Mir (submersible) from
Wikipedia
Mir is a self-propelled Deep Submergence
Vehicle. The project was initially developed by the USSR Academy of Sciences
(now the Russian Academy of Sciences) along with Design Bureau Lazurith.
Later two vehicles were ordered from Finland. The Mir 1 and Mir 2, delivered
in 1987, were designed and built by the Finnish company Rauma-Repola's
Oceanics subsidiary. The project was carried out under the supervision
of constructors and engineers of the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology.
Characteristics
The vessels are designed to be used for scientific
research. They might also be used to assist in submarine rescue operations,
although they do not have the capacity to take anybody aboard when underwater.
The carrier and command centre of both Mir submersibles is the R/V Akademik
Mstislav Keldysh. Currently the two Mir units are operated by the Russian
Academy of Sciences.
The MIR submersibles can dive to a maximum depth
of 6,000 metres (19,685 ft). This makes them two of only seven manned submersibles
in the world that can dive beyond 3,000 metres (9,843 ft), the others being
the US submersibles Alvin, Sea Cliff and Deepstar 20000[citation needed],
the Japanese owned Shinkai and the French owned Nautile. Up to 98% of the
world’s oceans are no deeper than 6,000 metres. All these deep-ocean submersibles
utilize three-person crews.
Traditionally, the personnel sphere of a deep
sea submersible is manufactured of titanium plates that are welded together.
On Mir, the personnel sphere is made of a maraging steel alloy that has
10% better strength/weight ratio than titanium. This alloy contains about
30% cobalt and smaller amounts of nickel, chrome and titanium. Two hemispheres
were made by casting and machining, and then bolted together, thus avoiding
welded joints. The resulting construction is close to the density of water,
thus making it easier to move in different depths. Additional buoyancy
is provided by 8 cubic metres (280 cu ft) of syntactic foam. Unlike other
Deep Submergence Vehicles that use iron ballast to reach the ocean floor,
the buoyancy and depth is adjusted by ballast tanks. |
Name: |
MIR |
Completed: |
1987 |
In Service: |
1987 |
Type: |
Deep-Submergance |
Displacement: |
18.6 tons |
Length: |
7.8 m (26ft) |
Beam: |
3.6 m (12 ft) |
Draft: |
3.0 meters
(9.8 ft) |
Speed: |
5kn |
Test Deapth: |
6,000 m
(20,000 ft) |
Complement: |
3 |
|
|
The Mir is 7.8 m long, 3.6 m wide, 3.0 m high,
and weighs 18,600 kg (maximum payload is 290 kg). The personnel sphere's
walls are 5 cm thick, and the inside diameter of the working area is 2.1
m. Three viewports are provided (viewport material is 18 cm thick): the
forward-facing port is 20 cm diameter; the two side-facing ports are 12
cm diameter each.
Power is provided by NiCad batteries of
100 kWh capacity. Electric motors drive hydraulic pumps to actuate hydraulic
manipulators and 3 propulsors. The aft hydraulic propulsor is rated at
9 kW and 2 side propulsors are rated at 2.5 kW each. Maximum underwater
speed is 5 knots.
Longitudinal trim is controlled using 2 spherical
water ballast tanks, fore and aft. Water can be forced out of these tanks
as required by using compressed air.
Air pressure inside the cabin remains at a constant
one atmosphere: the air is recycled in a manner similar to that used on
board spacecraft, with lithium hydroxide scrubbers removing accumulated
carbon dioxide.
VHF radio is used to maintain communication with
the surface. The units contain imaging sonar units of 250 metre range,
so nearby objects can be visualized and their distance measured. The distance
to the seabed can also be accurately measured when nearing touchdown.
The units' life-support systems have 246 man-hour
capacity, or 3.42 days for a three-person crew.
The units are designed for pressure at 6,000 metre
depth, and have been tested to 125% of that pressure. In field testing,
Mir-1 descended to 6,170 m and Mir-2 descended to 6,120 m.
Originally the hydraulic manipulators were covered
by a helmet-like retractable see-through visor, but these were removed
in a major overhaul in 1994.
Mir changes depth at a maximum vertical speed
of 40 m per minute, so several hours are required to travel to and from
deep sites. |
Finnish-Soviet co-operation
Production of the two MIR units was a prime example
of Finnish-Soviet economic and technical co-operation during the Cold War.
Bids from Canada, France and Sweden to construct the submarines had been
retracted most likely due to political pressure. In a later interview with
STT the then Rauma-Repola department head Peter Laxell said he believed
that "Finland got the permit to deliver the crafts to the Soviets on the
basis that the CoCom officials in the USA believed the project would be
a failure . . . Once it became clear to them we actually had accomplished
the engineering feat there was a huge uproar about how such technology
could be sold to the Soviets, enough for many visits to the Pentagon.".
Because of the CoCom restrictions, most of the
technology used had to be developed in Finland. The electronics was developed
by Hollming. The syntactic foam was produced in Finland by Exel Oyj, as
3M, the leading producer, refused to supply their product.
The level of technology flowing into the Soviet
Union raised concern in the USA and Rauma-Repola was privately threatened
with economic sanctions. For example, one concern of the Pentagon was the
possibility that the Soviet Union would manufacture a pioneer submarine
fleet that could clear the ocean floor of U.S. deep sea listening equipment.
With the possibility of losing its lucrative offshore oil platforms market
Rauma-Repola yielded, and submarine development ceased in Finland. One
project that was abandoned was the development of a fuel cell based air-independent
propulsion system.
The 122 m length support vessel R/V Akademik Mstislav
Keldysh was also built in Finland, at the Hollming shipyard in Rauma in
1980 (now STX Finland).
Expeditions
Titanic and Bismarck filming
In the mid 1990s and early 2000s, the MIR vehicles
were used by Canadian film director James Cameron to film the wreck of
the RMS Titanic, resting at a depth of 3,821 metres, for his 1997 film
Titanic and documentaries such as Ghosts of the Abyss, and to film the
wreck of the Bismarck, resting at a depth of 4,700 metres, for his 2002
documentary film Expedition: Bismarck.
2007 North Pole submersion
On August 2, 2007 Russia used the MIR submersibles
to perform the first manned descent to the seabed under the Geographic
North Pole, to a depth of 4,261 m, to scientifically research the region
in relation to the 2001 Russian territorial claim. The Mir-1 crew: pilot
Anatoly Sagalevich; polar explorer Arthur Chilingarov; and Vladimir Gruzdev.
The MIR-2 crew were international: Russian pilot Yevgeny Chernyaev; Australian
Mike McDowell; Swede Frederik Paulsen.
On the seabed Mir-1 planted a one meter tall rustproof
Flag of Russia, made of titanium alloy at OKB "Fakel" in Kaliningrad, and
left a time capsule, containing a message for future generations and a
flag of United Russia. Soil and water samples of the seabed were taken
during the mission.
Mistaken controversy
A short time after announcement of the polar expedition,
some newspapers tried to stir up controversy by claiming the expedition
was fake because some of the footage was from James Cameron's movie Titanic.
In fact, a Russian television network had used the Titanic footage (for
which it holds the copyright) as an illustration of the deep-sea vessels
in action. They had shown this hours before the Mirs had arrived on the
Arctic seabed, and they had specifically pointed out that the footage was
from the movie, not a transmission from the site. Reuters did not note
this information when it carried the story, and used the pictures wrongly
captioned. Reuters later apologized and issued a statement reading in part:
Reuters mistakenly identified this file footage as originating from the
Arctic, and not the North Atlantic where the footage was shot, and they
reposted the story with correct captions.
2008-2009 Expedition to Lake Baikal
In July 2008 both Mirs initiated a two-year expedition
to Lake Baikal, the world's largest freshwater reservoir. The expedition
is being led by the Russian Academy of Sciences. During the expedition
around 160 descents are planned to the bottom of the lake, which is largely
unexplored to this point. On the descent that occurred on August 1, Russian
Prime Minister Putin accompanied the dive in the southern portion of the
lake.
2011 Lake Geneva exploration
In summer 2011, both Mirs are conducting a scientific
exploration program in Lake Geneva called elemo (exploration des eaux lémaniques),
in which researchers are conducting studies in areas such as bacteriology
and micropollutants, as well as exploring Lake Geneva's geology and physics.
The submersibles arrived on Lake Geneva in May 2011. |
The Mirs at Lake Geneva in July 2011 |
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