science

Mir EO-12

Mir EO-12 is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mir EO-12 rather than just read about it. In short: Mir EO-12 (Russian: Мир ЭО-12, also known as Principal Expedition 12) was the twelfth crewed expedition to the space station Mir, lasting from July 1992 until February 1993. The crew, consisting of Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Sergei Avdeyev launched aboard Soyuz TM-15 on 27 July 1992 with French Research Cosmonaut Michel Tognini.

Key takeaways

Mir EO-12 belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mir EO-12 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mir EO-12 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mir EO-12 (Russian: Мир ЭО-12, also known as Principal Expedition 12) was the twelfth crewed expedition to the space station Mir, lasting from July 1992 until February 1993. The crew, consisting of Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyev and Sergei Avdeyev launched aboard Soyuz TM-15 on 27 July 1992 with French Research Cosmonaut Michel Tognini. After remaining on board Mir for just over six months, Solovyev and Avdeyev returned aboard the same spacecraft on 1 February 1993. Their mission focused on geophysics, materials science, biotechnology, astronomy and medical experiments. Soyuz TM-15 set a Soyuz spacecraft on orbit endurance record.

Crew

Backup crew

This crew flew the Soyuz TM-16 spacecraft.

Mission highlights

Crew launch and arrival The Mir EO-12 crew were launched aboard Soyuz TM-15 on 27 July 1992 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome together with CNES spationaut Michel Tognini of France. They were inserted into a 190 x 200 km, 51.6° inclination orbit. After rendezvous manoeuvring they docked they with Mir in its 405 x 410 km orbit two days later on 29 July. For the next two weeks the scientific work of the EO-11 crew (Aleksandr Viktorenko and Aleksandr Kaleri) continued together with the programme of Michel Tognini's Antares mission. They departed Mir aboard Soyuz TM-14 on 9 August, leaving the EO-12 crew to continue operations.

Mission operations The EO-12 crew commenced their research programme. On 14 August Progress M-14 arrived and docked at the Kvant-1 port. It carried a 700 kg VDU thruster unit designed to improve Mir's attitude control capability. On 3 September the two cosmonauts performed the first of three EVAs to install the VDU on the end of the 14 m long Sofora girder on Kvant-1. EVAs on 7 and 11 September continued and completed this assignment. On their fourth and final EVA on 15 September the cosmonauts repositioned the Kurs rendezvous and docking system antenna and retrieved experimental samples. Progress M-14 departed on 21 October carrying 150 kg of research material. The Progress M-15 re-supply craft arrived on 29 October and docked at Kvant-1. The derelict 550 kg Cosmos 1508 satellite passed within 300 m of Mir on 8 November. On 20 November the 16.5 kg MAK-2 satellite, (brought up on Progress M-15) was deployed from the Mir core module experimental airlock. This was produced by the Moscow Aviation Institute to study Earth's ionosphere.

End of mission and crew departure Soyuz TM-16 with its two-man crew (who had served as the EO-12 backup crew) arrived and docked with the lateral APAS-89 port (originally intended for Buran) on Kristall on 26 January 1993. The EO-12 crew undocked and returned to Earth on 1 February 1993.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mir EO-12

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mir EO-12 claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mir EO-12 before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mir EO-12 ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mir EO-12

In research: Mir EO-12 appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mir EO-12 in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mir EO-12 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1992 in Russia, 1992 in spaceflight, 1993 in Russia, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mir EO-12 outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Mir EO-12 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mir EO-12 means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mir EO-12 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mir EO-12 in simple terms?

Why does Mir EO-12 matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mir EO-12?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mir EO-12.