MIRNEWS.165    15 MARCH 1993

MIR-DAILY ROUTINE:

After the docking of freighter Progress-M16 the crew continued
their reparation and replacement work on the systems of the
complex. They did not much experimental work apart from geophysical
observations. They needed all their working time for
technical maintenance. They repaired a number of girodynes and
Manakov was positive about the results of that 'high priority'
work. I hope that I was right for Manakov is a great optimist.
The VDU (the external movements control motor in the Soforagirder)
is still unserviceable due to software problems. Of
great concern for crew and experts remain the complicated
systems to maintain the climate in that what is like an 'iron
lung'. In contradiction to the 'iron lungs' for medical use
this one has to feed and regenerate itself.
Wear of parts of that complicated complex results in malfunctioning,
so the crew repeatedly gets warnings about hitches,
but also by more noise than originally had been foreseen.
Daily thgey speak about the BKV-3, a system to restore
the condition of the air. When the crew gets perimission to
switch that system off (getting the command G-24), they enjoy
the silence. Polishchuk did a lot of repairwork on that BKV-3.

EXTRA VEHICULAR ACTIVITIES (EVA-S):

Shortly we can hear the crew speak about preparations for a
series of 4 EVA-s. For the 1st one the 16th of April has been
mentioned. During the first 3 EVA-s the cosmonauts will have
to replace the solarpanels from the Kristall module to the
Kvant-1. The 4th one is for the removal of materials which for
a long time had been exposed to the influences of open space.
The solarpanels have to be replaced to make future operations
possible. To execute the planned docking operations of Buran
and Space Shuttle to that Kristall module it has to be redocked
to the forward axial (PKhO) docking port. A second reason
to replace those solarpanels is the fact that some solarpanels
hinder other ones. Daily the crew has to economize the power
consumption of the complex. Polishchuk is responsible for that
and in Manakov's opinion he is an expert in that field.

MODULES:

Possibly the plans for the launch of the Modules Priroda and
Spektr have been altered. The first Module to be lauchnech for
a docking with MIR should be a technological one. So Priroda
is 2d on schedule. This is a pity for Priroda is ready for
launch.

RETURNCAPSULES:

Progress-M16 does not carry such a capsule and the use of such
a container from Progress-M17 has not been planned. The returncapsules
are for 100% reliable, but due to the little
amount of freight to be brought back, returncapsule operations
are too expensive.

Chris van den Berg, NL-9165/A-UK3202.