Aboard the Mir space station, Helen Sharman and Sergei Krikalyov pose with Mir cosmonauts Viktor Afanasiyev and Musa Manarov.
slide illustrated this as we could
clearly see a film canister, hair brush
and even a tooth brush stuck up
against one.
When any cargo is sent up into
space, the materials they are made
from have to be checked very
carefully. A problem encountered
in the past on Mir was the out
gassing caused by certain plastics.
On earth this is not a problem as
the atmosphere carries any toxins
away but on a space station this
could have serious consequences.
One item that also caused a stir
was the Mir weighing scales, stupid
idea I hear you say but these scales
measure mass not weight by means
of a bouncing spring that moves
when it is sat on.
One of the original crew that
had been aboard for 6 months was
using a piece of apparatus that
was designed to draw blood back
into his legs in preparation for his
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now near return to gravity on earth,
anyone who has seen Wallace and
Gromit in the Wrong Trousers and
can recall the trousers Wallace
ended up wearing, will have a
good idea as to what the ones on
Mir look like, though they did suit
Wallace much better. This particular
member of the Mir crew also, as
Helen found out, had an affinity for
oranges and after 6 months without
even seeing one, you would feel if
he did find one that he would eat
it straight away but when he was
presented with one that Helens
crew had smuggled in, he was so
pleased to see it he actually played
with it for 2 days before he could
actually bring himself to eat it at all.
The toilet is something that
everyone wants to know about and
the one aboard Mir is essentially the
same design as that on the shuttle
but the one on Mir can recycle
more waste and any urine can
be converted back into drinking
water in an emergency situation,
something the audience did not
seem too keen on. The slee