Soyuz TM-17

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mission emblem
Mission emblem
Mission dates
Mission: Soyuz TM-17
COSPAR-ID : 1993-043A
Spacecraft: Soyuz 7K-ST ( GRAY index  11F732)
serial number 66
Dimensions: 7150 kg
Launcher: Soyuz U2 (GRAY index 11A511U2)
Call sign: Си́риус (" Sirius ")
Crew: 3 started
2 landed
Begin: July 1, 1993, 14:32:58  UTC
Starting place: Baikonur 1/5
Space station: Me
Coupling: July 3, 1993, 16:24:03 UTC
Decoupling: January 14, 1994, 04:37:11 UTC
Landing: January 14, 1994, 08:18:20 UTC
Landing place: 215 km west of Karaganda
49 ° 37 '  N , 70 ° 7'  E
Flight duration: 196d 17h 45min 22s
Earth orbits: 3070
Rotation time : 92.4 min
Apogee : 397 km
Perigee : 388 km
◄ Before / After ►
Soyuz TM-16
(manned) 		Soyuz TM-18
(manned)

Soyuz TM-17 is the mission name for the flight of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the Russian Mir space station . It was the 17th visit by a Soyuz spacecraft to the Mir space station and the 93rd flight in the Russian Soyuz program.

crew

Starting crew

Substitute team

Return team

  • Wassili Wassiljewitsch Ziblijew (1st space flight), commander
  • Alexander Alexandrovich Serebrov (4th space flight), flight engineer

Mission overview

During the first three weeks of flight, the five spacemen were busy completing the French research program and preparing for the return of the old crew. The French mission had been brought forward by a year at the request of the Russian space agency. Despite the shortened preparation time, it was the most demanding joint undertaking to date. For the first time, a large part of the scientific data was transmitted directly to the French control center in Toulouse via the communication satellite LUTSCH. Experts sat here who could directly influence the experiments. The Altair mission's experiments covered the categories of medicine, biology, astrophysics , materials research, and engineering. The necessary equipment had already been brought to the station several weeks before the Soyuz TM-17 launch with the cargo spacecraft Progress M-18.

The focus was on studies that looked at the effects of weightlessness on humans. Astrophysical research concerned the recording of UV spectra of selected stars and the creation of a sky map from X-ray sources. Material engineering experiments dealt with problems of wetting ceramic bodies by alloy melts and the investigation of their solidification. Various semiconductor crystals were also produced. Physical problems were dealt with in a series of experiments in which the force transmission when balls hit flat surfaces was investigated. The main aim here is to research the relationships between surface forces, interfacial energies , surface properties, elasticity and temperature. Then the old crew returned to Earth together with Jean-Pierre Haignere in the Soyuz TM-16 spacecraft.

The 14th permanent crew of the Mir space station continued to complete an extensive research and work program. On July 24th, the return capsule of Progress M-17, loaded with research results, was sent home. On August 11, the unmanned transport ship was decoupled from the station and placed in a deeper orbit. Here, on behalf of NASA, the aerodynamic deceleration due to the high atmosphere is to be measured over a longer period of time. A few days later, Progress M-19 brought supplies and equipment to the station.

Scientific experiments were carried out in the fields of biomedicine, astrophysics, earth exploration and materials research. In the crystal module, semiconductor crystals of the highest purity were produced from gallium arsenide . An experiment commissioned by the American company Boeing , which arrived at the station in October with the Progress M-20, also served to produce pure semiconductors . The finished crystals were brought back to earth in the return capsule of the transporter six weeks later.

The spacecraft activities of the two cosmonauts also played a special role. On September 16 and 20 (4:18 am and 3:14 am) they erected an additional RAPANA lattice structure on the SOFORA mast on the Kwant module . Various scientific devices were attached to it. On September 28th (1:52 h), film recordings of the station's outer shell were made. In particular, the effects of the Perseidenstrom should be documented. A larger hole was discovered in a solar cell surface. On October 22nd (38 minutes) the astronauts exchanged material samples on the station's outer skin. Finally, on October 29th (4:12 am) they completed their film documentation using a telescopic crane arm and took pictures of other solar cell surfaces and the SOFORA mast on the Kwant module.

After the end of your work program, the automatic system failed when uncoupling, so that you had to switch to manual mode. The subsequent brief contact with the coupling adapter did not cause any damage. After their six-month space flight, Ziblijew and Serebrov landed safely in the Kazakh steppe on January 14th.

See also

Web links