glenn@LL-VLSI.ARPA (Glenn Chapman) (01/29/89)
On board the Mir/Kvant space station complex Alexander Volkov and Sergei
Krikalev of the Soyuz TM-7 crew have now been up for 61 days, exceeding Skylab
3's 59 day mission in July 1973. Meanwhile Dr. Valrey Polyakov from Soyuz TM-6
has now spent 150 days in orbit. This "medium duration" mission will last
until April-May when Alexander S. Victorenko (8 days Soyuz TM-3/Mir, July 22
'87) and Alexander Alexandrovich Serebrov (7 days Soyuz T-7/Salyut 7 Aug. 19
1982 and 2 days Soyuz T-8) will replace them. Note that Serebrov first
trained for a long duration flight in 1983 when Soyuz T-7 suffered a docking
radar failure which aborted the mission. Timed close to their arrival will be
the addition of the air lock expansion module (adding 20 Tonnes and about 100
cu. meters to Mir). The module, which will first dock to the rear end of Mir
and then be transferred to the side port, contains a new shower, water
electrolysis system (breaking waist water into oxygen) and the Gyrodine
gyroscope position stabilization setup. In addition it will carry the
Russian's Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU), which is similar to the US system.
However, for the initial test the MMU will be tied to the station with lines
in case something fails according to Victor Blagov, deputy manned space flight
director. After the incident in 1977 when Yuri Romanenko nearly floated out
of a space hatch with no cable attached the Soviets can not be blamed for
being somewhat shy of going without safety lines (Romanenko was saved by
Georgiy Grechko who grabbed him just as he floated out the door).
Valery Ryumin, director of manned space flight (with 362 orbital days himself)
said the Russian's new space suits, first used on the Alexander Volkov and
Jean-Loup Chretien EVA of Dec. 9, were both much easier to put on due to
exchangeable arms and were good for 10 space walks. Note that in that walk it
appears that the cause of the failure of the ERA deployable structure failed to
expand was due to ice frozen in the container. The box had not been sealed
during the time it was kept on board Mir, causing it to pick up moisture from
the air (it was very wet on Mir with the 6 man crew). In addition to the ERA
problem they had difficulty mounting a set of panels containing test materials
for the space exposure (to be picked up in 6 - 12 months). Finally, at the end
of 6 hours (their max allowed suit time was only 6.5 hours) they headed in but
Chretien had trouble closing the hatch due to sweat on his visor.
The recover of Vladimir Titov and Moussa Manerov after their 365 day mission
is almost astounding. According to Bernard Comet, flight surgeon for the
French space agency CNES, while they were pale and had balance problems when
first being carried out of the capsule, by the time of the flight back to
Moscow 3 hrs. later they were walking down the stairs from the plane (as I saw
on the video tapes). Twenty four hours after landing Titov had no difficulty
while Manarov was still experiencing some equilibrium difficulties, and by 2
days after landing both were walking and acting normally. Subsequent reports
on the short wave indicate that they have recovered much faster than even the
Russians expected. Indeed the latest data shows this was also the case with
Yuri Romanenko, who flew for 326 days ending Dec. 29 1987. For example he ran
an 11 m (36 ft.) distance within a day of landing. By comparison after the 211
day Soyuz T-5/Salyut 6 mission in May 1982 Anatoli Berezolvi and Valentin
Lebedev were still not fully recovered 34 days after landing, suffering
weakness and dizziness ("space hangover"). The Soviet doctors are saying now
they are confident they have licked the Zero G health problems in planing a
typical manned Mars mission. Note they first flew to Star Village near Moscow
rather than the Baikonur Cosmodrome because of an outbreak of viral Hepatitis
at the Star City center near there. (AW&ST Jan 2, Radio Moscow, Manned Space
Log and Defense Daily, Dec 20, Jan 4).
The Russians appear to have developed techniques to overcome many of the
zero G medical problems (though probably not all). It looks like the way to
Mars is now open for all those that learn how the Soviets do it.
Glenn Chapman
MIT Lincoln Lab