¾«¶«´«Ã½

PART of the Mir space station may be abandoned forever after a failed attempt
by astronauts last weekend to find a hole left when a cargo vessel collided with
the station’s Spektr module in June.

Despite a six-hour space walk to search for the tear in Spektr’s outer skin
that left it crippled and airless, the astronauts could find nothing. Now some
space officials in the US and Europe are predicting privately that the module,
which housed scientific experiments, will remain unoccupied even if the hole is
eventually fixed. They are worried that the tear might reopen.

Russian and American specialists are experimenting with materials with which
to plug the hole, should it be found. They are looking for resins that will bond
to the metal of Spektr’s outer skin and create a strong seal. But Greg Harbaugh,
a NASA official responsible for the agency’s work on Mir, says: “How do you
satisfy yourself, once you’ve done the repair, that it’s OK to send human beings
back in there?”

The original hole was small and the air escaped slowly, giving astronauts
several minutes to seal off the damaged module. But according to German
astronaut Reinhold Ewald, who was on board Mir earlier this year, the rupture of
a resin patch might create a much larger hole in the station.

NASA officials say that they can continue their scientific experiments
without the Spektr module. But they will carry on helping with the repair effort
because it is providing training for maintenance work on the future
International Space Station.

Russian specialists suspect that the hole in Spektr is beneath the base of a
solar panel damaged in the collision. When a space shuttle visits Mir in late
September it will deliver a metal plate that could be used to patch any leak.