European Space Agency

The Euromir Missions

R.D. Andresen

R. Domesle

Space Station Utilisation Division, ESA Directorate of Manned Spaceflight and Microgravity, ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

The 179-day flight of ESA Astronaut Thomas Reiter onboard the Russian Space Station Mir drew to a successful conclusion on 29 February 1996 with the safe landing of the Soyuz TM-22 capsule near Arkalyk in Kazakhstan. This mission, known as Euromir 95, was part of ESA's precursor flight programme for the International Space Station, and followed the equally successful Euromir 94 mission by ESA Astronaut Ulf Merbold (3 October 4 November 1994). This article discusses the objectives of the two flights and presents an overview of the experiment programme, a preliminary assessment of its results and achievements, and reviews some of the lessons learnt for future Space Station operations.

Introduction

One of the major objectives reflected in the Resolutions adopted at the ESA Council Meeting at Ministerial Level in Granada (E) on 10 November 1992 was a widening and strengthening of international cooperation. In the light of the evolving geopolitical scene, particular emphasis was given to the intensification of cooperation with the Russian Federation.

Consequently, ESA and the Russian Space Agency subsequently signed an Agreement to cooperate on manned space infrastructure and space transportation systems in the 1993 1995 time frame. Two major space station elements, the European Robotic Arm (ERA) and the Data Management System for the Russian Service Module (DMS-R) are being developed within the framework of this intensified cooperation. The Euromir 94 and 95 missions, with ESA astronauts working on board the Russian space station Mir, were also a direct result of this cooperation.

As Columbus Precursor Flights, Euromir 94 and 95 had the following general objectives:

A specific objective of the Euromir missions was also to intensify relations with the space institutions of the Russian Federation through missions onboard the Mir station. This included the flight and accommodation of astronauts and payloads, which at the same time was also part of the Agency's preparations for the use of future inhabited international space infrastructures.

The major scientific and technical objectives of the Euromir missions were:

The Euromir 95 experiment programme

The experiment programme for the Euromir 95 mission concentrated on the effects of long-term weightlessness on the human body. In total, there were 18 life-science experiments addressing:

Additional experiments were undertaken in the materials- science (8) and astrophysics (5) domains, dealing respectively with the processing and testing of new materials and with the analysis of space environmental effects.

A further 10 experiments were related to the advancement of space-related technology, e.g. sensing and monitoring technology, multi-media technology using computer and video devices, etc.

An average of 4.5 h per day of astronaut work-time was allocated exclusively to experiment work, aside from the time that had to be devoted to flight-engineering tasks. Two EVAs, each lasting several hours, contributed directly to the overall scientific goals of the mission in that they made it possible to install and retrieve material samples and sensors fixed to the outside of the Mir station using the European Space Exposure Facility (ESEF).

Several multi-user facilities have been installed on board Mir to support many of these experiments: the RMS-II, a respiratory monitoring system to study the astronaut's lung function and blood flow through the heart and lung system; the BDM (Bone Densitometer Measurement) system, an ultrasonic device for monitoring differences in bone density; the CSK-4 furnace, a six- zone tubular furnace, called TITUS, capable of achieving temperatures of up to 1250°C; and the above-mentioned ESEF, which was attached to the Mir module Spektr prior to the Euromir 95 flight. A 'BSU-Kit' for the collection of blood, saliva and urine, and a freezer for their storage, were two other multi-user facilities delivered to the station in preparation for the two Euromir flights.

Euromir 95 mission achievements

Although the activities conducted aboard Mir by the astronauts are the most critical and most visible, they represent only a part of the great number of tasks and activities undertaken by the entire team of astronauts, engineers, scientists, operations staff and managers before, during and after the actual flights.

Mission preparation and crew training
The Euromir 95 project team was able to build upon some of the infrastructure put into place for, and the experience gained from, the Euromir 94 mission. Nonetheless, specific preparations for the Euromir 95 mission were necessary in three major areas:

Astronaut training and onboard activity planning
Some 3500 hours of training were completed by the two ESA astronauts, Thomas Reiter and Christer Fuglesang, during their preparations for the Euromir 95 mission. This training took place partly at the European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne (D), and partly (in the later stages exclusively) at the Cosmonaut Training Centre (TsPK) in Star City near Moscow (Fig. 1). It included not only experiment-specific training, but also more general training in space-vehicle navigation, as well as Russian language training. A large part of the training was devoted to the Mir systems and to EVA operations, enabling the ESA astronaut to assume the role of onboard engineer for specific subsystems and to participate in two EVAs during the flight.

Esa astronauts
Figure 1. ESA Astronauts Thomas Reiter from Germany (left) and Christer Fuglesang from Sweden (right) training in the Soyuz-TM capsule simulator, at the Cosmonaut Training Centre (Tsentr Podgotovka Kosmonavtov=TsPK) near Moscow, in preparation for Euromir 95

In parallel with this training, flight procedures for all of the experiments were developed and refined, and the timeline for all onboard activities was drawn up on the basis of often contradictory requirements in terms of the number and duration of experiment runs, the envisaged onboard engineering tasks, the necessary crew rest time, the prescribed physical activities, etc. Each of these documents had to be negotiated with our Russian counterparts and agreed upon by both sides.

Experiment preparation
Every experiment went through a selection and approval cycle. As for the hardware, the flight model, spare model, training models and sometimes engineering models for each experiment had to undergo both qualification and acceptance testing. There was also a sophisticated shipment schedule for their transportation between Western Europe and Russia. The specification documents had to be generated and agreed upon in both English and Russian. In addition, upload and download agreements had to be negotiated not only with our Russian counterparts to ensure transport capacity on the Progress Transport Vehicle and on the Soyuz capsule, but also with NASA for the use of the Space Shuttle as the downloading transport vehicle from the Mir station.

Integrated into the pre-flight (and post-flight) experiment activities was the Baseline Data Collection (BDC) programme, by which medical data were obtained from the astronauts in a controlled way during pre-specified periods before and after the flight. Besides the ESA astronauts, the Russian Cosmonaut Sergei Avdeev also participated in some of the life-science experiments, and therefore also took part in the BDC programme.

Operations/communications set-up
For Euromir 94, the control centre for all payload operations (called SCOPE: System for Control of Operations of Payloads for Euromir) had been located at CNES in Toulouse (F), and for Euromir 95 it was sited at the DLR German Space Operations Centre in Oberpfaffenhofen. The operational infrastructure therefore had to be adapted accordingly and revalidated in order to ensure proper working of the basic communications setup. SCOPE was connected both to the Russian Flight Control Centre (Tsentr Upravleniya Polyotami=TsUP) in Kaliningrad near Moscow, and to fifteen remote Payload Operation Centres spread throughout Western Europe.

During Euromir 95, extensive use was made of worldwide data distribution via the Internet and of the DICE system via Eutelsat, mainly for video conferences and public-relations events. In contrast to Euromir 94, the project-management team largely remained at ESTEC throughout the flight and thereby relied extensively on these modern communications tools.

An overview of the communications setup is shown in Figure 2.

Euromir 95

Figure 2. Schematic of the overall communications setup for Euromir 95

The day-to-day operations were directed from SCOPE, with the support of a small ESA team at TsUP. Additional support to SCOPE was provided on a call-in or fly-in basis.

Mission operations
The Euromir 95 flight was the longest ever undertaken by an astronaut not from the former Soviet Union. It was originally scheduled to last 135 days, and was then extended in the course of the flight to 179 days. As a result, this flight gave the best preview to date of future long-term missions by ESA astronauts to the International Space Station.

Onboard operations
The mission drew a large measure of its success from the fact that ESA Astronaut Thomas Reiter and his two Russian colleagues, Commander Yuri Gidzenko and First Engineer Sergei Avdeev, formed an exceptionally harmonious team. Thomas Reiter's good command of the Russian language meant that onboard communication between the three was excellent and never once throughout the entire flight was intervention or interpretation from the ground necessary.

Esa astronauts
Figure 3. Yuri Gidzenko and Thomas Reiter preparing for a video documentation sequence

The excellent cooperation onboard was also displayed by the flawless teamwork during the two scheduled EVAs and during the repair work needed on one of the station's cooling loops. The good team spirit on Mir also had a stimulating effect on the Euromir ground team.

Ground operations
The six months of uninterrupted ground support needed for the Euromir 95 manned mission had no precedent in ESA nor, for that matter, in NASA. Nevertheless, they provided an excellent demonstration, like Euromir 94, of the feasibility of: (a) conducting the operations monitoring and control from a remote centre distant from the Russian Flight Control Centre at Kaliningrad, and (b) relying on voice, data and video links to the various supporting centres. The key to this operations concept's success with such a long-duration mission was the cooperative collaboration with the Russian control authorities, which provided daily real-time communications with the Mir station not only for the ESA Crew Interface Coordinator and the Crew Surgeon at TsUP, but also on an as needed basis for the Payload Operations Manager at SCOPE, for management personnel at ESTEC, and for the scientific team coordinators at the various User Support Centres.

Strict structures were implemented for lines of reporting and for filtering/distributing information in both directions (up to and down from Mir), with daily planning conferences scheduled at the times of the shift-team changeovers on the ground. The fact that different team members could monitor various voice communications loops was a particularly helpful feature of the operations scenario.

Both the flexibility and the quick-response capability of the ground operations system allowed the operations team to react speedily to schedule changes and even to large-scale planning adaptations, including the decision process regarding the 45-day mission extension.

Public relations
A major consideration due to the long-term nature of the mission was the need to keep the awareness and interest of the general public alive throughout, and to be able to react quickly and effectively to enquiries, especially at times of increased media interest (e.g. EVAs, mission extension, onboard malfunctions, launch/ landing, special occasions like Christmas, etc.). A series of public relations (PR) events were therefore planned throughout the mission, usually based on 40-minute video links with the Mir station (see Table 1).

ESA's Public Relations Division was charged with all PR- related aspects of the mission, starting with the generation of pre-mission PR material, defining (and negotiating with their Russian counterparts) PR-relevant activities, organising the various in-flight PR events, and ending with the support given to some of the major post-flight public engagements of ESA's astronaut after landing. The Headquarters staff were supported in these taks by the PR representatives of the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne (D) and of DLR at Oberpfaffenhofen (D). A member of the project's management team at ESTEC served exclusively as PR coordinator throughout the mission (incl. pre- and post-flight periods), matching the PR requirements and the needs of the media with the constraints and resources of the ongoing mission operations.

As a result of these efforts to achieve a well-planned and well-coordinated public-relations campaign throughout Euromir 95, manned spaceflight was portrayed very positively in nearly all of the related media coverage. The excellent video capabilities established with Russia for in-flight transmissions and the enthusiastic participation of the astronauts/cosmonauts in the various PR events were key factors in this success.

Appraisal of scientific return
Almost without exception, the Euromir 95 programme was successfully implemented exactly as planned. The extension of the mission beyond the foreseen 135 days made it possible to conduct some of the scientific experiments more often than originally planned.

The data and film material accumulated from the 41 experiments conducted aboard Mir are now in the hands of the scientists on the ground, who are currently analysing them, together with the sample material that has been returned in the meantime.

In the life-science domain, for example, blood, saliva and urine samples were collected during the flight and stored in a frozen (conserved) condition awaiting a full on-ground analysis by the Principal Investigators concerned. These investigations, together with the post-flight BDC activities immediately after landing, are expected to provide unique results with important physiological implications for future long-duration space flights.

Since the conclusion of the flight, various briefing sessions involving both the scientists and the astronauts, as well as a plenary meeting of the Investigator Working Group, have taken place with a view to consolidating the results and formulating concrete conclusions.

One already evident and important result from this flight has been the remarkably quick recovery and re-adaptation to our normal gravity environment of every member of the crew.

The detailed results of the Euromir life-sciences investigations, as well as those of the material science, technology and astrophysics experiments, are being published in separate papers in the scientific literature.

In the light of the positive feedback already received from the scientific community, efforts are underway to continue research onboard the Mir station with ESA-provided experiments. A third Euromir flight might also be envisaged, given that the Russian Space Agency (RKA) and NASA have already reached agreement to continue use of the Mir Station well into the next decade. On the assumption that NASA will operate additional Space Shuttle flights to Mir beyond those currently planned up to 1998, strong pressure can be expected from the European science community for an additional flight opportunity on Mir.

Conclusion

The success of these record-setting space flights by European astronauts on the Russian Mir station can be summed up from several viewpoints:

Lessons learnt for International Space Station operation

From the project-management viewpoint, the following conclusions can be drawn from the Euromir experience which are of relevance for future Space Station operations:


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Right Left Up Home ESA Bulletin Nr. 88.
Published November 1996.
Developed by ESA-ESRIN ID/D.