WEBVTT - False Starts with Space Stations 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:14.680 Hey there, and welcome to tex Stuff. I am your host, 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:17.400 joth In Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart 0:00:17.480 --> 0:00:20.360 Radio and I love all things tech. Once again, if 0:00:20.400 --> 0:00:23.080 I sound different from this episode than normal episodes, it's 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:26.880 because I'm in our studio in Atlanta, not at home. 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:31.240 But we are continuing our story about space stations, which 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:34.159 just gets longer within free episode I caught. I thought 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:37.120 originally this was gonna be maybe a two partter. Turns 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:39.120 out it's gonna be a four partner and this is 0:00:39.159 --> 0:00:41.560 part three. So in our last episode in this series, 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:44.920 we looked at the history of Mirror, the first modular 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:48.080 space station, and there are a couple of things that 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:50.440 I really need to cover before I move on, stuff 0:00:50.440 --> 0:00:53.440 I didn't talk about in the Mirror episode for one 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:56.640 reason or another. One of those is that Mirror really 0:00:56.840 --> 0:00:59.640 was an amazing achievement, but it was also kind of 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:03.480 a show, at least according to some reports. Astronauts who 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:06.920 visited mir mentioned that parts of the space station were 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:10.160 littered with rubbish because the Russians hadn't really come up 0:01:10.200 --> 0:01:13.760 with a way to store that stuff effectively. I mentioned 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:18.280 how the Quant one module sort of became a container 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:22.240 for floating rubbish after the various instruments in that in 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:24.680 that UH module went to put and there was no 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:27.320 real need to use it anymore. But that's not to 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:31.240 say that garbage just continued to accumulate over the fifteen 0:01:31.319 --> 0:01:35.759 years span that Mirror was in service. The crew would 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:39.479 actually unpack incoming cargo ships that would dock with Mer. 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:43.600 Then they would shove garbage into the cargo ships that 0:01:43.640 --> 0:01:46.800 went back to re enter Earth's atmosphere and then break 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:50.560 apart on re entry, so that garbage was sent hurtling 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:52.960 back to Earth. But you know it's okay because most 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:55.000 of it just burnt up on the way back. At 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:58.120 least I guess it's okay. And in the last episode, 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:00.400 I mentioned that a cargo ship once I did with 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:05.760 the Specter module on Mirror. As the cargo ship was 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:09.760 going through this experimental docking procedure with the Quant one 0:02:09.960 --> 0:02:14.840 module nearby, that collision punctured Specter's hole, forcing the crew 0:02:14.880 --> 0:02:17.720 to seal the Specter module off from the rest of 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:20.320 the station in order to prevent the full station from 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:26.040 depressurizing the Specter module's power. Generation capabilities were similarly cut off. 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:29.760 That had some solar arrays. But you know, sealing it 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.079 off meant that the astronauts, the cosmonauts, I should say, 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:37.359 had no more access to it. However, uh, there were 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:42.079 some some e v A s some spacewalks that the 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:46.280 cosmonauts conducted in order to restore at least some connectivity 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:50.400 with Specter's power generation, though the module itself remained sealed off. 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:54.880 Specter had been where American astronauts had lived up to 0:02:54.919 --> 0:02:58.040 that point. Obviously, it could no longer serve that function. 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:01.880 It had been in service for just two years when 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.280 this collision brought it offline. There was speculation that the 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:08.240 whole reason that this happened may have been that that 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:13.239 cargo ship that collided with Specter had actually been overpacked 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:17.520 with garbage ahead of that experimental docking procedure, and that 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:20.560 the problem was that because of all that extra garbage, 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:25.359 the ship had more mass than the control crew thought 0:03:25.440 --> 0:03:27.639 it was gonna have, so they weren't able to bring 0:03:27.639 --> 0:03:30.280 it to a stop the way they thought they would. 0:03:30.960 --> 0:03:34.760 Because it's remember that it's you know, it's pretty hard 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:37.920 to judge how much to pack into a ship because 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:41.160 it's really hard to figure out how much stuff weighs 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:44.360 in microgravity because you can't, you know, put it on 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.960 a scale or anything. So you you could easily pack 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:51.119 too much mass in a cargo ship and not realize 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:53.640 it when you're in microgravity because there's no easy way 0:03:53.640 --> 0:03:57.480 to keep track of that with precision. And as we know, 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:00.040 you know, the more massive something is, the harder it 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:04.520 is to change that object's momentum. A heavy object needs 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:07.000 more energy to get it to start moving than a 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:10.200 lighter object needs, and a heavier object also needs more 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:12.720 energy to bring it to a stop than a lighter 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:15.600 object would. So that might have been why the cargo 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:18.440 ship failed to use enough thrust to avoid the collision 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:21.919 during that docking procedure. That the ship itself was just 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:26.160 loaded down with garbage. Jean Pierre Agnier and I know 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:28.400 I've butchered his name, so I'll just call him Jean 0:04:28.480 --> 0:04:32.000 Pierre from now on, a French astronaut and pilot, spoke 0:04:32.040 --> 0:04:34.360 with New scientists about what it was like to live 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:37.560 and work aboard Mirror. He said that the station smelled 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:42.000 kind of like burnt coffee and that the fans on 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:46.039 board the ship the fans that you know, we're circulating 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:49.720 the air aboard the ship generated sixty seven decibel's worth 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:53.240 of noise on average, making it sound like a noisy 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:56.880 engine room all the time. He said it was actually 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:59.599 hard for him to get used to silence when he 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:03.000 left the station. He said there was no privacy aboard 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.039 the station, that the crew were required to engage in 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:09.159 two exercise sessions a day to counteract the effects that 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.479 microgravity can have on the human body, and that on 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:16.160 average they would get two sessions of five minute daily 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:19.400 contacts with Earth and otherwise they were just stuck with 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:23.080 each other. Jean Pierre said that he felt Mirror was 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:28.800 error resistant, that the station itself was resistant to serious errors, 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:32.360 and pointed out that while the station had experienced two 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:37.440 separate emergencies like real emergencies, and one was the onboard 0:05:37.480 --> 0:05:40.480 fire and the other was the cargo ship collision, no 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:43.640 one was harmed in either of those, and so while 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:48.200 these accidents happened, the ship or the space station itself 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:53.599 was resistant to catastrophe. He did criticize the procedures that 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:56.160 were followed by the Russian Space Agency, said they weren't 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:59.839 really sufficiently careful or detail oriented and that things could 0:05:59.839 --> 0:06:03.120 have been much worse had the tech not been as 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:07.600 a you know, tough. Also, towards the end of Mirror's service, 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:10.320 the crew aboard the station conducted a study on the 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:14.359 microbes that were inhabiting the station. The climate control system 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:17.840 had been leaking slightly, and the crew found that behind 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:23.040 an inspection panel they found orbs of water floating back there, 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.960 murky water. Each orb was about the size of a 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:30.720 soccer ball. So these are pretty sizable, you know, groups 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:34.600 of water. And the microbes inside included fun guy mites 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:37.960 and bacteria. And along with that, the crew found that 0:06:38.000 --> 0:06:41.200 there were microbes that were feeding off the rubberized seals 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:43.919 around the windows. Now, when you have to be in 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:47.440 a pressurized station in outer space, that's a serious risk. 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:51.000 And it's not just like these microbes hitched a ride 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:54.320 aboard all the equipment. The station had come together in 0:06:54.440 --> 0:06:57.640 clean rooms on Earth. So clean rooms are facilities that 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:01.440 use powerful air filtration systems to remove particulates and contaminants 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:05.719 from you know, the atmosphere and not have them interfere 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:08.880 when you're building the stuff. So all the grossy stuff 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.520 didn't come from the equipment. It came up courtesy of 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:15.240 the cosmonauts and astronauts who visited the Mere space station. 0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:19.800 You know, because people are gross. All people are gross, 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:26.600 You are gross, I'm gross. Tari is gross grossness. Aside, 0:07:27.080 --> 0:07:30.520 Mirror served many purposes. There were a lot of scientific 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:35.520 studies and experiments on Mirror, including mostly the effects of uh, 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:37.680 what it's like for human beings to be in space 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.840 for extended stays. That was really important. It also served 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:44.400 as a test bed for international cooperation with regard to 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:48.480 space science and exploration. You know, a lot of visiting 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:52.800 cosmonauts were from different countries who got to stay aboard Mirror, 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:56.320 and this was an important stepping stone. And now for 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.760 one last Mirror story. But it's a heck of a story. 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:05.120 So let's talk a bit more about cosmonaut Saragei Krikolev. 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:09.400 I mentioned him in the previous episode, but this is 0:08:09.640 --> 0:08:12.520 a big part of his story. He had joined the 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.240 Soviet space program in the nineteen eighties. He was selected 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:18.120 to be a cosmonaut in nineteen eighty five and he 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.440 completed his training the following year and he was assigned 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:25.960 originally to the Brand program that was the Soviet equivalent 0:08:26.040 --> 0:08:29.840 of the Space station. Ultimately, the brand never flew beyond 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:34.280 an unmanned test flight, but later he was selected to 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:36.760 fly to Mirror, which he actually did a couple of times. 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:39.280 The first time he did it was in nineteen eighty eight. 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:41.480 He was up there for a hundred fifty two days, 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:45.280 but it was during his second visit that I really 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:48.720 want to you know, cover here. He returned to Mirror 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:52.880 on the mission in May of nineteen one with Anatoly 0:08:53.679 --> 0:08:58.520 arts Sabarski and Britain's first astronaut, Helen Sharman. Now, the 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:02.560 way Mirror missions were is that you would have cruise 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:07.640 come up and intermingle with cruise from previous missions, so 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:11.120 there would be you know, some some carry over and 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:14.080 some of the folks who were previously a board Mire 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:18.200 would then board the Saya's capsule that had just docked 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:20.600 with the station and then they would leave, they would 0:09:20.600 --> 0:09:23.600 go back to Earth and others would stay aboard. And 0:09:23.679 --> 0:09:26.240 you couldn't just leave Mere unattended, so there was always 0:09:26.480 --> 0:09:29.839 you know, a crew aboard there. Soya's capsules had very 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:32.640 limited capacity, so there wasn't any real way to get 0:09:32.679 --> 0:09:36.080 everyone back unless you were to abandoned ship and take 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:39.920 the one escape capsule that was docked with the station 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:42.400 and take that back to Earth, but that would leave 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:46.719 Miror unattended. So Kricolev found himself in a tricky situation 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:51.240 because he was up on Mirror when the Soviet Union 0:09:51.640 --> 0:09:56.080 ceased to be. The space program responsible for taking cosmonauts 0:09:56.080 --> 0:10:00.920 to and retrieving them from the space station no longer existed, 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.800 and there wasn't space in the capsules that were scheduled 0:10:04.840 --> 0:10:07.200 to go up and come back for a Crica left 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.360 to go along with it. So he was left in 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:12.959 limbo on this space station, not knowing when or even 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:15.720 if he would ever be able to come back to Earth. 0:10:16.040 --> 0:10:19.600 And he got the nickname the last Soviet Citizen because 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:22.240 when he went up the Soviet Union was still a thing. 0:10:23.040 --> 0:10:26.040 He was a flight engineer. He was stuck keeping Mirror 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:30.000 and working order, and he did ask that one crew 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:32.240 that was going to visit him, but they weren't going 0:10:32.280 --> 0:10:34.079 to be able to take him back because again the 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:36.959 says capsule didn't have the capacity for it. He asked 0:10:36.960 --> 0:10:39.440 them if they could maybe bring him some honey which 0:10:39.440 --> 0:10:41.640 could help lift his spirits. They weren't able to get 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.280 hold of any honey, so instead they brought him lemons 0:10:44.280 --> 0:10:48.679 and horseradish, which I think is insult to injury personally. Now, 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:53.720 fortunately rescue did come and after more than three hundred 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:57.120 thirty days in space, which was twice the length of 0:10:57.200 --> 0:11:00.600 his planned stay, he was able to return and to Earth. 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:03.839 His landing spot was originally part of the U S. 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:07.400 S R, and his space suit even still had USSR 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:11.319 stitched on it, but now that same landing spot was 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:16.040 part of Kazakhstan. Uh. In fact, his hometown had changed names. 0:11:16.240 --> 0:11:19.040 When he went up it was called Leningrad. When he 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:22.160 came back down it had a new name St. Petersburg, 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:27.640 and because of massive inflation issues with Russian currency, his 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:31.040 salary for being a cosmonaut was now about half of 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:35.520 what a bus driver would have made. Yawsa he would 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:38.600 later serve as the guest cosmonaut on the Space Shuttle 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:42.400 program that was part of the Shuttle mirror missions. I 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:45.199 mentioned that in the last episode, and he wasn't even 0:11:45.240 --> 0:11:48.200 done with space after that, Like, even after all that, 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:50.360 he was still going to go up into space again, 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:53.720 because he was the first Russian cosmonaut to be a 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:57.240 crew member aboard the International Space Station, which we're going 0:11:57.280 --> 0:11:59.560 to talk about more in the next episode, but his 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:02.559 is a really cool story. Okay, So let's switch over 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.160 and briefly talk about the space Shuttle program in the 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:08.600 United States because that program would in turn shape the 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:12.960 development of future space stations and have massive effects on 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.280 the progress of space station development as well. After the 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:19.800 Apollo missions, with the exception of the Apollo Soyo's mission, 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:23.360 in which an Apollo capsule and a Soyo's capsule docked 0:12:23.520 --> 0:12:27.200 in orbit in n well, NASA was looking at what 0:12:27.360 --> 0:12:29.880 the future of space flight would be all about. There 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.280 was this desire to develop a spacecraft that could go 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.000 up into orbit, returned to Earth in a way that 0:12:35.040 --> 0:12:38.600 would allow pilots to guide the spacecraft to a landing strip, 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:42.400 then land safely, and then be you know, repaired and 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:45.200 prepared for a subsequent launch so you could reuse it. 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:49.440 A reusable spacecraft would cut way back on expenses because 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.720 NASA wouldn't have to commission a brand new spacecraft for 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:57.320 every single mission, although the launch system was a different story. 0:12:57.440 --> 0:13:01.400 But anyway, this program got started in eighteen seventy two. 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:04.360 But developing a new spacecraft takes a lot of time. 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:07.280 You have to design things, you have to propose things, 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:09.840 you have to settle on which proposal is best. You 0:13:09.840 --> 0:13:12.840 have to you know, award contracts. It's a whole thing. 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:16.559 And as we're covering the in this series, NASA regularly 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:20.959 changes as well due to lots of different reasons from Congress, 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:24.280 you know, shifting budgets year over year, two changes in 0:13:24.320 --> 0:13:28.680 presidential administrations that affect the leadership in NASA. So the 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:31.079 hope was to have the Shuttle program up and running 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:34.080 in time to dock with sky Lab and boost the 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:38.600 orbiting laboratory to a higher orbit and extend its useful lifespan. 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:42.040 But the space Shuttle program delays meant that that just 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:45.200 wasn't gonna happen. That's why NASA had no choice but 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:47.959 to allow sky Labs orbit to decay to the point 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:50.680 where it re entered our atmosphere and then broke apart 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:55.160 into pieces, some of which hit Australia. By ninety seven, 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:59.680 NASA was testing a glider called Enterprise to verify that 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:03.240 the basic designs for the space plane would work, but 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:05.880 it wouldn't be until nineteen eighty one that the agency 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:09.520 would have a space Shuttle capable of going into orbit 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:13.440 and returning, and that space Shuttle was Columbia, and it 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:16.880 launched for the first time in April of nineteen one. 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:20.800 Sky Lab, by the way, had already come crashing down 0:14:20.880 --> 0:14:23.680 in nineteen seventy nine. Now, the reason I even bring 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:25.560 up the space Shuttle is that this would become the 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:28.680 primary means of bringing astronauts up to the space station 0:14:29.080 --> 0:14:31.960 and back down again. The Russians would continue to rely 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:35.120 on the Soyuz capsule to take cosmonauts up to Mirror, 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:38.960 but the Space Shuttle would be the main vehicle used 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:42.120 to you know, shuttle crews and experiments to and from 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:44.880 space stations. And that meant that the design of the 0:14:44.880 --> 0:14:48.800 Shuttle itself would inform the design of future space stations. 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:51.880 You want your station to be compatible with your method 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:56.120 of transportation. Makes sense anyway. In nineteen seventy nine, plans 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:59.760 had begun in NASA for a new space station like me. 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:03.240 This one was planned to be modular, with pieces brought 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:06.920 up on separate Space Shuttle missions and then constructed in orbit. 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:10.120 And as a stepping stone toward that, NASA formed a 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:14.040 strategic partnership with the European Space Agency. One of the 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:17.080 early examples of this in the Space Shuttle era were 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.800 these things called space labs. The e s A, the 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:25.040 European Space Agency, created these laboratories which would be loaded 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.360 into the payload cargo bay of the Space Shuttle, and 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:32.360 they would serve as lab space for specific experiments. There 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:35.440 were lots of different space lab missions. In fact, there 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:39.040 were more than twenty of them throughout the Space Shuttle program. Now, 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:43.000 the space labs were not space stations themselves. They remained 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:47.360 connected to the shuttle, but their development would lead to 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.760 advancements in the E s A, and they would serve 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:54.320 as the foundation for space station modules down the line 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:56.880 in the future. There were also plans to have the 0:15:56.920 --> 0:16:00.440 Space Shuttle visit Saliott stations in partnership with the then 0:16:00.600 --> 0:16:04.440 Soviet Union. This gets into politics a bit so. Beginning 0:16:04.480 --> 0:16:07.440 in the late sixties, the U s s R. And 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:11.960 USA started to work toward more cooperation and everything from 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:15.920 space exploration to pumping the brakes on the arms race 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:21.000 around the world. It wasn't always a super happy, fun friendship, 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:25.280 but it wasn't as adversarial a relationship as the two 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:29.560 had experienced in the nineteen fifties and early sixties. This period, 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:34.360 called the Detante, lasted from nineteen sixty nine to nineteen 0:16:34.400 --> 0:16:37.200 seventy nine, but it ended right around the time the 0:16:37.240 --> 0:16:40.920 Space Shuttle program was making real progress. We'll pick up 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:44.080 with more about how the political situation affected the space 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:56.320 exploration industry after we take this quick break. The reasons 0:16:56.440 --> 0:17:00.320 for the breakdown and dissolution of the Detant are pitty 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.680 complicated and obviously well beyond the parameters of this show. 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:07.080 But things were already tense before the Soviet Union invaded 0:17:07.119 --> 0:17:11.480 Afghanistan in nineteen seventy nine. What followed would be increased 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:15.240 tension between the two nations, with a resurgence in arms 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:20.679 development and deployment to follow. So, yeah, that was my childhood. 0:17:21.080 --> 0:17:24.000 That was a childhood in which there was this omnipresent, 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:29.199 vague thread of nuclear annihilation simpler times, man. Now what 0:17:29.320 --> 0:17:32.360 this means for our podcast is just that any plans 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:33.960 to have the Space She will be part of the 0:17:34.000 --> 0:17:36.879 Saliot program. We're put on ice and by then the 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:41.000 USSR was focusing on Mirror as well. Things would change 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:44.359 later after Gorbachev worked to re establish a more friendly 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:49.480 relationship with Europe and the United States. So in nineteen two, 0:17:49.640 --> 0:17:52.920 NASA formed a special group, the Space Station Task force. 0:17:53.600 --> 0:17:56.439 This group started to put together a plan for a 0:17:56.480 --> 0:18:00.840 space station. Further, the plan was to involve the international community, 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:04.040 opening up the whole process, from development to construction to 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:08.359 operation to other nations. In nineteen three, NASA hosted a 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:14.000 workshop focusing on space stations. The following year, US President 0:18:14.080 --> 0:18:17.280 Ronald Reagan specifically called for the development of a space 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:21.160 station during his State of the Union address. NASA subsequently 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:25.000 created the Space Station Program Office to go from the 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:28.639 kind of brainstorming phase and the buy in phase to 0:18:28.760 --> 0:18:33.040 a more formal planning phase. NASA also issued an RFP 0:18:33.320 --> 0:18:36.800 that's a request for proposal, and this RFP went out 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:40.680 to various companies in the aerospace industry to submit proposals 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:44.600 as to the design of space station components like modules 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:47.520 and such. The plan for what the space station would 0:18:47.560 --> 0:18:50.480 look like and thus how designers would arrange all the 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:54.640 components changed a few times. One of the early designs 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:58.760 got the nickname the Power Tower, which makes me think 0:18:58.760 --> 0:19:02.040 of like a pro wrestling team. But the power Tower 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:05.639 space station design was a pretty darn long one. The 0:19:05.720 --> 0:19:10.000 main structure would have measured one twos once fully assembled, 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:14.240 that's around four feet. That is a long space station. Now, 0:19:14.280 --> 0:19:17.200 not all of that length was habitable. It wasn't all 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:22.040 like modules where astronauts could you know, float around. The 0:19:22.119 --> 0:19:27.600 design actually included a truss or scaffolding from which components 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:31.960 like radio telescopes and solar arrays could hang. In fact, 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:35.480 extending out to either side from the center mass of 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:39.480 this power tower would be forty one worth of solar 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:42.440 arrays on either side. That's about a hundred thirty four 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:45.320 and a half feet of solar rays sticking out to 0:19:45.400 --> 0:19:49.320 either side of this thing. The structure would have articulated 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:52.960 attachment points for various payloads, allowing NASA and the E 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:56.600 s A and other partners to create scientific experiments that 0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:59.400 could do all sorts of different kinds of research, from 0:19:59.600 --> 0:20:04.679 Earth's studies to astronomical observations. It would be a massive undertaking, 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:08.320 or I should say it would have been a massive undertaking. 0:20:08.680 --> 0:20:13.760 Assembly would have required twelve separate shuttle flights, as estimated 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:16.800 by NASA in order to get all the components into 0:20:16.920 --> 0:20:20.600 orbit and then connected to one another. NASA's projected schedule 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:23.760 for doing that would span nineteen nine two to nine. 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:26.600 Not keep in mind, this is a plan that's being 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:31.639 proposed in Night and parts of the station, according to 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:35.920 this plan, would be ready for astronauts actually inhabited by three, 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:40.480 So while the station would not be complete till starting 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:44.439 in ninety three, there would be enough there for astronauts 0:20:44.520 --> 0:20:48.320 to go there and work and live aboard the space station. However, 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:51.639 there were some external issues that would mean that this would, 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:55.879 you know, be the space station that never was, and 0:20:55.920 --> 0:20:59.720 the reason for that was primarily related to budget. Even 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:03.159 go into a decade before the station would have been 0:21:03.160 --> 0:21:07.080 completed if things had gone as planned, Reductions in NASA's 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:10.080 budget meant there just was no viable way for the 0:21:10.119 --> 0:21:12.560 agency to stay on target with a plan to go 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:17.040 this direction. But in addition to budgets, there were criticisms 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:21.240 about the design. Oliver Harwood, who had been a space 0:21:21.240 --> 0:21:24.920 station engineer, said that he felt the various contractors had 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:28.840 all submitted pretty similar designs for the station, and that 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:32.320 these designs showed that the contractors weren't actually looking to 0:21:32.359 --> 0:21:36.600 find the best way to solve engineering problems. Instead, they 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:38.760 were trying to make sure that their design looked a 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:43.480 lot like NASA's original proposed design, just in an effort 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:46.000 to win a contract. So, in other words, he's he 0:21:46.040 --> 0:21:48.959 was saying that these companies were saying, this is not 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:51.440 necessarily the best way, but it might be the best 0:21:51.520 --> 0:21:54.840 way to get paid. And that's not necessarily great if 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:57.720 you're looking to build something that's supposed supposed to support 0:21:57.760 --> 0:21:59.879 people in space and you know, be a platform on 0:22:00.000 --> 0:22:02.800 which you do a lot of science. Another criticism was 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:06.040 that the sections of the inhabited power tower depended upon 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:10.080 a construction approach in which modules were stacked one on 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:14.560 top of another in a linear fashion, but some engineers 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:18.040 worried that this could lead to dangerous situations. So imagine 0:22:18.080 --> 0:22:20.879 you've got a space station made out of you know, 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:23.640 like seven modules, and they're all arranged in a line 0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:26.840 end to end. So you have module one on one end, 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:30.840 you've got modules seven on the opposite end, and you 0:22:30.880 --> 0:22:33.960 know two through six are in between. Now, let's say 0:22:34.119 --> 0:22:39.280 there's a point where maybe module modules four and six 0:22:39.359 --> 0:22:42.440 catch on fire, and someone happens to be in module five. 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:46.199 So you seal off modules four and six so that 0:22:46.200 --> 0:22:49.080 the fire doesn't spread. But now you've got an astronaut 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:51.440 stuck in module five. They have no way of getting 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:55.200 out because one end of the station seven is on 0:22:55.240 --> 0:22:59.399 the other side. Of the sealed off five and or 0:22:59.440 --> 0:23:02.200 six rather and the other end of the station is 0:23:02.240 --> 0:23:04.600 on the other side of sealed off module four, so 0:23:04.640 --> 0:23:07.040 you'd have this dead end situation. It could be castrophic 0:23:07.560 --> 0:23:10.200 at any rate. By the time we were actually into 0:23:11.240 --> 0:23:13.880 the power tower, design was abandoned, and in the fall 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:16.959 of eighty five, NASA studied a different design called a 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:21.199 dual keel station. That's keel as k e e L. 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:24.439 It's you know, a boat term. The design had a 0:23:24.480 --> 0:23:28.840 massive trust, sort of like a long rectangle of scaffolding 0:23:29.280 --> 0:23:32.480 and a length of scaffold going across the middle halfway 0:23:32.520 --> 0:23:35.840 down the length of the rectangle. NASA plan to mount 0:23:36.000 --> 0:23:39.879 modules on this trust connected to one another, and also 0:23:39.920 --> 0:23:43.520 have solar arrays attached to either side, extending outward from 0:23:43.560 --> 0:23:47.640 the edges of this rectangle, and modules amounted along the interior. 0:23:47.960 --> 0:23:50.440 It's kind of hard to describe, so if you want 0:23:50.480 --> 0:23:53.119 to get an image of this, you can search dual 0:23:53.400 --> 0:23:56.399 Keel spaceship and there are a lot of illustrations and 0:23:56.480 --> 0:23:59.080 models of it. And it's kind of a moot point 0:23:59.560 --> 0:24:02.560