MIR Space Station – 30 Years since the launch of Continued human habitation of Space!

The International Space Station is a marvel of engineering and science and has been the basis for international collaboration of 18 countries but it owes its success to the first module space station the Soviet Mir Space Station. Here is a short history of the Mir Space Station but for more information check out my article about the legacy of the Mir Space Station on the Conversation!

Mir was the first spacecraft to be assembled in space with a number of individual modules. The first three were launched between 1986 and 1989 before the fall or the USSR and the formation of a collaboration between the Russia and America.

1: Mir Core module – 19th Feb 1986

2: Kvant-1  – 1987

3: Kvant -2 – 1989

4: Kristall – 1990

Each of these modules were designed to undertake science investigation and experimentation, including, each of which allowed science research to be undertaken including astronomy, biological studies and growing food, all of which will show if humans are capable of undertaking, surviving and even thriving in space during long-duration flights to explore beyond the moon.

A view of the Russian space station Mir on 3 July 1993 as seen from Soyuz TM-17 Jean-Pierre Haigneré – http://www.spacefacts.de/graph/drawing/drawings2/soyuz-tm-17_mir_2.jpg

Post 1991 the collaboration between America and Russia formed the Shuttle-Mir Program where the shuttle was resupplied by the Space Shuttle and the Soyuz and manned by both Russian cosmonauts and American astronauts, the first of which arrived in 1995.

Over the next 11 years, the Mir space station would be hosts to American, ESA, Japanese and Ukrainian astronauts. Two new modules were added, Spektr with 4 solar arrays and equipment for Earth observation, and Priroda was the final module to be added in 1996.

A view of the US Space Shuttle Atlantis and the Russian Space Station Mir during STS-71 as seen by the crew of Mir EO-19 in Soyuz TM-21. http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/LARGE/GPN-2000-001315.jpg

A view of the US Space Shuttle Atlantis and the Russian Space Station Mir during STS-71 as seen by the crew of Mir EO-19 in Soyuz TM-21. http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/IMAGES/LARGE/GPN-2000-001315.jpg

In 1997 failures such as a collision with a resupply ship and fires on board meant that Mir was starting to show her age. Even after the ill-fated year the station was repaired and continued to be used until it was abandoned in 1999. It was in November 2000 that decommission of the Space station was announced. The deorbit of Mir began on Jan 24th, 2001 when the Space Station crashed into the South Pacific Ocean.

With the exception of a few months in 1989 Mir was permanently manned and the lessons learned from this continual habitation led to the development of the highly successful ISS and we now have a greater understanding of the effect the microgravity has on the biology of astronauts meaning that suitable technologies and regimes can be put in place for future long-duration missions into the depths of the Solar System.

How was the moon formed ? Hit and run, or one of the biggest impacts?

Our moon is an anomaly is more than one ways, firstly its the only moon with the dullest name just as Earth is Earth the moon of Earth is called Moon, even the Kerbles were creative with calling their the Mun!

Secondly its one of the only satellites bodies currently theorised to have originated from the body it orbits, unlike other moons which are either captured or produce from ancient ring systems.

However, the actual formation of the moon is still in debate with scientific research on the subject bringing published in science this week.

It is generally accepted that the formation of the moon and the spin on the Earth on its axis are linked and that it was an impact between two bodies, a larger Earth and the Mars-size Theia that produced both these phenomena,

The impact between the two planets caused major disruptions of both bodies and flung debris from the collision into an orbit around the crippled planet. Over time the debris comes together and forms the moon and the initial collision disrupts the rotation of the Earth so that it moves are a slower rate the previously.

There have been links between the Earth and the moon ever since Apollo astronauts brought back samples of Moon rock to analyses. The composition of the moon is similar to that predicted of a Young Earth. since the formation of the moon, the Earth dynamic internal heating has changed and evolved the planet’s crust through millennial of plate tectonics. Whereas the moon becomes dormant and still.

A second and most important of the evidence for the Earth and Moon originating from on body is the oxygen isotope composition.

Oxygen isotopes are used as a characterization for the different planetary bodies of the Solar System. Each meteorite family, asteroid and planet has a singular oxygen isotope composition with a few overlaps. It is this which allows scientists to discover the original of Martian and Lunar Meteorites and group other meteorites into logical families.

 

The oxygen isotope composition of the rock brought back from the Moon sits on what in the trade is known as the Terrestrial Fractionation Line. This TFL is the line on which all rocks from Earth fall, along with the lunar samples suggesting that the Moon and the Earth originate from the same or similar body.

However this is the crux of the matter, Earth and Moon rocks are similar but my own experiments have shown the impressive survivability of the smaller objects during an impact. Therefore the question is: Where is the material from Theia?

Recent work investigating the oxygen isotope composition of Lunar Rocks suggest that the Moon and Earth have near identical Theia contents due to their indistinguishable oxygen isotope composition meaning that the moon-forming impact thoroughly mixed and homogenized the oxygen isotopes of Theia and the early Earth (Proto-earth).

Therefore there was no Hit and run collision but a high energy, high – angular -momentum impact that mixed the material of Theia with he Proto Earth distributing it homogeneously in the newly formed Moon and Earth.