science

Soyuz 31

Soyuz 31 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 Soyuz 31 rather than just read about it. In short: Soyuz 31 (Russian: Союз 31, Union 31) was a 1978 Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the seventh mission to and sixth successful docking at the orbiting facility.

Key takeaways

Soyuz 31 belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Soyuz 31 to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Soyuz 31 from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Soyuz 31 (Russian: Союз 31, Union 31) was a 1978 Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the seventh mission to and sixth successful docking at the orbiting facility. The Soyuz 31 crew were the second to visit the long-duration Soyuz 29 resident crew. Soyuz 31 carried Valery Bykovsky and Sigmund Jähn, the first German cosmonaut, into space. They swapped Soyuz craft with the long-duration crew and returned to Earth in Soyuz 29, the resident crew returned to Earth in Soyuz 31.

Crew

Mission parameters Mass: 6,800 kg (15,000 lb) Perigee: 196.8 km (122.3 mi) Apogee: 259.9 km (161.5 mi) Inclination: 51.64° Period: 88.81 minutes

Mission highlights Soyuz 31, the third Intercosmos flight, was launched 26 August 1978. Cosmonauts Bykovsky and Jähn were greeted by resident crew Vladimir Kovalyonok and Aleksandr Ivanchenkov when they docked at the aft port of the Salyut 6 space station the next day. The visitors brought with them fresh onions, garlic, lemons, apples and other food for the long-duration crew, then in space for more than two months. The presence of the East German cosmonaut was seen as significant because of the presence of the MKF-6M camera on the space station, built by the Carl Zeiss works at Jena. Medical and biological experiments were carried out, including an audio experiment which tested sound and noise perception limits. An experiment called Berolina used the Splav furnace to process an ampoule of bismuth and antimonide with the material between two plates in the ampoule. The tree structure which resulted was four to six times larger than what had been produced on the ground. Another experiment tested using different photographic films on the station's interior.

The Soyuz 31 crew swapped craft with the Soyuz 29 crew so as to supply the long-duration crew with a fresh craft. On September 2, the engines of Soyuz 29 were tested, 25 experiment containers with 100 experimental results were transferred, along with exposed film, and seat liners and centering weights were exchanged. The Soyuz 31 crew left in Soyuz 29 the next day and landed 140 km southeast of Dzhezkazgan. The standard recovery procedure was changed with this flight, observers noted. In the past, the recovery of a civilian Salyut crew had been made on the orbit following the one which provided a nominal launch opportunity to Salyut. With this and subsequent flights, the landing occurred during the orbit which provided the nominal launch opportunity. The effect of this change was to have a landing window open some two to three days earlier than otherwise. The crew on the station subsequently boarded the Soyuz 31 vehicle and redocked it to the forward port, thus freeing the aft port for a forthcoming Progress supply ship. They returned to Earth 2 November in the craft after setting a new space-endurance record of 139 days.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Soyuz 31

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Soyuz 31 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 Soyuz 31 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 Soyuz 31 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 Soyuz 31

In research: Soyuz 31 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 Soyuz 31 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: Soyuz 31 is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1978 in East Germany, 1978 in the Soviet Union, Crewed Soyuz missions, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Soyuz 31 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 Soyuz 31 in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Soyuz 31 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 Soyuz 31 out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Soyuz 31 in simple terms?

Soyuz 31 (Russian: Союз 31, Union 31) was a 1978 Soviet crewed space flight to the Salyut 6 space station. It was the seventh mission to and sixth successful docking at the orbiting facility.

Why does Soyuz 31 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 Soyuz 31?

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 Soyuz 31.