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RUSSIAN cosmonauts who ventured into the damaged module of the Mir space
station last week put their trust in a series of simulations that promised they
would not encounter shards of glass or toxic chemicals. According to John Uri,
NASA’s mission scientist for Mir, tests on a refrigerator and a laptop computer
similar to equipment left in the Spektr module showed no ill effects from
depressurisation. In the tests, the equipment “pretty much just sat there”, says
Uri.

The simulations proved accurate. When Pavel Vinogradov opened the hatch to
Spektr, all he saw were some white flakes floating in the vacuum. He speculated
that they were residues from Michael Foale’s shampoo bottle, which could have
exploded.

Vinogradov and his partner Anatoly Soloveyov quickly succeeded in their main
task, reconnecting some cables that will deliver critical power from solar
panels mounted on the Spektr module. Russian officials hope the repairs will
provide an additional 8 kilowatts, boosting Mir’s power-generating capacity by
50 per cent.

The cosmonauts reported two strange phenomena inside Spektr that mystified
flight controllers. Vinogradov insisted that there was condensation on some of
the equipment, although Russian experts say that in a complete vacuum, water
vapour should have long since disappeared.

The cosmonauts also reported hearing fans and other equipment coming back to
life inside Spektr as they connected the electrical cables. This seemed
impossible because sound cannot travel in a vacuum, and the cables the
cosmonauts were connecting are not linked directly to any equipment in the
module.

NASA officials offered an explanation a few hours later. When Mir emerged
from the shadow of Earth into direct sunlight, some current flowed from the
solar panels directly to batteries and equipment in the Spektr module, causing
some fans to spin.

Researchers on the ground cheered news that the cosmonauts had retrieved a
laptop computer and a stack of computer discs. These may contain data from
several experiments that were interrupted on 25 June, when a supply ship crashed
into Spektr, forcing the crew to abandon the module. Most of the experiments
were devoted to studying the effects of long-term spaceflight on the human body.
Although some data might now be recovered, blood and urine stored in a
refrigerator were ruined.

A team of German and Italian researchers were not so happy. They are
investigating how well muscles can perform sudden, strenuous tasks, such as
jumping, after long periods of weightlessness. But when they arrived in Moscow
they learnt that Vasili Tsibliev, who was at Mir’s controls when the supply ship
rammed Spektr, would no longer take part in their tests. He has been said to
suffer from an irregular heartbeat, but he is also bitter at accusations that he
is partly to blame for Mir’s problems.

Tsibliev and his flight engineer, Alexander Lazutkin, were supposed to fill
out a weekly questionnaire while in orbit, reporting on how they felt about life
on board. The stress and strain of recent months may make for some interesting
results, says Nick Kanas, the psychologist who designed the study for NASA. “I
just hope they filled out their questionnaires and that they did it honestly.”