The "Rise" of Mir & Kristall. The Decline of the USSR
Hi all, and sorry for the protracted wait, but here's the next instalment of Red Star, and things are not looking particularly rosy for one group...
Even as the Soviet Space Agency worked tirelessly to complete the initial modules of their Mir LEO Station and Kristall Lunar Base, long-standing crises were beginning to emerge.
The still-common sight of 'Bread Queues' in the early 1980's
The precise nature of their economic decline would never be conclusively decided, but it was believed to have resulted from a combination of factors that built on each other to create the eventual collapse. Following an initial burst of growth during the Brezhnev years (the USSR reaching a peak of ~60% of US GDP by 1970), the soviet economy began to slow during the mid 1970’s, almost to a standstill by the mid-1980’s. Factors blamed for this included: The high priority given to the Military and Heavy Industry at the expense of Light Industry and Consumer Goods; the design of the Planned Economy rendering it unable to respond adequately to the demands of the very economy it helped to create; their increasingly antiquated computer designs that couldn’t be uprated; to the ever increasing fiddling of the numbers by the bureaucracy to make it look as if targets and quotas were being met, further entrenching the crisis. Adding all of this together and it would be of little surprise that the Soviet Economy was in serious trouble by the mid-1980’s.
This decline in the Soviet Economic Output was having an impact across the USSR, and even in their Space Agency which was effectively tied to their military, they were beginning to see a reduction in funding for certain areas. To try and operate within the constraining limits, they had to push back the launch dates so that the first module of Mir would not launch until at least early-1986 with Kristall beginning the following year, while the N1M and N11M would likely only enter service no earlier than 1990.
Mir in its early stages
In spite of this they ploughed on and in the March of 1986, some five months behind their initial schedule, the N11’s engines roared into life to carry the core module of Mir to its 51.6°, 230x240 Km Orbit. Fifteen minutes after launch, and with the 3rd stage clear, the Solar Cell Arrays opened and Mir was confirmed to be online. At this low orbit, atmospheric interaction would be greater and frequent re-boosts required to maintain orbit, but the mass of the Service Module (slated for a late ’86 launch) for Mir demanded this low orbit until such time as it could be docked, then Mir could be raised to a higher, more stable orbit which the lighter remaining modules would still be able to reach.
The second module of Mir arrived in the December of 1986 and even with the extremely low orbit, demanded special measures due to its sheer mass. At 29,500 Kg it actually sat slightly above the maximum payload limit of the N11F as it currently was. Measures to increase the payload included increasing the engine thrust of all the engines by 10.4%, lightening the dry mass where they safely could, and the addition of a Tug Stage for the final insertion of this special, one-off design. Fortunately for the engineers, it worked well enough to place the module into orbit, docking with Mir the following day, following which ground controllers commanded Mir to move itself into a higher orbit of 299x304 Km.
The beginning of 1987 saw Mir now able to accept its first skeleton crew, who were already busy with routine maintenance and what human science experiments they could perform until the science modules could be delivered. And even as they were as busy as their circumstances allowed, work was still going on with the construction of the Kristall Lunar Base even as its schedule continued to slip.
First Crew of Mir ready to be taken to LEO
Finally, on a cloudless June Day, the N1F’s 24 engines were lit to take the first piece into the initial parking orbit. Seemingly unusually, this first module would not a habitation or science module, but rather the dedicated Airlock/Suit Storage Module, carrying with it one of the tunnels that would connect them all as they arrived. Landing at a good patch of clear ground between the Clavius and Magnius Craters in the Lunar Southern Highlands, it was quick to deploy its temporary Solar Cells that would be sufficient to sustain it until such time as the Solar Cell Array could be delivered and assembled, slated for Launch 4.
View of Clavius and Maginus Craters from LLO, taken from a prior visit
On the October and November of 1987 respectively, Mir received its first science module (Priroda) dedicated to biotechnology and material processing experiments, while the first of the two science modules (Kristall-2, plant growth and medical experiments) for the Kristall Lunar Base was landed just 226m from the first module, utilising its wheels to manoeuvre itself to just 10m from it. On the surface, progress appeared to be smooth and steady, if quite slow, and manned assembly/habitation of Kristall was believed possible by the end of 1988 or beginning of 1989.