Mir-Aragatz

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Mission emblem
Mission emblem
Mission dates
Mission: Mir-Aragatz
Crew: 1
Begin: November 26, 1988, 15:49  UTC
Starting place: Baikonur 1/5
Departure in: Soyuz TM-7
Space station: Me
Coupling: November 28, 1988, 17:16 UTC
Decoupling: December 21, 1988, 3:33 UTC
Return flight in: Soyuz TM-6
Landing: December 21, 1988, 9:57 UTC
Flight duration: 24d 18h ​​7min
◄ Before / After ►
Premier vol habité Me-Antares

Mir-Aragatz was the name of a Franco-Soviet research mission during which the French spaceman Jean-Loup Chrétien was on board the Soviet Mir space station for three weeks .

preparation

The beginnings of this research mission go back to a meeting between François Mitterrand and Mikhail Gorbachev in October 1985. Contract partners then became the French space agency CNES and the Soviet organization Glawkosmos , which bundled the activities on the Soviet side.

Jean-Loup Chrétien was nominated as a French spaceman . He had already made the first French space flight in 1982. His replacement was Michel Tognini from the second selection group of the CNES. Starting in 1986, the two of them spent two years preparing for the mission in the Yuri Gagarin cosmonaut training center near Moscow .

scientific programme

The choice of experiments for the Mir-Antares mission was made primarily with a view to the development of the ESA space shuttle Hermes . A total of 580 kg were brought to the Mir in advance with the Progress Progress 38 space transporter, which supported 13 experiments:

Biomedicine

  • ECHOGRAPHY : This was used to examine the changes in cardiac activity and blood circulation that result from the redistribution of body fluids in weightlessness. The data recorded during space flight was compared with that of the same person before the flight and during the readjustment to gravity after landing.
  • MINILAB : This was used to measure the levels of hormones and other biochemical substances in blood and urine samples.
  • PHYSALY : This experiment built on previous research investigating short-term adaptation to weightlessness. On board the Mir, this was extended to include long-term adaptation.
  • VIMINAL (VIsio Motricité: INfluence de l'Apesanteur et de L'entraînement): This acronym can be translated as "Sight and motor skills: Influence of weightlessness and training". The aim of the experiment was to investigate perception and movement during a long period of weightlessness.
  • CIRCE (Compteur Intégrateur de Rayonnement Complexe - integrating counter for complex radiation): This experiment applied a new approach to cosmic dosimetry .
  • DENSITOMETRY OSSEUSE : This was used to carry out bone density measurements during and after the space flight.
  • LYMPHOCYTES : This experiment was intended to investigate why the human body has fewer or no T lymphocytes in the blood after returning from space .

technology

  • AMADEUS : This experiment was used to check a solar cell model that was equipped with Carpentier joints to avoid friction.
  • ERCOS : These were highly integrated semiconductor memory of the cosmic radiation exposure to their behavior to study under space conditions.
  • ECHANTILLONS : This was the collective term for five experiments that examined the long-term behavior of different coatings under space conditions. The materials were examined partly during flight and partly on the ground after the samples were recovered during a space exit. The five individual experiments were COMES (Comportement de Matériaux dans l'espace - material behavior in space), MAPOL (Matériaux Polymères - polymer materials), DIC (Détecteurs d'Impacts Capacitifs - detector for capacitive impacts). DMC (Détecteur multicouches - multi-layer detector) and MCAL (Microcalorimètres - microcalorimeter).
  • ERA : The aim of this experiment was to try to mount a grid during a space exit and unfold it later. This was intended to demonstrate that humans can also carry out complex work in space and set up large structures.
  • SERCOM (SERvitudes COMmunes - shared auxiliary services): This unit contained systems that were shared by the experiments CIRCE, ECHANTILLONS and ERCOS.

pedagogy

During the flight, Chrétien demonstrated some physical experiments prepared by the Association Nationale Sciences Techniques Jeunesse (ANSTJ). He showed different effects of weightlessness and the recoil principle.

Mission history

The space flight began with a night launch of the Soyuz TM-7 spacecraft . In addition to Chrétien, there were also Alexander Volkov and Sergei Krikaljow on board, who were to remain on the Mir for several months as a crew Mir EO-4 .

For Chrétien this was the second space flight after his mission with Soyuz T-6 in 1982. A second French spaceman, Patrick Baudry , was involved in the US shuttle flight STS-51-G in 1985 , so that Mir-Aragatz is acted the third French space flight.

Two days after the launch, Soyuz TM-7 docked with the Kwant module of the Mir space station, ten minutes earlier than planned. Two hours later the three cosmonauts changed trains.

The Mir EO-3 long-term crew was still on board the Mir : Vladimir Titov , Musa Manarov and Valery Polyakov . The Soyuz TM-6 spaceship , with which they came to Mir three months ago, was still docked at the front coupling port.

This was the first time that six people were on board the Mir at the same time. Since the overlap time of two weeks was about twice as long as usual and the equipment for the French research program was also on board, the space station was uncomfortably tight.

On December 9th, after about halfway through the mission, the first space exit with French participation took place. Titov and Manarov withdrew to the Soyuz TM-6 spacecraft for safety reasons. First Chrétien went outside through the multiport adapter, then Volkov followed. Krikalev and Polyakov operated the Mir systems.

Chrétien and Wolkow first installed a camera to film the exit, and handrails to increase the cosmonauts' movement and safety. Then Echantillons were attached to the outer skin of the Mir. In the end, Volkov and Chrétien mounted ERA . Krikalev tried to deploy ERA by remote control, but failed. It was only after Volkov was kicked that ERA took the desired position.

This exit was the first to be carried out by a non-American and non-Soviet spaceman. With a duration of six hours, it was also the longest in Soviet space history to date.

On December 21, Chrétien went with Manarov and Titov to the Soyuz TM-6 spacecraft, which was docked with the Mir for almost four months. Polyakov stayed on board for another period with Volkov and Krikalev.

Soyuz TM-6 was decoupled at 3:33 UTC. New software developed after the problems with Soyuz TM-5 was supposed to be used in the spaceship for landing . However, this overloaded the on-board computer so that the brake ignition was not carried out at 6:00 as planned. The ground station had a backup of another program imported, and two orbits later, at 9:08 am, Soyuz TM-6 was able to ignite the engines as planned. The landing took place at 9:57 am with an overcast sky and freezing temperatures.

Importance of Mission

Until then, the Soviet Union (with the exception of the first Franco-Soviet space flight PVH ) had only welcomed guest cosmonauts from friendly nations on board its space stations as part of the Interkosmos program. Such a space flight usually lasted 7 days.

Mir-Aragatz went far beyond the previous one. At 24 days, Chrétien's space flight lasted far longer than the previous missions, which also set a new record for space flights from third nations. Before that, Ulf Merbold's 10 days were considered the longest flight by a non-Soviet and non-American spaceman.

In addition, Chrétien's complex space mission showed that he was considered an equal crew member.

With this space flight, France made it clear that its space activities would continue to be carried out in cooperation with both the USA and the Soviet Union.

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