MIR is certainly a technical triumph鈥攊n orbit for 15 years and playing
host to 62 people鈥攂ut scientists in the West are less impressed with its
science. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e done a lot of biomedical research. But the results are not
fully accepted. The way the science was done is not up to the Western standard,鈥�
says Charles Vick of the Federation of American 快猫短视频s in Washington DC.
Peter Norsk of the Danish Aerospace Medical Centre in Copenhagen, who sent
experiments to Mir, agrees that early work on the space station was substandard.
鈥淏ut when interaction between East and West began, it got a lot better,鈥� he
says.
Mir was, however, responsible for at least one very important piece of
research proving that space travellers would be able to grow their own food,
says Robert E. Cleland of the University of Washington in Seattle, a member of
the National Research Council鈥檚 Space Studies Board. Cosmonauts grew
two-and-a-half generations of brassicas from seed, proving the plants develop
and reproduce normally in space. 鈥淭here is nothing that is a show stopper
because of lack of gravity,鈥� he says.
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Mir also provided some useful results on human physiology in space. One
experiment by Norsk and his colleagues exposed serious flaws in the standard
test used to simulate the effects of weightlessness on the body. Essentially
this monitors a person on an inclined bed, so their head is lower than their
feet. The 鈥渂ed rest鈥� test suggested that astronauts would become dehydrated
during space flight because they urinate more. But tests on Mir showed the
astronauts urinated less. 鈥淭he bed rest model does not at all simulate the
effect of weightlessness. We got totally conflicting results,鈥� says Norsk.
Bernard Zappoli, who managed the physical sciences experiments aboard Mir for
CNES, the French national space agency, says Mir produced some fundamental
science too. His tests on supercritical fluids, which can behave like both
liquids and gases under specific conditions, revealed a new mechanism for
transferring heat in these fluids. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important because it鈥檚 a fundamental
mechanism that鈥檚 masked by convection on Earth,鈥� says Zappoli.
