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The Odds and Ends of Space Station Mir
By Robert Pearlman
Special to SPACE.com
posted: 07:00 am ET
12 March 2001
ET
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On-Orbit Post Office -When the Mir space station makes its fiery plunge to Earth in the coming days, more than 130 tons of space junk will reenter Earth's atmosphere. About one-third of the complex is expected to survive and crash somewhere in the south Pacific Ocean. Most of the focus, of course, has been placed on the station's seven modules. Inside each is the legacy of 15 years of spaceflight -- old computers, spent experiments, the crews' personal effects, even garbage bags filled with refuse. Given the circumstances of Mir's deorbit, there was little opportunity for Russia to retrieve some of the more choice items left aboard the outpost. Some truly unique -- one could even say "weird" -- items will ride down with Mir. Here are some of those cosmic odds and ends. Plan 409 from Outer Space 
Fungus damaged this communications device on Mir On one of the latter Mir flights, cosmonauts noticed a mysterious film growing on the station's glass portholes. Further investigation revealed the foggy window was coated with living fungus. Though the discovery might have simply signaled the need for a space-based cleaning service, these germs posed a much greater threat. They were eating through the window. Germs don't usually fare well when exposed to the tremendous heat of a fiery reentry, so there is probably little reason to worry about a space-based influenza plaguing Earth. That said, please pass the Lysol. Up next: Mess or masterpiece? ~ Cosmic Dancer 
May I have this dance? Cosmic Dancer aboard Mir As anyone who lived aboard Mir can tell you, the novelty of weightlessness can often be quickly replaced by frustration. The logistics of the space environment complicate the commonplace -- even the simple act of preparing a meal can leave a space traveler wishing for an extra set of hands. Inanimate objects have a tendency to, well, animate -- they float off, take their own shape and perform as if they were alive. Leave it to an artist then to see this mess and recognize the beauty within. In 1993, Arthur Woods spent about $100,000 to fly his Cosmic Dancer sculpture to Mir. Designed to take advantage of the lack of gravity, the welded aluminum art piece assumed its own shape under the prodding of cosmonauts. Given the melting point of aluminum, the Cosmic Dancer should take one final shape as Mir falls -- a blob of molten metal. Up next: Heads and shoulders ~ Dandruff, mounds of dandruff 
Please pass the Heads & Shoulders... Shower (sans flowing water) aboard Mir "A cosmonaut loses up to 3 grams (0.1 ounces) of skin daily as well as about 5,000 cells of epithelium during one change of his or her clothes," said Valery Morgun, the chief physician at the Russian Aviation and Space Agency's Star City training complex for cosmonauts. On Earth, a shower would be the answer to all that dead skin, but water was a scarce resource aboard Mir. Crew members used wash basins but were limited to a single cup of water for their morning splash on the face. So, while no one person will be aboard, a little bit of each crew member will take the fiery plunge with Mir. Up next: Postage due ~ P.O. Box Mir 
Now where did we put the stamps? Three Mir cancellations In a March 1, 1997 letter to his son, Mir astronaut Jerry Linenger wrote: "We actually have a post office up here on space station Mir, and the envelope has been postmarked today. We'll see if spaceship delivery is quicker than airmail delivery!" Linenger wasn't exaggerating. Unique postal "markers" were used by visiting cosmonauts to stamp envelopes, flags and memorabilia as having flown aboard Mir. Thousands of items passed through the on-orbit post office -- now the ink stamps are destined for delivery to Earth, regardless of rain, sleet, snow or hail. Up next: Blame Canada ~ The Best of Red Green 
Mr. Red Green himself, actor Steve Smith The PBS Web site describes the Red Green Show as designed "for anyone who thinks God created man to give the rest of the world something to laugh at!" The video of the "Best of" Green might not be aboard Mir today, if only a resupply ship hadn't veered off course and crashed with the orbiting outpost in 1997. The collision pierced the hull of the Spektr module, where among other items, U.S. astronaut Mike Foale's personal possessions (including a certain tape) were stored. With the threat of depressurizing the entire station, Spektr was sealed and with it the first Canadian television show to voyage into space was lost. Up next: It's mine. ~ Andy Thomas' Favorite Nail File 
"So if anyone finds a nail file...I want it. It's mine." -- A. Thomas A guitar that Mir crews used to entertain themselves presumably would be coming down, along with NASA astronaut Andy Thomas' favorite nail file, which did double-duty as a guitar pick during his five-month stint aboard Mir in early 1998. "I hope I get my nail file back. You know, my nail file is still up there," Thomas, one of seven American astronauts to live and work aboard Mir, told SPACE.com in a Feb. 28 interview at Johnson Space Center in Houston. "When I was flying up there, I had one nail file. And you see, you have to have more than one of everything because you lose things all the time. But I only had one nail file, and if I lost it I was going to be in trouble. I was trying to play guitar, hopelessly, so I needed a nail file to pluck the strings. Well, towards the end of the flight, I lost my nail file. It just drifted off somewhere. I turned my back on it for a minute and it was gone. And that's what's so frustrating about zero gravity -- you lose these things at a drop of a hat. So I was without a nail file for the last month of the mission, and it's up there somewhere. So if anyone finds a nail file in south Pacific, I want it. It's mine." SPACE.com's Cape Canaveral Bureau Chief Todd Halvorson and Moscow Contributing Correspondent Yuri Karash contributed to this report.
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