The history of the struggle for time in space


    Last week, the annual expedition to the ISS by Mikhail Kornienko and Scott Kelly was successfully completed. Many people know that the 340-day mission was not supposed to be a new record, but the fact that it takes only the fourth place in the list of duration of flights is less known. The duration of space missions is one of the indicators of how we master space, how ready we are, for example, to fly to Mars. And at the beginning of the space age, every hour of flight was highly regarded in the space race. About how new records were set for the duration of space flights, today's story.

    Minutes and hours


    Initially, the duration of the flight was determined, at the same time, technology and medicine. The Soviet ship Vostok was designed for a multi-day flight (due to the non-duplicated brake engine, it was passive braking about the remains of the atmosphere that would take about a week to emergency return to Earth), and the American Mercury could stay in space for no more than a day. These features overlapped with a lack of knowledge about how the human body behaves in space. And although in the first two years of the space race both countries gradually increased the time of missions, the Soviet Union was the leader in terms of duration of flights.


    USSR astronauts in sequence of flight, from left to right

    108 minutes- “Vostok-1”, Yuri Gagarin, April 12, 1961. Curiously, there are supporters of the idea that the flight lasted 106 or 113 minutes. Only one turn now looks like a very short flight, but at that time it was a serious risk. Doctors scared that in zero gravity a person will not be able to eat, drink, breathe, go crazy, and even if this does not happen, his eye muscles will relax, his eyes will change shape and the astronaut will not be able to see anything. The risk, however, was reduced by the fact that the Vostoks could fly in automatic mode and could very likely bring even an astronaut who had lost working capacity back.
    In the USA, however, the rocket was not ready for orbital flight, so the first two missions of the Mercury used a less-loaded rocket, were suborbital, and lasted only fifteen minutes.

    25 hours 11 minutes- "Vostok-2", German Titov, August 6-7, 1961. Again, the risk - the duration of the space flight increased immediately by thirteen times. And the first cosmic troubles began to appear - in flight Titov felt dizzy and nauseous. The problem of adaptation to zero gravity has not yet been completely resolved. Yes, we know how to select and train people to make them less sick in orbit. Yes, we know how to ease the severity of symptoms (move less and try not to move your head). But so far, neither training nor pharmacology have been able to completely defeat cosmic nausea, and about half of the selected and trained astronauts are not comfortable on their first day of flight.
    Titov’s flight was another major blow to the United States. Only six months later, the first Mercury entered orbit, but stayed there only 4 hours 55 minutes - due to a failure of the heat shield shield sensor, the mission was erroneously interrupted ahead of schedule.

    94 hours 22 minutes(3 days 22 hours 22 minutes) - “Vostok-3”, Andriyan Nikolaev, August 11-15, 1962. In the first days of the flight, Nikolaev performed a very important experiment, which now seems a little funny - for the first time in the history of astronautics, he got rid of the seat and swam for about an hour in zero gravity. Now it’s impossible without it, but then it was also a risk - what if the astronaut cannot return to the chair? It would be much more difficult to transfer overloads and would have to land in the descent vehicle, which hit the ground hard, without any means of depreciation. But fears were in vain - swimming in zero gravity was very pleasant and completely uncomplicated. Andriyan is also the first astronaut to whom the flight duration was extended - initially the duration was determined to be three days, but according to the astronaut’s condition,

    115 hours 55 minutes (4 days 22 hours 55 minutes) - “Vostok-5”, Valery Bykovsky, June 14-19, 1963. And in this flight, another spacecraft and human system was tested for the first time - on the third day, Bykovsky first went to the toilet “in a big way” in space. Like many of the achievements of the first years of astronautics, this now looks funny, but it would be very sad if it suddenly turned out that toilet issues limit the movement of mankind into space. Bykovsky was not lucky - due to the fact that the orbit was lower than the calculated one, he lost the opportunity to extend the flight to eight days. But, nevertheless, he still holds the record for the duration of a single flight.
    In the USA, only in 1963 did they reach the milestone of a one-day flight duration. The final mission of the Mercury program - Mercury-Atlas 9 with a specially modified ship with additional batteries and oxygen cylinders lasted 34 hours. What is curious, and there were some toilet issues - problems with the tightness of the urinal led to short circuits, and the ship had to be planted almost by hand.

    Days


    The American lunar program required long flights - if you do not learn how to spend two weeks in space, then it will not make sense to fly to the moon. Soviet cosmonautics suffered from uncertainty with the lunar program, delays in the development of the new Soyuz spacecraft and the increased risk of launching Voskhod spacecraft that did not have a rescue system in the first minutes of the flight. And the record flight of the dogs Veterka and Ugolka, having been in space for 22 days, cannot be counted in human records.


    US astronauts of the second set of

    7 days 22 hours- "Gemini 5", Gordon Cooper, Charles Conrad, August 21-29, 1965. The first long flight of the very successful Gemini program, during which the Americans began to overtake the USSR in a space race. This mission nearly fell through due to pressure problems in undeveloped fuel cells. On the third day, the temperature control system began to be naughty - the temperature in the suits dropped to 5 ° C. But, despite all the problems, the flight was prolonged every day. Boredom became a separate challenge - astronauts did not take, for example, books with them, and the main entertainment was a six-hour cleaning of the ship.

    13 days 18 hours- "Gemini 7", Frank Borman, Jim Lowell, December 4-18, 1965. The second long flight in preparation for flights to the moon. This time the astronauts got ready and took books with them. But the flight was very difficult - the cabin was gradually filled with the smell of urine and unwashed bodies. Astronauts, as they could, put off going to the toilet “for the most part” and decided on this only on the tenth day. After landing, the astronauts, despite the vigorous smiles visible on the frames of the chronicle, hardly rearranged their legs. Frank Borman then recalled that he literally commanded his feet “right! left! right! left! ” Also during the flight, astronauts lost 4-5 kilograms. But nothing fatal happened - you could fly to the moon. By the way, Apollo flights did not break this record, the duration of the mission was chosen very correctly, with a margin.


    The film about the crew of "Union-9"

    17 days 16 hours- “Soyuz-9”, Andriyan Nikolaev, Vitaly Sevastyanov, June 1-19, 1970. The Americans won the lunar race in 1969, and this flight was an asymmetric answer - the USSR was preparing for long missions and began to create orbital stations. In addition, it was necessary to block the record of the Americans at the Gemini 7. Therefore, the flight was planned for 17-20 days. The flight was successful, without serious technical problems. For the first time in the USSR, astronauts shaved in orbit (which is curious, they liked electric shavers more, and Americans liked safety razors), spent the first space day off in history, played chess on the radio, and for the first time, a communication session was held with relatives for the psychological support of the crew. But after landing, an unpleasant surprise was discovered - the condition of the astronauts was worse than expected, trying to just stand on my feet led to problems with balance and increased heart rate. Doctors had to refine the methods of physical activity in space and rehabilitation algorithms after the flight.

    From a comparison of the post-flight state of the astronauts Gemini-7 and Soyuz-9, adherents of the lunar conspiracy are trying to make evidence that the Gemini program, like Apollo, was a hoax. Indeed, at first glance it is difficult to compare vigorously pacing Americans with astronauts almost dying after a flight. However, this argument has something to answer. Adherents of the lunar conspiracy shift emphasis. The Americans had trouble walking (I quoted above), and the Soviet cosmonauts were not on the verge of life and death. If you look for the materials of the doctors who examined Nikolaev and Sevastyanov, an unpleasant, but not critically dangerous picture opens up. Let me quote the article “Biomedical research on the Soyuz spacecraft flight program” by Professor L.I. Kakurina, released in 1972 andavailable on the RAS website :
    Immediately after landing, the astronauts noted general weakness. An unusual increase in heart rate was observed when walking or other minor exertion. Not only objects used by the astronauts after the flight, but also parts of the body (head, arms, legs) were subjectively perceived as heavy. For 3-4 days after the flight, ordinary Earth's gravity was perceived as the effect of accelerations in the range of 2–2.5 g. At least for 3 hours. after the flight, the astronauts found it difficult to maintain an upright posture. A day after the flight, their gait was still uncertain, and efforts were required to maintain an upright posture.

    But after 11 days the condition of the astronauts approached the preflight.
    The results of the Soyuz-9 flight showed the need to develop new methods of maintaining operability after the flight. The astronauts appeared treadmill, load suits and a vacuum anti-overload suit. And the time of compulsory physical training was raised from half an hour to two hours a day. By the way, I suspect that the problem of rehabilitation of the body after the flight also affected the duration of the flight of space tourists - not a single tourist has been in space for more than 15 days.

    Weeks




    Volkov, Dobrovolsky, Patsaev

    23 days 18 hours - Soyuz-11, George Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, Victor Patsaev. The next stage of space travel was associated with orbital stations. The station gave more space, it was possible to replenish supplies with cargo ships and even change manned ships if the spacecraft’s operating life was less than the duration of the expedition. The pioneers in this matter were the Soyuz-11 crew, which docked with the first Salyut-1 orbital station and worked there for more than three weeks. The experience of Soyuz-9 was taken into account, and, according to data from orbit, the physical condition of the astronauts remained normal. Alas, Dobrovolsky, Volkov and Patsaev died when they returned to Earth, and there was no way to conduct post-flight tests.


    Skylab station crews

    28 daysSkylab-2
    59 days Skylab-3
    84 daysSkylab-4 - Gerald Carr, Edward Gibson and William Pogue, 11/16/1973 - 02/08/1974. The American SkyLab station was very successful. In each flight, new records were set for the duration of the stay in space. Astronauts successfully combined scientific research, maintaining the station in a healthy state and taking care of their own health. According to Carr's recollections, doctors joked that the astronauts returned in better condition than they launched into space. Of course, it was a joke, after a long flight people have reduced muscle volume and strength, calcium is washed out of the bones, the vestibular apparatus weaned from gravity. All these changes must be corrected in the process of post-flight rehabilitation. But, despite all these problems, it turned out that you can work long and successfully in space and recover to normal after a flight.

    Months


    Starting from some stage, long expeditions become similar to each other, because the crew is engaged in four things in general - it performs scientific experiments (of which there are very many in orbit over the months), maintains the orbital station in an operational state (repairs broken units, struggles with accidents, upgrades the station), maintains its own working capacity (two hours of physical education every day, medical tests, earthly landscapes on the wall, communication with relatives) and bears a social burden (congratulations, session s communication, etc., etc.). Therefore, in this chapter I will dwell briefly only on the records.


    Romanenko and Grechko

    "Salute-6"
    The Skylab record lasted four years. Only at the Salyut-6 station did Soviet cosmonauts break the American record - the expedition of Yuri Romanenko and George Grechko spent 96 days at the station. But new expeditions raised the bar twice - 139 days, 175 days, 184 days.



    Salyut-7
    Two records were set at Salyut-7, which still remain in the Top 10. In 1982, Anatoly Berezova and Valentin Lebedev spent 211 days at the station. And in 1984, Leonid Kizim, Vladimir Solovyov and Oleg Atkov made a flight lasting almost 237 days.


    Valery Polyakov in the porthole

    "Mir"
    But the Mir orbital complex has become a real record factory, some of which have not been beaten to date. In 1987, Yuri Romanenko worked at the station for 326 days. In 1988, Vladimir Titov and Musa Manarov spent exactly one year in space. And the legendary Valery Polyakov in 1994-95 was at the station for 437 days. This record has not been broken so far. By the way, Polyakov did not succeed the first time - in 1988-89 he spent 240 days on Mir, but was forced to return ahead of schedule due to the conservation of the station. And after Polyakov in 1998-1999, Sergey Avdeev worked in orbit for 379 days.



    Conclusion


    Successful and repeated prolonged stay of a person in orbit says that space, albeit unfriendly, can be defeated and not lose working capacity, being months in zero gravity. The annual flight of Kornienko and Kelly did not become a record, but it is not less interesting because of this. Physicians on both sides of the ocean can compare the different technologies that Russia and the US use for long flights, a twin experiment with Scott and Mark Kelly is very curious. Each new piece of information can become valuable, allowing you to fly even longer, better and safer for health.

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