Suzy B Software 2/Suzy B Software CD-ROM 2 (1994).iso/nasa/mir/mir.txt

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This is a description of the Mir-Kvant complex.  Most of this information came
from the Almanac of Soviet Manned Space Flight, by Dennis Newkirk.  Additional
information from the sources listed at the end of the document and from the
files of D.R. Newkirk.


Mir
---

    Initial planning for the expandable Mir space station apparently occurred
shortly after Salyut 6 was launched in 1977.  In 1978, Salyut designer and
cosmonaut Konstantin Feoktistov said he thought that a Salyut should be
equipped with seven to eight docking ports.[1]    This would allow departing
Soyuz to leave their orbital modules docked, providing six cubic meters of
space for experiments.    This was later tested on Salyut 6, but he said to add
even one component like a docking port to the Salyut was difficult, since the
surface was covered by apparatus and equipment.[2]  He also said that the
launch shroud restricted the size and shape of the station.  Mir was launched
within a standard Salyut type launch shroud.

    The decision to begin the full scale development of Mir was apparently
taken shortly after the successful launch of Salyut 7.    A Soviet article said
that Mir's development was a major space program issue in 1983.  At the IAF
conference in Sweden, in Oct. 1985, the Soviets announced that Mir would have
multiple docking ports and be expanded by adding four to six modules to the
ports.[3]  Mir was basically a modified Salyut which took advantage of the
Protons recently increased payload capability.    Mir was 13.13 meters long, 4.15
meters in diameter and weighed 20,000 kg.. The station was designed to operate
for at least 10 years.[4]  Mir was different from previous Salyut's in that
almost all of the instruments and experiments were removed from the space
station leaving more room inside for living accommodations.  The experiments
would be located in add-on modules which were launched over a period of
years.[5]

    Mir was equipped with a multiple docking adapter with five docking ports in
place of the transfer compartment on a normal Salyut.  These additional docking
ports would be used for specialized orbital modules weighing up to 21,000 kg.
each.  To lighten the station only three drouges were in the docking adapter
which had to be manually moved during EVA from port to port as modules arrived.
The Soviets said that the final weight of Mir would be 100,000 kg., equal to
the weight of Mir and Kvant with four Star modules.[6]    The stations rendezvous
and docking antennas were designed and placed not to obstruct any of the five
ports.    The forward port also was equipped with the new Kurs docking system for
use with new orbital modules and the Soyuz TM.    The Kurs docking system
eliminated the need for the space station to be orientated toward the
approaching spacecraft.  The Progress still used the Igla system which required
the station to be pointed actively toward the Progress.  This required use of
large amounts of attitude propellant (around 190 kg.).    Procedures were revised
by the flight of Progress 33 which cut this amount in half.[7]

    All spacecraft docking to the forward five ports would first dock to the
front port. A new manipulator system would then move modules to a side port.
Manipulators were installed on the orbital modules to dock them to the side
ports using two grappling points on the docking adapter.  The manipulators were
very primitive compared to the multi-purpose U.S. shuttle manipulator arm.  The
Soviet manipulators (the Ljappa system) were short small arms with only two
degrees of freedom, just enough to move a module to one of the side docking
ports. Three petals on both the arm and attach point guided the latching
mechanisms together.  The manipulators were not intended to serve any other
purpose than moving the large modules around.[8]  Grechko said that it was not
acceptable practice to dock to the side ports directly since the solar arrays
were so close.    Spacecraft docking at the forward port were angled with 45
degrees counter-clockwise in the roll axis.  Modules would later be docked to
avoid their solar arrays from bumping together with Mir's during redocking to
the side ports.

    Two different types of add-on modules were developed for use with Mir, the
long type and the short type.  The short module was planned for use on the aft
end of Mir and possibly the sides.  The module on the rear of Mir would receive
Progress transports and provide gyroscopic attitude control (like on Skylab).
The long modules were modifications of the previous Star modules and would
provide additional living space, experiments and services to the station like
attitude control, airlocks, maneuvering units, more gyroscopes and shuttle
docking facilities.  The Mir station was to reach its initial operating
capability when the Kvant and Kvant 2 modules were docked to it, but routine
operations began with the docking of the Kvant module.    The final Mir
configuration with four orbital modules was planned to house six people, of
which three would be rotated about every 60 or 120 days.

    Mir was equipped with two newly designed gallium arsenide solar arrays
attached to its mid-section instead of a Salyut's three arrays, but the Mir
arrays were more than twice as big.[9]m  Each array was about 10 meters long
and four meters wide, total area was 76 square meters, they spanned 29.73
meters and they produce an estimated nine kilowatts of power.[10]  Mir was
equipped with a buffer battery for power surges and several reserve batteries
for use as additional modules were added to the station.[11]  On the ends of
the arrays were docking transponders and running lights. Provisions for
installing an additional array to the mid-section were provided to power the
Kvant module. This array would supply 2.4 kilowatts from 24 square meters
area.[12]  On the aft end of the station was a small dish antenna for
communication through SDRN (Luch) satellites to ground stations.  The data rate
from Mir was initially triple that from the Salyut type stations and this
increase also required more powerful computers at mission control.[13]    The
Soviets predicted that the number of commands required to manage the Mir
complex could grow from 300 to 1000 once all five modules were added.[14]

    The engine system was apparently unchanged from the Salyut 6 type. It had
two 300 kg. thrust main engines and thirty two, 14 kg. thrust RCS rockets.
Around the rear edge of the station were running lights and solar sensors.  All
of the station's port holes had movable outside covers for protection from
dust.  New type television cameras on the docking ports were used to observe
spacecraft dockings.  Mir was also equipped with a MKF-6M or MKS-M viewing port
in the adapter section although no camera was carried on Mir at launch (the
MKS-M was installed later).

    The station was divided into two main sections, the work or control section
and the living section.  Forward of the work section was the docking module and
airlock.  Any of the hatches on the docking adapter could be used for EVA.[15]
Previous docking hatches were never used for this purpose.  The stations flight
controls were located in the work section end of the station.  Mir was
controlled by seven computers of the Strela system using what the Soviets
described as new components like integrated circuits and other miniature
electronic devices.  A digital data bus provided connection from the computers
to the stations systems and experiments.  The computers could be programmed
from the ground to operate the station and experiments for at least a few days
at a time.  Mir also was equipped with a new computer called the EVM.[16]  All
information on the station complex was displayed on its terminal.  The computer
was capable of maintaining the stations orientation indefinitely without human
intervention as with the old Delta system.[17]    The space station controls
included a new optical sight and a new portable orientation control stick.  The
environmental system was modified to maintain temperature from 18 to 29 C and
given a greater ventilation capability than the previous Salyut's.[18]    Carbon
dioxide removal was not like Salyut's and Soyuz filters.  The Vozduyk system
rejected carbon dioxide directly to space.[19]

    Most of the stations volume consisted of the living section.  The galley
and folding table were similar to Salyut equipment with built in food heaters
for a crew of two.  The floor of the living section was made up of several
storage compartments for equipment.  The treadmill was reoriented to face the
control console instead of a wall as on Salyut 7.  The ergometer was normally
stowed beneath the floor behind the table.[20]    Like previous stations, Mir
carried a chibis lower body low pressure suit and Penguin elastic suits.[21]
This storage space was made available by eliminating the telescope housing
carried on all previous Salyut stations.  Instead of a Salyut's equipment racks
Mir had only living space for a crew of two.  Each cosmonaut had a separate
closet like compartment off the living section for sleep and privacy.
Eliminating the equipment racks at the rear of the living section made the
interior larger even though the outer dimensions remained the same as a Salyut.
For the crews entertainment and instruction there was a video tape recorder and
a library of tapes for their use.[22]  The sleeping compartments each had a
folding chair, mirror, port hole and sleeping bag.  Next to the left side
compartment was a small refrigerator which could hold 40 kg. of food.[23]  The
living compartment walls were covered with elastic straps to secure items and
the general lighting was built into the ceiling.  Hand rails ran the length of
the walls and ceiling. There was only one scientific and trash airlock mounted
hidden in the floor.  As on Salyut, the sanitary station was in front of the
intermediate section and included a new button activated spherical wash basin
which had openings for the hands and face which were sprayed with water.[24,25]
The toilet was also a new design different than those on Salyut's.  The new
design used suction to pull solid waste into a bag for disposal.[26]  The
stations water storage tanks were also located nearby, probably in
unpressurized engine compartment as on Salyut 7.


Kvant
-----

    Kvant means quantum in Russian.  Cosmonaut Dzhanibekov said in an
interview, in 1986, that the module delivery had slipped behind a scheduled
mid-1986 launch.  A mock-up of the Kvant was first shown in the trainer
building at Star City in July, 1986.  The Kvant provided experiment space to
the Mir station and could provide attitude control needed when additional
modules were docked to the Mir's side docking ports.  The module was equipped
with magnetically suspended gyroscopes, once used on the military Salyuts, to
enable stable accurate pointing of the space station complex, when using the
modules astronomical instruments (Skylab also used gyros for this purpose in
1973), and during maneuvers.  The gyro system and its power system weighed too
much, almost 1000 kg., to install in the modified Salyut station which became
Mir, and this required the add-on modules to accommodate the system.

    Kvant consisted of a large diameter work section, and an intermediate
compartment.  The module was combined at launch with a maneuvering module, the
Functional Auxiliary Block, that would dock the module to the station.    The
combined spacecraft weighed 20,600 kg. at launch.  The Functional Auxiliary
Block propulsion module was a separate spacecraft launched already docked to
the work section.  It weighed 9600 kg., was 8.7 meters long, and would act as a
space tug to deliver the module to the space station.  After delivering the
module to Mir the Functional Auxiliary Block separated and was placed into a
storage orbit.

    The Kvant module was 4.15 meters in diameter, 5.8 meters long and the
weighed 11,000 kg..  The module had 40 cubic meters habitable volume and four
port holes, one 43 cm. diameter for cameras, one 22.8 cm. diameter for star
trackers, and two eight cm. viewing ports on the end of the intermediate
section near the docking port.[27,28]  The interior was divided into an
instrument and living section by panels.  The work compartment instrument panel
contained television, communications equipment, life support system controls,
guidance system controls and a digital and two analogy computers.  The module
contained the Electron water electrolysis device.  This was used for converting
water into oxygen for addition to the stations atmosphere.[29]    The Vozdukh
unit absorbed carbon dioxide from the air and dumped it overboard.  This
eliminated the need for air regeneration canisters on Mir.  The module was
connected to Mir's air ventilation system through flexible pipes laid through
the hatches.  Mir was configured to allow these pipes to be run to all modules
that would be added later, in addition to the Soyuz transports docked to the
forward and aft ports.    Kvant carried 1500 kg. internal systems and instruments
and 2500 kg. cargo.  The expected lifetime of the module was five years.

    The module carried six gyroscopes called Gyrodins, each weighing 165 kg..
The gyroscopes were used to control the stations attitude by converting
electrical energy from the space stations solar arrays into torques by turning
the gyroscopes.  To keep track of the stations attitude and position to an
accuracy of one minute of arc, Kvant was also equipped with a computer
controlled platformless inertial navigation unit.[30]  Powering the modules
gyro's required 90 Watts of power.[31]    A new solar array which was carried to
Mir on board Kvant, and installed on the top of Mir, by the Soyuz TM-2 crew to
help power Mir and Kvant.  The Soviets had also planned to allow for the
installation of solar arrays on the Kvant module, but the feature was dropped
from the final design.    Kvant was also intended to be equipped with a MKF-6M
camera, but late in the preparations the Soviets decided to remove it and place
it on the next Mir expansion module.[32]

    The intermediate compartment on the aft end of the module also could serve
as an EVA airlock.  The module was equipped with the old Igla docking system on
its front end, to enable docking to the rear of Mir.  The rear was equipped
with both the Igla and Kurs docking systems to provide automatic docking of
both Progress and Soyuz TM spacecraft.    The Kvant also had television docking
cameras installed on the front and rear docking units.[33]  The intermediate
compartment contained the Glazar ultraviolet telescope control panel, and a
small airlock for replacing film in the telescope.  The Glazer telescope was a
development of the Orion telescopes carried on Soyuz flights of the early
1970s.    The telescopes mirror was 40 cm. in diameter and precision was one
second of arc.    The telescope was planned to take several thousand pictures and
be used for several years.[34,35]

    The Kvant module carried the Roentgen experiment package around the
intermediate section.  Instruments carried there included the Soviet Pulsar-1
X-ray telescope for gamma and X-ray sources up to 800 KeV, the British TTM
X-ray wide angle telescope (similar to the XRT telescope that flew on NASA
shuttle mission STS-51F/Spacelab 2 in 1985), the ESA Sirene 2 spectrometer for
X-ray sources 2-100 KeV (modified from the European Space Agency Exosat) and
the West German Phoswich X-ray telescope for 15-250 KeV sources (modified from
a balloon carried telescope).[36]  The experiments had no independent pointing
ability requiring the entire Mir complex had to be pointed by the cosmonauts to
point the instruments.    Also in the experiment cluster was the 800 kg. Svetlana
experimental electrophoresis production plant (named after cosmonaut Svetlana
Savitskaya, who did some electrophoresis experiments on Salyut 7), which was to
be man tended during EVA's.[37]



Sources:

[1]  Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress, Soviet Space
     Programs 1976-80, Manned Space Programs and Life Sciences, Part 2.
     Washington : Government Printing Office, 1984, pp. 652

[2]  Hooper, Gordon R. "Missions to Salyut 6: Part 7." Spaceflight, Vol. 21,
     No. 7, July, 1979, pp. 324

[3]  "Soviet Scene", Spaceflight, Vol. 28, No. 3, March, 1986, pp. 111

[4]  van den Abeelen, Lucien "Soviet Shuttle for Space Station Role."
     Spaceflight, Vol. 29, Nov., 1987, pp. 379

[5]  Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress, Soviet Space
     Programs 1976-80, Manned Space Programs and Life Sciences, Part 2.
     Washington : Government Printing Office, 1984, pp. 466

[6]  Radio Moscow, North American Service, April 14, 1988

[7]  Foreign Broadcast Information Service, USSR, Space,  JPRS-USP-88-002,
     April 6, 1988, Joint Publications Research Service, pp. 8

[8]  Abeelen, Lucien van den "Mir Docking and Operations." Spaceflight, Vol.
     29, May, 1987, pp. 185

[9]  Foreign Broadcast Information Service, USSR, Space,  JPRS-USP-86-005,
     Sept. 1986, Joint Publications Research Service, pp. 4

[10] Foreign Broadcast Information Service, USSR, Space,  JPRS-USP-86-004,
     April, 1986, Joint Publications Research Service, pp. 10

[11] USSR Space Life Sciences Digests, NASA CR-3922(12), Issue 10, pp. 88

[12] Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress, Soviet Space
     Programs 1981-87, Part 1. Washington : Government Printing Office, May,
     1988, pp. 80

[13] Foreign Broadcast Information Service, USSR, Space,  JPRS-USP-87-003,
     April 1987, Joint Publications Research Service, pp. 6

[14] Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress, Soviet Space
     Programs 1981-87, Part 1. Washington : Government Printing Office, May,
     1988, pp. 78

[15] Foreign Broadcast Information Service, USSR, Space,  JPRS-USP-86-004,
     April, 1986, Joint Publications Research Service, pp. 10

[16] Foreign Broadcast Information Service, USSR, Space,  JPRS-USP-86-004,
     April, 1986, Joint Publications Research Service, pp. 10-18

[17] Foreign Broadcast Information Service, USSR, Space,  JPRS-USP-86-005,
     Sept. 1986, Joint Publications Research Service, pp. 4-5

[18] Foreign Broadcast Information Service, USSR, Space,  JPRS-USP-86-004,
     April, 1986, Joint Publications Research Service, pp. 7, 19

[19] Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress, Soviet Space
     Programs 1981-87, Part 1. Washington : Government Printing Office, May,
     1988, pp. 83

[20] Foreign Broadcast Information Service, USSR, Space,  JPRS-USP-86-004,
     April, 1986, Joint Publications Research Service, pp. 7, 17

[21] USSR Space Life Sciences Digests, NASA CR-3922(12), Issue 10, pp. 90

[22] Foreign Broadcast Information Service, USSR, Space,  JPRS-USP-87-003,
     April 1987, Joint Publications Research Service, pp. 4

[23] USSR Space Life Sciences Digests, NASA CR-3922(12), Issue 10, pp. 89

[24] Foreign Broadcast Information Service, USSR, Space,  JPRS-USP-86-004,
     April, 1986, Joint Publications Research Service, pp. 11

[25] USSR Space Life Sciences Digests, NASA CR-3922(12), Issue 10, pp. 90

[26] Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress, Soviet Space
     Programs 1981-87, Part 1. Washington : Government Printing Office, May,
     1988, pp. 83

[27] Foreign Broadcast Information Service, USSR, Space,  JPRS-USP-87-004,
     July, 1987, Joint Publications Research Service, pp. 9

[28] Kidger, Neville "Space Walk Saves Mission." Spaceflight, Vol. 29, June,
     1987, pp. 237

[29] Foreign Broadcast Information Service, USSR, Space,  JPRS-USP-87-005,
     Aug. 1987, Joint Publications Research Service, pp. 1

[30] "Busy Routine for Mir Crew." Soviet Spaceflight Report Ed. Kappesser,
     Peter J. No. 5, Sept./Oct., 1987, pp. 4

[31] "Soviets Use New Gyros To Stabilize Mir Station." Avitaion Week & ST,
     Nov. 2 1987, pp. 79

[32] Kidger, Neville "Volkov Prepares for Autumn Flight." Spaceflight, Vol.
     30, June, 1988, pp. 226

[33] "Mir Mission: Third Solar Array Installed." Spaceflight, Vol. 29, Aug.,
     1987, pp. 282

[34] Kidger, Neville "Endurance Record Broken." Spaceflight, Vol. 29, Nov.,
     1987, pp. 374

[35] Foreign Broadcast Information Service, USSR, Space,  JPRS-USP-87-005,
     Aug. 1987, Joint Publications Research Service, pp. 3

[36] Kidger, Neville "Mir in Action." Spaceflight, Vol. 29, No. 4, April,
     1987, pp. 136

[37] Kidger, Neville "Space Walk Saves Mission." Spaceflight, Vol. 29, June,
     1987, pp. 237