science

Mir EO-5

Mir EO-5 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-5 rather than just read about it. In short: Mir EO-5 was the 5th long duration expedition to the space station Mir, which lasted from September 1989 to February 1990. The two person crew was launched and landed in the spacecraft Soyuz TM-8, which remained docked to Mir throughout the mission.

Key takeaways

Mir EO-5 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-5 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mir EO-5 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mir EO-5 was the 5th long duration expedition to the space station Mir, which lasted from September 1989 to February 1990. The two person crew was launched and landed in the spacecraft Soyuz TM-8, which remained docked to Mir throughout the mission. The crew are often referred to as the Soyuz TM-8 crew.

Crew The crew consisted of two Soviet cosmonauts. They had both been in space, but only Viktorenko had previously been to Mir, which was a 7-day visit during Mir EP-1.

The backup crew for the mission were Anatoly Solovyev (Commander) and Aleksandr Balandin (Flight Engineer), who ended up being the crew of the following expedition, EO-6.

Background The EO-5 mission was originally scheduled to launch in April 1989. However, in March 1989, the Soyuz spacecraft that was intended to be utilized for the mission was seriously damaged during testing in a vacuum chamber. As a result, the crew of Mir EO-4, which was then in orbit, landed in April as planned, and left Mir unmanned until the arrival of EO-5 in September of the same year.

Mission Highlights

Launch and arrival Both crew members arrived via the spacecraft Soyuz TM-8, which launched on 5 September 1989. The crew had to perform a manual docking to the space station as the Kurs rendezvous and docking system malfunctioned.

Spacewalks During their stay on Mir, the crew members performed 5 EVAs. These took place on 8 January 1990 (2h 56m) to mount two star sensors for navigation on the Kvant-module, 11 January (2h 54m) to attach tools and remove a space exposure experiment rack, 26 January (3h 2m) using the new Orlan-DMA spacesuits. The cosmonauts attached a mooring post to the outside of the airlock compartment and removed a Kurs antenna so it could not interfere with future EVAs. The fourth EVA took place on 1 February (4h 59m) to test 'Ikar', a maneuvering unit. The final EVA was on 5 February (3h 45m).

Science activities While on Mir, the crew took part in experiments in the fields of medicine, geophysics, space technology, earth observation, astronomy and materials sciences.

Soyuz TM-9 and landing On 13 February, Soyuz TM-9 arrived at the station carried the next long duration crew members, EO-6. Docking was uneventful, but prior to docking the EO-6 crew had noticed that some thermal insulation blankets on the Soyuz TM-9 descent module were loose. Procedures were developed to ensure the spacecraft maintained an appropriate temperature, and once ground control considered the situation manageable, the EO-5 crew returned to Earth. The expedition officially ended on 19 February 1990 as the 2 crew members returned on Soyuz TM-8. Landing occurred a few hours after undocking, 55 km northeast of Arkalyk. During their stay upon Mir, the crew completed 2631 orbits of Earth, and the mission in total lasted 166d 06h 58m from launch to landing.

References

Bart Hendrickx, Bert Vis, "Energiya-Buran: the Soviet space shuttle", Springer Praxis books, 2010, p. 526.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mir EO-5

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mir EO-5 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-5 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-5 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-5

In research: Mir EO-5 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-5 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-5 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1989 in spaceflight, 1989 in the Soviet Union, 1990 in spaceflight, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mir EO-5 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.

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How to study Mir EO-5 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mir EO-5 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-5 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mir EO-5 in simple terms?

Why does Mir EO-5 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-5?

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-5.