A briefing on the Soviet Union's Mir orbital spacestation

[Sasami_TN]

(The soviet kerbal nation is currently sending Mir station components into orbit by way of their Buran reusable space shuttle program.. to have their own political foothold in space along with other emerging spacefaring kerbal nations. So I thought a historical briefing was in order)

A Complex Ancestry

Mir was the last (the seventh) in a series of Soviet orbital stations. It's predecessors were known under the name Salyut (numbered 1 through 6). The first design of what later became a typical module of Salyut configuration was made in the 1960's by the rocket company which had just come up with the Proton (then the most powerful Soviet launcher). The Proton's throw weight capability defined the mass of the orbital station module at about 20 metric tons. It's size (4 meters in diameter) derived from practical restrictions imposed by railway transportation. Mir's design was a configuration of several modules, each dedicated to different tasks. For example, the Kvant module carried the first Soviet high-energy astronomy package, combining several gamma and X-ray telescopes. Prior to the Mir station, this branch of space science was almost nonexistent in the Soviet Union. And suddenly, in a huge stroke of luck, Earth witnessed the birth of a new star, Supernova 1987A. Although the Kvant module delivery missed the first few weeks of the supernova, Kvant was still able to collect valuable data on 1987A's post-explosion behavior and monitor it's changing brightness. The bulk of these observations came from a science payload contributed by the international community, something unprecedented in Soviet manned flights.

The composition of other modules, added incrementally to the Mir configuration, represented almost every community of space scientists. The Kristal (Crystal) module obviously served the material sciences. It carried a number of furnaces and technological devices to study the effects of the micro-gravity environment on crystal growth and other processes. The Priroda (Nature) module was designed and equipped with a variety of Earth surface and atmosphere observation hardware. It included almost everything from the arsenal of the science and technology of remote sensing, such as multispectral cameras and passive and active microwave instruments. All in all, the total configuration of Mir reached the net mass of 130 metric tons. Energia was in charge of the Mir station. The cosmonaut's schedules were filled with such tasks as running Mir's systems, continuing to enlarge and expand the station by adding new modules, and upgrading it's hardware. Even during it's golden period, before unending repair became a major activity (80% of cosmonaut's time), only 8 percent of the crew's time was budgeted to scientific experiments. And Mir had to be shared with others, including the military. The major question for the designers and users of Mir involved the role of the onboard crew in specific experiments. Concerns about engineering as well as assembling and servicing the modules, processing the cargo deliveries (by the Progress unmanned spacecraft), and so on were clear. But many experiments could function without human intervention. Others.. astronomical observations and crystal growth, for example, would actually benefit from unmanned operation. At the same time, some disciplines like biomedical studies, required the participation of humans at least as the objects for research. It was no surprise that the latter type of experiment became the major beneficiary of the Mir program. In terms of science output, probably the most extensive results obtained during the Mir expeditions were in the area of biomedicine. Since the late 1970's, most resources were concentrated on building the counterpart to the U.S. space shuttle. Many aerospace companies had to fulfill engineering design and manufacturing quotas and to contribute to the finally adopted Soviet program of reusable space transport, classified under the name Buran. Finally the program culminated in two technically very successful launches(of the Energia super rocket in 1988 and the un-manned version of Buran in 1989) only to be abandoned almost immediately. The Soviet Union experienced a severe economic crisis which began to impact the space program which began downsizing. The major breakthrough was Russia's (new geopolitical successor to the failed Soviet Union) joining the ISS (International Space Station). It became possible to build on the instructive adventures of Mir and it's predecessors, the Salyut's. At the same time, the Mir station assumed a new task: to serve as a test bed for the future operation of the ISS with all the experience they logged in long-duration flights. One creative offshoot of their rocketry program was an inflatable reentry shield.

Edited November 30, 2014 by Sasami_TN

[Kryten]

Salyut 7? tenchars