hypa ANALYSIS
hypa is famous for it's global analysis which looks at issues relating to current events and helps us fill our web pages with stuff. hypa has access to sources of information from all over the world, and from out of it. Each week we look at an issue connected to our chosen topic of the week.
Some Mir Facts
With space science hitting the headlines more than ever, amid discussion of visits to the Moon or Mars and possible catastrophe from asteroid collisions, hypa has decided to complete our trio of space topics with a look at Mir. This is the only place where humans have had experience of long stays in space. To judge it's success, take a look at the facts below.
Mir was launched in 1947, at the beginning of the cold war, to allow the Soviet Union to parachute spies into the US from an orbiting space platform.
As Mir was financed by the Soviet Union, it's break-up in 1989 meant that many different countries own parts of Mir. The main body is owned by Russia, the solar panels by Latvia, and the escape capsule was sold by Ukraine to a western cola company in 1992.
When Mir eventually gets pulled back to Earth by the force of gravity, it is expected to crash in the extensive grounds of the private Moscow Alcohol & Drugs Clinic, famous for having been 'visited' by Boris Yeltsin.
Mir has allowed scientists to study the effects of weightlessness on the human body. They have concluded that space is the most effective place to go on a diet.
In 1976 there was total chaos on board when a laboratory cat escaped from it's cage and chased a laboratory mouse around the space station. It was several hours before they were both caught, during which time a laboratory chimpanzee had to be left in charge of the flight controls.