A typical Russian winter
September 16, 2014 5:06 PM   Subscribe

The recovery of Salyut 7 In 1985, the Soviet Union's space station Salyut 7 was crippled by an total electrical failure. Reactivating it would require a manual docking and working in bitter cold, 130 miles above the planet.
posted by bitmage (18 comments total) 26 users marked this as a favorite
 
Can I get this as a scenario for Kerbal?
posted by MrBobaFett at 6:07 PM on September 16, 2014


Woah. Totally glad to have read it; dry without being cold, accurate without being too technical. An incredible story, well told.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 6:28 PM on September 16, 2014 [3 favorites]


Awesome, thanks for posting this. I always love stories of engineers making-do with whatever they have on had.
posted by nevercalm at 6:33 PM on September 16, 2014


Salyut

One rather easily imagines the cast of the Russian version of Hee-Haw popping out of a cornfield at this point.
posted by Wolfdog at 6:33 PM on September 16, 2014 [2 favorites]


Ars Technica does a good job with these stories. Until this, nobody had tried to dock with a completely passive object -- it was always assumed that the object had to be three-axis stabilized and under active control.

You still wouldn't want to do it unless you really really really had to. Spaceflight has an amazing array of ways to kill you very quickly.
posted by eriko at 6:34 PM on September 16, 2014 [3 favorites]


Wolfdog: One rather easily imagines the cast of the Russian version of Hee-Haw popping out of a cornfield at this point.

Salyut 1 was launched in 1971 about 10 years after Yuri Gagarin's flight to salute him. Sal Yut!
posted by Rob Rockets at 6:40 PM on September 16, 2014


One rather easily imagines the cast of the Russian version of Hee-Haw popping out of a cornfield at this point.

And Салю́т in fact means "salute," at least in the fireworks sense, and probably in the respectful gesture to a superior sense, but I'm not sure of that.

What was going to be Salyut 8 (DOS-7) had larger solar panels installed, more crew space fitted, and four more docking ports added (totaling six) and became the Mir Core Block. Unlike the ISS, which wasn't habitable until the Zarya, Unity, and Zvezda modules were on orbit and mated, Mir was operational at launch and manned shortly thereafter.
posted by eriko at 6:42 PM on September 16, 2014


Ars Technica does a good job with these stories. Until this, nobody had tried to dock with a completely passive object -- it was always assumed that the object had to be three-axis stabilized and under active control.

Hey, I thought Gemini 10 did this when it went caught up the to the Agena from Gemini 8?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:47 PM on September 16, 2014


OH FUCK I AM SO EXCITED TO READ THIS.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 6:54 PM on September 16, 2014


Hey, I thought Gemini 10 did this when it went caught up the to the Agena from Gemini 8?

Gemini 10 rendezvoused with two Agena. The first, which worked, they docked with and they used the Agena motor to boost their orbit. The second, which was dead, wasn't docked with, instead, Michael Collins spacewalked over to it and retrieved a dust collection experiment and lost his camera in the process. Oops.
posted by eriko at 6:56 PM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


Riveting. What an amazing story. The repair cosmonauts sound like badasses.
posted by notsnot at 7:04 PM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


That is a hell of a story. They basically did the solar-panel equivalent of push-starting a car. "Just hotwire the panels right to the batteries, then nudge the station so the panels are illuminated".

Also: “it felt like being in an old, abandoned home. There was a deafening silence pressing upon our ears.”. Brrrr.
posted by Nelson at 7:09 PM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


Ah, for some reason I thought Gemini 10 had docked with the second Agena. Shame about that camera though, those photographs would have been spectacular.

Hats off to Salyut 7!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:14 PM on September 16, 2014


and lost his camera in the process

Setting up the most awesome "I found this camera and I am posting the pics to find out whose it is" ever.

I was struck by the atmospheric testing they did, while imagining Fred Kwan taking off his helmet and sniffing. "Seems OK." Also, the fur coats had me thinking of "The Naked Time" or other Trek depictions of extreme cold.

There are, of course, probably similarities to when Crew 1 got up to the Functional Cargo Block of ISS and began activating stuff, about two years behind schedule. (The FGB was originally to be part of Mir-2, and like Mir had evolved from the Salyut design.) Interestingly, not only is there a known "smell of space" (largely due to ionization that takes place during docking), there was also a distinct Mir smell, which is probably close to what these guys experienced.

Thinking of these guys worried that if they flipped the wrong switch at the wrong time they would short out their ride home ... just wow.
posted by dhartung at 8:04 PM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


Can I get this as a scenario for Kerbal?

Any time you want - stick a couple clampotrons on something and put it in orbit and then bump it with your docking vessel so that it starts slowly spinning. Now back away (but not so far that it unloads and reloads the model - say 1 km). Now trick to dock. Have fun.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 12:52 AM on September 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


Without MechJeb.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:39 AM on September 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


Noobs, they should just have used time acceleration to stop the spinning... ;)
posted by SAnderka at 7:24 AM on September 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


"The little-known Soviet mission..." I remember this quite clearly at the time.

Good story, and pleased that this stuff can resurface and still enthrall.
posted by marvin at 8:15 AM on September 17, 2014


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