscopes
(CMGs, or "gyrodynes") and main computer were shut down on 7 September, leaving
Progress M-42
to control
Mir
and refine the station's orbital decay rate.
[17]
Near the end of its life, there were plans for private interests to purchase
Mir
, possibly for use as the first orbital
television
/
movie studio
[
citation needed
]
. The privately funded
Soyuz TM-30
mission by MirCorp, that was launched on 4 April 2000, carried two crew members,
Sergei Zalyotin
and
Aleksandr Kaleri
, to the station for two months to do repair work with the hope of proving that the station could be made safe. This was to be the last crewed mission to
Mir
?while Russia was optimistic about
Mir
's
future, its commitments to the ISS project left no funding to support the aging station.
[17]
[76]
Mir
'
s deorbit was carried out in three stages. The first stage involved waiting for
atmospheric drag
to
reduce the station's orbit
to an average of 220 kilometres (140 mi). This began with the docking of
Progress M1-5
, a modified version of the
Progress-M
carrying 2.5 times more fuel in place of supplies. The second stage was the transfer of the station into a 165 × 220 km (103 × 137 mi) orbit. This was achieved with two burns of Progress M1-5's control engines at 00:32 UTC and 02:01 UTC on 23 March 2001. After a two-orbit pause, the third and final stage of the deorbit began with the burn of Progress M1-5's control engines and main engine at 05:08 UTC, lasting 22+ minutes.
Atmospheric reentry
(arbitrarily defined beginning at 100 km/60 mi AMSL) occurred at 05:44 UTC near
Nadi
,
Fiji
. Major destruction of the station began around 05:52 UTC and most of the unburned fragments fell into the
South Pacific Ocean
around 06:00 UTC.
[77]
[78]
Visiting spacecraft
[
edit
]
Mir
was primarily supported by the Russian
Soyuz
and
Progress spacecraft
and had two ports available for docking them. Initially, the fore and aft ports of the core module could be used for dockings, but following the permanent berthing of
Kvant
-1 to the aft port in 1987, the rear port of the new module took on this role from the core module's aft port. Each port was equipped with the plumbing required for Progress cargo ferries to replace the station's fluids and also the guidance systems needed to guide the spacecraft for docking. Two such systems were used on
Mir
; the rear ports of both the core module and
Kvant
-1 were equipped with both the
Igla
and
Kurs
systems, whilst the core module's forward port featured only the newer Kurs.
[17]
Soyuz spacecraft provided personnel access to and from the station allowing for crew rotations and cargo return, and also functioned as a lifeboat for the station, allowing for a relatively quick return to Earth in the event of an emergency.
[46]
[
page needed
]
[79]
Two models of Soyuz flew to
Mir
;
Soyuz T-15
was the only Igla-equipped
Soyuz-T
to visit the station, whilst all other flights used the newer, Kurs-equipped
Soyuz-TM
. A total of 31 (30 crewed,
1 uncrewed
) Soyuz spacecraft flew to the station over a fourteen-year period.
[46]
[
page needed
]
The uncrewed Progress cargo vehicles were only used to resupply the station, carrying a variety of cargoes including water, fuel, food and experimental equipment. The spacecraft were not equipped with reentry shielding and so, unlike their Soyuz counterparts, were incapable of surviving reentry.
[80]
As a result, when its cargo had been unloaded, each Progress was refilled with rubbish, spent equipment and other waste which was destroyed, along with the Progress itself, on reentry.
[46]
[
page needed
]
In order to facilitate cargo return, ten Progress flights carried
Raduga
capsules, which could return around 150 kg of experimental results to Earth automatically.
[46]
Mir
was visited by three separate models of Progress; the original
7K-TG
variant equipped with Igla (18 flights), the
Progress-M
model equipped with Kurs (43 flights), and the modified
Progress-M1
version (3 flights), which together flew a total of 64 resupply missions.
[46]
Whilst the Progress spacecraft usually docked automatically without incident, the station was equipped with a remote manual docking system,
TORU
, in case problems were encountered during the automatic approaches. With TORU, cosmonauts could guide the spacecraft safely in to dock (with the exception of the catastrophic docking of
Progress M-34
, when the long-range use of the system resulted in the spacecraft striking the station, damaging
Spektr
and causing
decompression
).
[17]
: 265
In addition to the routine Soyuz and Progress flights, it was anticipated that
Mir
would also be the destination for flights by the Soviet
Buran
space shuttle
, which was intended to deliver extra modules (based on the same "37K"
bus
as
Kvant
-1) and provide a much improved cargo return service to the station.
Kristall
carried two
Androgynous Peripheral Attach System
(APAS-89) docking ports designed to be compatible with the shuttle. One port was to be used for
Buran
; the other for the planned
Pulsar
X-2 telescope, also to be delivered by
Buran
.
[17]
[54]
The cancellation of the
Buran
programme meant these capabilities were not realised until the 1990s when the ports were used instead by US
Space Shuttles
as part of the Shuttle-
Mir
programme (after testing by the specially modified
Soyuz TM-16
in 1993). Initially, visiting
Space Shuttle orbiters
docked directly to
Kristall
, but this required the relocation of the module to ensure sufficient distance between the shuttle and
Mir
'
s solar arrays.
[17]
To eliminate the need to move the module and retract solar arrays for clearance issues, a
Mir Docking Module
was later added to the end of
Kristall
.
[81]
The shuttles provided crew rotation of the American astronauts on station and carried cargo to and from the station, performing some of the largest transfers of cargo of the time. With a space shuttle docked to
Mir
, the temporary enlargements of living and working areas amounted to a complex that was the largest
spacecraft
in history at that time, with a combined mass of 250
tonnes
(280
short tons
).
[17]
Mission control centre
[
edit
]
Mir
and its resupply missions were controlled from the Russian
mission control centre
(
Russian
:
Центр управления полётами
) in
Korolyov
, near the
RKK Energia
plant. Referred to by its acronym ЦУП ("TsUP"), or simply as 'Moscow', the facility could process data from up to ten spacecraft in three separate control rooms, although each control room was dedicated to a single programme; one to
Mir
; one to
Soyuz
; and one to the Soviet space shuttle
Buran
(which was later converted for use with the ISS).
[82]
[83]
The facility is now used to control the
Russian Orbital Segment
of the ISS.
[82]
The flight control team were assigned roles similar to the system used by NASA at their mission control centre in
Houston
, including:
[83]
- The Flight Director, who provided policy guidance and communicated with the mission management team;
- The Flight Shift Director, who was responsible for real-time decisions within a set of flight rules;
- The Mission Deputy Shift Manager (MDSM) for the MCC was responsible for the control room's consoles, computers and peripherals;
- The MDSM for Ground Control was responsible for communications;
- The MDSM for Crew Training was similar to NASA's 'capcom,' or capsule communicator; usually someone who had served as the
Mir
crew's lead trainer.
Unused equipment
[
edit
]
Three command and control modules were constructed for the
Mir
program. One was used in space; one remained in a Moscow warehouse as a source of repair parts if needed,
[84]
and the third was sold to an educational and entertainment complex in the US in 1997.
Tommy Bartlett Exploratory
purchased the unit and had it shipped to
Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin
, where it became the centrepiece of the complex's Space Exploration wing.
[85]
Safety aspects
[
edit
]
Ageing systems and atmosphere
[
edit
]
In the later years of the programme, particularly during the Shuttle-
Mir
programme,
Mir
suffered from various systems failures. It had been designed for five years of use, but eventually flew for fifteen, and in the 1990s was showing its age, with frequent computer crashes, loss of power, uncontrolled tumbles through space and leaking pipes.
Jerry Linenger
in his book about his time on the facility says that the cooling system had developed tiny leaks too small and numerous to be repaired, that permitted the constant release of
coolant
. He says that it was especially noticeable after he had made a spacewalk and become used to the bottled air in his spacesuit. When he returned to the station and again began breathing the air inside
Mir
, he was shocked by the intensity of the smell and worried about the possible negative health effects of breathing such contaminated air.
[37]
[
page needed
]
Various breakdowns of the Elektron oxygen-generating system were a concern; they led crews to become increasingly reliant on the backup
Vika
solid-fuel oxygen generator
(SFOG) systems, which led to a fire during the handover between EO-22 and EO-23.
[17]
[22]
[
page needed
]
(see also
ISS ECLSS
)
Accidents
[
edit
]
Several accidents occurred which threatened the station's safety, such as the glancing collision between
Kristall
and
Soyuz TM-17
during proximity operations in January 1994. The three most alarming incidents occurred during
EO-23
. The first was on 23 February 1997 during the handover period from
EO-22
to EO-23, when a malfunction occurred in the backup
Vika
system, a
chemical oxygen generator
later known as solid-fuel oxygen generator (SFOG). The
Vika
malfunction led to a fire which burned for around 90 seconds (according to official sources at the TsUP; astronaut
Jerry Linenger
insists the fire burned for around 14 minutes), and produced large amounts of toxic smoke that filled the station for around 45 minutes. This forced the crew to don respirators, but some of the respirator masks initially worn were broken. Some of the
fire extinguishers
mounted on the walls of the newer modules were immovable.
[22]
[
page needed
]
[37]
[
page needed
]
The other two accidents concerned testing of the station's
TORU
manual docking system to manually dock
Progress M-33
and
Progress M-34
. The tests were to gauge the performance of long-distance docking and the feasibility of removal of the expensive
Kurs
automatic docking system from Progress spacecraft. Due to malfunctioning equipment, both tests failed, with Progress M-33 narrowly missing the station and Progress M-34 striking
Spektr
and puncturing the module, causing the station to depressurise and leading to
Spektr
being permanently sealed off. This in turn led to a power crisis aboard
Mir
as the module's solar arrays produced a large proportion of the station's electrical supply, causing the station to power down and begin to drift, requiring weeks of work to rectify before work could continue as normal.
[17]
[22]
[
page needed
]
Radiation and orbital debris
[
edit
]
Without the protection of the Earth's atmosphere, cosmonauts were exposed to higher levels of
radiation
from a steady flux of
cosmic rays
and trapped protons from the
South Atlantic Anomaly
. The station's crews were exposed to an
absorbed dose
of about 5.2
cGy
over the course of the
Mir EO-18
expedition, producing an
equivalent dose
of 14.75
cSv
, or 1133 μSv per day.
[86]
[87]
This daily dose is approximately that received from natural
background radiation
on Earth in two years.
[88]
The radiation environment of the station was not uniform; closer proximity to the station's hull led to an increased radiation dose, and the strength of radiation shielding varied between modules;
Kvant
-2's being better than the core module, for instance.
[89]
The increased radiation levels pose a higher risk of crews developing cancer, and can cause damage to the
chromosomes
of
lymphocytes
. These cells are central to the
immune system
and so any damage to them could contribute to the lowered
immunity
experienced by cosmonauts. Over time, in theory, lowered immunity results in the spread of infection between crew members, especially in such confined areas. To avoid this only healthy people were permitted aboard. Radiation has also been linked to a higher incidence of
cataracts
in cosmonauts. Protective shielding and protective drugs may lower the risks to an acceptable level, but data is scarce and longer-term exposure will result in greater risks.
[38]
[
page needed
]
At the low altitudes at which
Mir
orbited there is a variety of
space debris
, consisting of everything from entire spent
rocket stages
and defunct
satellites
, to explosion fragments, paint flakes, slag from solid rocket motors,
[90]
coolant released by
RORSAT
nuclear powered satellites,
[91]
small needles
, and many other objects. These objects, in addition to natural
micrometeoroids
,
[92]
posed a threat to the station as they could puncture pressurised modules and cause damage to other parts of the station, such as the solar arrays.
[93]
Micrometeoroids also posed a risk to
spacewalking
cosmonauts, as such objects could
puncture their spacesuits
, causing them to depressurise.
[94]
Meteor showers in particular posed a risk, and, during such storms, the crews slept in their Soyuz ferries to facilitate an emergency evacuation should
Mir
be damaged.
[17]
See also
[
edit
]
- Skylab
, a defunct predecessor space station
- Out of the Present
, 1995 documentary
- Orphans of Apollo
, a 2008 documentary film which describes how a band of entrepreneurs tried to privatize the space station
Mir
and the resulting story of MirCorp.
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External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Mir
.
Wikisource
has original text related to this article:
Wikisource
has original text related to this article:
Preceded by
|
Mir
1986?2001
|
Succeeded by
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Active
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- China
- Russia
- United States
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Retired
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- Soviet Union
- United States
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In development
|
- China
- India
- Russia
- United States
|
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January
| |
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February
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March
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April
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May
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June
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July
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August
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September
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October
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November
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December
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Launches are separated by dots ( ? ), payloads by commas ( , ), multiple names for the same satellite by slashes ( / ).
Crewed flights
are underlined. Launch failures are marked with the † sign. Payloads deployed from other spacecraft are (enclosed in parentheses).
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Soviet modules
| | |
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Russian/American modules
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Other subsystems
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Visiting spacecraft
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Other articles
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Related lists
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1986?1990
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1991?1995
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1996?2000
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Long-term
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Short-term
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Related
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Active
| |
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In development
| |
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Past
| |
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Cancelled
|
- Moon:
Zond (7K-L1)
,
N1-L3
,
LK-700
,
Zvezda
- Interplanetary:
TMK
,
Aelita
,
Martian Piloted Complex
- Spaceplanes:
Spiral
,
Energia
/
Buran
,
MAKS
,
Kliper
,
LKS
,
Tupolev Tu-2000
- Capsules:
Zvezda
,
Zarya
- Space Stations:
OPSEK
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Related
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Launch sites
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Launch vehicles
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Human spaceflight
programs
| Past
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Cancelled
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Active
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In development
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Robotic
programs
| Past
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Active
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In development
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Communications
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Concepts
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Images and artwork
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Related
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Active
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Completed
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Canceled
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Current
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Past
| Russia /
Soviet Union
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United States
| |
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China
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Private
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Canceled
| Individual projects
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Incorporated into
ISS
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In development
| Russia
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Private
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International
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Proposed
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Concepts
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Related
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Notes: † Never inhabited due to launch or on-orbit failure, ‡ Part of the
Almaz
military program, ° Never inhabited, lacks docking mechanism.
|