Mir showed long-duration space flight possible
During 15 years in orbit, Russia’s Mir space station survived fires, collisions and equipment failure.
It even outlasted the government that launched it. But in the end, the sheer financial strain of maintaining a troublesome old clunker doomed the 143-ton spacecraft.
‘‘It outlived its usefulness,’’ said James Kirkpatrick, executive director of the American Astronautical Society. ‘‘It would just cost too much to keep it going.’’
Almost until the end, a small group of supporters campaigned for the preservation of Mir. They argued that the spacecraft could become a commercial facility, hosting tourists and serving as a location for television and film production.
‘‘The political campaign to keep Mir alive was very strong,’’ said Roald Sagdeev, a professor at the University of Maryland and former head of the Soviet space program. ‘‘They wanted to use it as a tourist attraction.’’
But efforts to save Mir failed in the face of opposition by Nasa and a lack of financial support.
Its name meant ‘‘peace’’ but Mir’s great accomplishment was endurance. Launched on February 20, 1986, it was occupied almost continuously by more than 100 visitors from 12 countries.
One cosmonaut, Valeri Polyakov, stayed aboard for 438 consecutive days. Another, Sergei Avdeyev, spent a total of more than two years in space over three flights.
As a result, said Rick Tumlinson (correct) of the Space Frontier Foundation: ‘‘the Russians know more about long-duration space flight than we have ever come close to’’.
Much of that knowledge was acquired during 1997, when a series of hair-raising crises threatened both Mir and its inhabitants. In February, a fire reduced oxygen levels in the station to perilously low levels. In June, the collision of an arriving cargo ship punched a hole in the station, forcing its crew to seal off the module that was punctured. In August, both the main and backup oxygen generators failed.
Yet most experts believe Mir’s problems were overdramatised, and that similar problems will undoubtedly arise as the International Space Station ages.
‘‘Five, 10 years down the road,’’ said space historian Charles Vick of the Federation of American Scientists, ‘‘we’re going to have the same problems the Russians had.’’
Life on Mir was much more relaxed than the highly professional environment aboard Nasa’s shuttle. Cosmonauts drank cognac, reportedly smoked the occasional cigarette and posted lewd drawings above the toilet.
When it was first launched, Mir served as a symbol of the Soviet Union’s technological prowess and leadership in space exploration. The Soviet government proudly rewarded its allies with visits to the station.
But after the Soviet Union’s collapse, Mir had to pay its own way. The Russian Space Agency charged admission to European, Japanese and American visitors who were preparing for their missions aboard the International Space Station.
Mir’s final paying customer, businessman Dennis Tito, forked out more than 20 million dollars (stg£14m) yet never made it to the orbiting outpost. Russia promised him an April 30 trip to the International Space Station instead.
But Nasa blocked that plan this week, saying it is inappropriate to send civilians to the station while it remains under construction.
‘‘It’s a Catch-22 situation,’’ Vick said. ‘‘Russia needs the funds, but at the same time Nasa has got legitimate issues.’’
Like Nasa’s space shuttle, Mir carried scientific experiments that exploited the space station’s high vantage point for astronomical observations and investigated the effects of weightlessness on physical, chemical and biological processes.
But the experiments were really secondary to the task of maintaining an outpost 235 miles above the planet. By the end, cosmonauts were spending 80% of their time on Mir making repairs.
In the end, Sagdeev said, Mir will be remembered for showing what people can achieve in space. It demonstrated that the bone loss, muscle wasting and cardiovascular changes caused by zero gravity can be combated with a combination of drugs and exercise.
It also showed that people from different nations can learn to work across cultural and linguistic barriers.
‘‘Mir may be gone,’’ Kirkpatrick said. ‘‘But I think as mankind’s first long-term inhabitable environment in space it will have its lasting legacy.’’
