zmapj36@cc.ic.ac.uk (M.S.Bennett Supvs= Prof Pendry) (11/07/90)
The Soyuz TM-9 Mission Ends. by Neville Kidger
The troubled mission of Soviet cosmonauts Anatoli Solovyov and Aleksandr
Balandin ended with a safe landing in Kazakhstan at 7:35 GMT on August 9th.
Despite fears in the Soviet and western press the Soyuz TM-9 landed without
incident after the cosmonauts had conducted an EVA on July 17th to secure
two of three loose thermal blankets which had become partially detached
during the spacecraft's launch on February 11th. The third blanket was left
floating loose after it was found to have been too badly damaged to secure.
The loose blankets had been considered a potential hazard during the
spacecraft's preparations for re-entry and were secured for this reason.
In addition the cosmonauts ensured that the unintended prolonged exposure to
space vacuum and radiation had not adversely sffected the explosive bolts
which are used to separate the Soyuz descent module from the engine section
after retrofire.
However, at the close of the July 17th EVA the
cosmonauts encountered difficulties in securing the hatch of the Kvant-2
module through which they had exited into open space. The men were forced to
depressurise Kvant-2's second, scientific, section and enter it before they
were able to repressurise and end the EVA after a Soviet record duration of
seven hours. Soviet reporters made no secret that the cosmonaut's lives
were threatened during the return to Kvant-2 due to the build up of carbon
dioxide in their suits. While the men were able to replenish their oxygen
supply they were unable to exchange canisters of lithium hydroxide in the
life-support system of their EVA suits. The lithium hydroxide removes the
exhaled carbon dioxide from the suit's atmospheres.
During a second EVA,on July 26th, Solovyov and Balandin were able to
secure the hatch of the Kvant-2 module after determining that a hinge had
buckled. At the time of writing the blame for the incident was being laid
on the cosmonauts for breaching the regulations governing the opening of the
hatch - at least by the deputy designer of the Salyut design beureau where
the module was designed and constructed.
The charge is that Solovyov and Balandin did not wait for the internal
pressure of the Kvant-2 airlock to reach zero before opening the hatch.
This lead the hatch to being forced open into the space vacuum. Despite the
fact that the cosmonauts managed to secure the hatch during their second
EVA, yet another EVA will need to be conducted by Mir's current crew of
Gennadi Manakov and Gennadi Strekalov.
This pair will replace a hinge on the hatch door to enable it to be used
as intended. One Soviet commentator has compared the current state of the
hatch to that of a boarded-up door ! The expedition of Solovyov and Balandinwas notable for another couple of reasons as well as their Soyuz TM-9 EVAs
and subsequent problems.
The men were the first to witness the birth, in space, of Japanese
quails from their eggs in a Czechoslovak-made incubator contained in the
Kvant-2 module. Unfortunately, the chicks grew weak and unable to feed them-
selves in their weightless environment, and the descision was made to put
them to sleep.
The other major aspect of the cosmonaut's activities in orbit
related to their attempts to secure a profit from their work in space.
At the time of their launch, the cosmonauts were said to be ready to recoup
the cost of the mission (80 million Roubles) and even earn a further 25
million Roubles from their Earth observations and materials processing work
on the Kristall module which was to be launched in April.
But the Kristall launch was delayed to May 31st and then the docking was
further delayed to June 10th because of thruster problems. The late start tousing the large module's five processing units to produce semi-conductor
crystals and biotechnical materials meant that the estimate of profit which
could be expected to be made from the flight was reduced to 13 million
Roubles. The head of the Soviet space agency Glavkosmos has said, however,
that the profits are "hypothetical". He revealed that money still had to be
transferred into the account of Glavkosmos and the amount to be recouped was
based upon the selling price of the Earth photographs that the men had taken
($1,000 each) and in the value of crystals processed in space (R500,000
each). The current crew of Manakov and Strekalov are to continue the
processing and observations and Glavkosmos expects their flight to recoup
about the same amount as the previous one.
The Soviets have revealed that the amount of money allocated for 1990's
manned space programmes is 220 million Roubles and one Soviet commentator
has called for a serious explanation of the amount. But from the next
launch to Mir of a manned crew - planned for December 2nd this year - part of
the costs of each flight will be recouped by the paying presence of a
foreign cosmonaut.
The first to go will be a reporter-cosmonaut from a Japanese TV station TBS. He or she will accompany two cosmonauts to Mir and will return with
Manakov and Strekalov after an eight-day mission. The reporter will make TV
and radio broadcasts from the complex during the approximately six days
aboard.
The two candidates are a 40-year old male who used to smoke 80
cigarettes a day and a 25-year old camerawoman.
Next up, in May 1991 should be Britain'sJuno mission, but the continuing
quest to find sponsors for the mission may mean that Tim Mace or Helen
Sharman may have to wait for their flight or even find it cancelled.
The following year should see missions including cosmonaut
representatives from Austria, France [for the third time ed.], West Germany
and Spain.
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| | | \ | | M. Sean Bennett |
\-----\ |---- | | \-----\ | UKSEDS TECH.OFF. |
| | | / | | Janet:SEDS@CC.IC.AC.UK |