Mir

The word mir means "peace," but to millions of Russians it is associated with a symbol of national pride. The space station Mir claimed a number of distinctions that are unmatched, even in the early twenty-first century, by the spacecraft of other nations. This station, once a national symbol of the Soviet Union, is gone, replaced by the joint effort of numerous countries to create the new International Space Station.

The History of Mir

The first component of Mir, its core module, was launched on February 20, 1986. It would take ten years for Mir's construction to be completed, a time frame that does not include the continual supply missions to the station. Mir's main component had six ports for the attachment of other modules. These ports were placed in key locations, allowing the station's configuration to be changed.

Soyuz spacecraft, similar to U.S. Apollo spacecraft, were used for transporting cargo to and from the station. Cargo included people, equipment, food, and even trash. During its life a total of forty-six missions were made by the United States and Russia to Mir, including the missions to bring more modules to the spacecraft.

The five additional modules were the Kvant-1, Kvant-2, Kristall, Spektr, and Priroda. Kvant-1 contained astrophysics research equipment. Measuring 5.7 meters (19 feet) long and 4.3 meters (14 feet) wide, it studied neutron stars, quasars radar, X-ray emissions, and active galaxies. Kvant-2 was a multipurpose module that housed the air lock as well as scientific equipment. It enabled biotechnology research, as well as photography. Kvant-2 was over 12.2 meters (40 feet long) and 4.3 meters (14 feet) wide. Kristall housed a zero-g greenhouse and produced high-technology equipment, including semiconductors, in the microgravity environment, and processed biological material. Spektr, which was delivered in June 1995, was used for surface studies of Earth and atmospheric research. The last module, Priroda, was launched in spring, 1996, and employed radar systems, spectrometers for ozone research, and infrared detectors.

By the end of construction, Mir weighed 135 tons, offered 283 cubic meters (9,900 cubic feet) of space, and measured 1.8 meters (6 feet) by 26 meters (85 feet). This meant that with the exception of the Moon, Mir was the heaviest object in Earth's orbit. Over its lifetime, its maintenance cost continued to sky-rocket, and Mir ultimately cost $4.2 billion to construct and maintain. The station was not designed or constructed to last for the 15 years it spent orbiting Earth. It far surpassed the records set by Skylab or the space shuttles for time in space.^*

Problems Plague Mir

With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Mir became more expensive than the former superpower could afford. Over the next 10 years Mir deteriorated with age and become more difficult to fix. It suffered from problems with its insulation and glitches during docking and undocking procedures with Soyuz supply craft.

On January 14, 1994, cosmonauts ignored weight limitations on the Soyuz craft and caused a collision with the station. On February 23, 1997, a fire ignited onboard. Luckily, no one was harmed and the fire was extinguished. Less than six months later, on June 25, 1997, Soyuz craft again collided with the station. This time the craft punctured Mir's skin, and air began to escape. Luckily, both cosmonauts and the American astronaut onboard were quick enough to take corrective action, sealing off the breached segment so that there was enough oxygen left for their survival.

As the cost of keeping Mir operable and the risk factor to the astronauts continued to increase, it became apparent that Mir's days were numbered. Attempts were made by both nonprofit and for-profit groups to save the station. As the International Space Station (ISS) began to require the funding on which Mir was dependent, offers came in from different groups to try to save the station. One group of entrepreneurs tried to turn Mir into a destination for wealthy tourists. Wealthy financial analyst Dennis Tito, founder of the investment firm Wilshire Associates, had agreed to pay a rumored $20 million for the experience, but the deal fell through and Russia kept postponing what seemed to be inevitable.^*

Mir was damaged, aged, and outdated, but it was not worthless. However, Russia ultimately decided to end the 15-year saga of the Mir space station. By that time Mir's orbit was degrading by almost a mile a day.

The End of Mir

On March 23, 2001, the story of Mir came to an end. After much planning, the Russian space agency decided to send Mir through Earth's atmosphere, breaking it apart into small pieces before its final splashdown in the South Pacific. The area had been used previously to destroy more than eighty other Russian craft.

Everything went according to plan, and Mir broke up into several large pieces and thousands of small ones. The larger pieces made a splashdown in the ocean, with no injuries resulting from the debris.

SEE ALSO GOVERNMENT SPACE PROGRAMS (VOLUME 2); INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION (volume 1 and 3); LONG-DURATION SPACEFLIGHT (VOLUME 3); SPACE STATIONS, HISTORY OF (VOLUME 3); SPACE STATIONS OF THE FUTURE (VOLUME 4).

Craig Samuels

Bibliography

Linenger, Jerry M. Off the Planet: Surviving Five Perilous Months Aboard the Space Station Mir. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.

Internet Resources

NASA, "MIR Station." <http://www.liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/rsa/mir.html>.

Russian Space Web, "Mir Close Calls." <http://www.russianspaceweb.com/mir_close_calls.html>.

^*Mir housed cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, who has the distinction of living in space for the longest period of time in the twentieth century: 438 days.

^*In May, 2001, Dennis Tito became Earth's first space tourist, spending ten days on the International Space Station.