Editing Mir (section)

==Life on board==
[[File:19970530 8l.jpg|thumb|left|Time exposure of ''Mir'' passing over Earth's surface, May 1997.]]
[[File:Mirspacestationtour.ogv|thumb|right|A video tour of ''Mir'' from September 1996, during [[STS-79]]]]
[[File:Mir node interior STS-84, 2.jpg|thumb|right|A view of the interior of the [[Mir Core Module|core module]]'s docking node, showing the crowded nature of the station.]]
Inside, the {{convert|130|tonne|ST|adj=on}} ''Mir'' resembled a cramped [[labyrinth]], crowded with hoses, cables and scientific instruments—as well as articles of everyday life, such as photos, children's drawings, books and a guitar. It commonly housed three crew members, but was capable of supporting as many as six for up to a month. The station was designed to remain in orbit for around five years; it remained in orbit for fifteen.<ref>{{cite web|title=One Thing After Another|url=http://discovermagazine.com/1998/jan/theyearinscience1326|work=[[Discover (magazine)|Discover]]|access-date=5 February 2011|author=Fred Guterl|date=1 January 1998|archive-date=13 January 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110113193128/http://discovermagazine.com/1998/jan/theyearinscience1326|url-status=live}}</ref> As a result, NASA astronaut John Blaha reported that, with the exception of ''[[Priroda]]'' and ''[[Spektr]]'', which were added late in the station's life, ''Mir'' did look used, which is to be expected given it had been lived in for ten to eleven years without being brought home and cleaned.<ref name="From Mir to Mars">{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/safarchive/5_cool/5_mir/mir1.html|title=From Mir to Mars|publisher=[[PBS]]|access-date=14 September 2008|archive-date=24 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924151702/http://www.pbs.org/safarchive/5_cool/5_mir/mir1.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Crew schedule===
The time zone used on board ''Mir'' was [[Moscow Time]] (MSK; [[UTC+03:00|UTC+03]]). The windows were covered during night hours to give the impression of darkness because the station experienced 16 sunrises and sunsets a day. A typical day for the crew began with a wake-up at 08:00 MSK, followed by two hours of personal hygiene and breakfast. Work was conducted from 10:00 until 13:00, followed by an hour of exercise and an hour's lunch break. Three more hours of work and another hour of exercise followed lunch, and the crews began preparing for their evening meal at about 19:00. The cosmonauts were free to do as they wished in the evening, and largely worked to their own pace during the day.<ref name="SSSM"/>

In their spare time, crews were able to catch up with work, observe the Earth below, respond to letters, drawings, and other items brought from Earth (and give them an official stamp to show they had been aboard ''Mir''), or make use of the station's ham radio.<ref name="SSSM"/> Two amateur radio call signs, U1MIR and U2MIR, were assigned to ''Mir'' in the late [[1980s]], allowing [[amateur radio operators]] on Earth to communicate with the cosmonauts.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://users.tellurian.com/gjurrens/astrohams.html |title=Astronaut (and Former Astronaut) Hams |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061230122251/http://users.tellurian.com/gjurrens/astrohams.html |archive-date=2006-12-30 |date=2006-12-03 |first=Gerry |last=Jurrens }}</ref> The station was also equipped with a supply of [[books]] and [[films]] for the crew to read and watch.<ref name="Dragonfly"/>

NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger related how life on board ''Mir'' was structured and lived according to the detailed itineraries provided by ground control. Every second on board was accounted for and all activities were timetabled. After working some time on ''Mir'', Linenger came to feel that the order in which his activities were allocated did not represent the most logical or efficient order possible for these activities. He decided to perform his tasks in an order that he felt enabled him to work more efficiently, be less fatigued, and suffer less from stress. Linenger noted that his comrades on ''Mir'' did not "improvise" in this way, and as a medical doctor he observed the effects of stress on his comrades that he believed was the outcome of following an itinerary without making modifications to it. Despite this, he commented that his comrades performed all their tasks in a supremely professional manner.<ref name="OffPlanet"/>{{page needed|date=February 2021}}

Astronaut [[Shannon Lucid]], who set the record for longest stay in space by a woman while aboard ''Mir'' (surpassed by [[Sunita Williams]] 11 years later on the ISS), also commented about working aboard ''Mir'': "I think going to work on a daily basis on ''Mir'' is very similar to going to work on a daily basis on an outstation in Antarctica. The big difference with going to work here is the isolation, because you really are isolated. You don't have a lot of support from the ground. You really are on your own."<ref name="From Mir to Mars"/>

===Exercise===
{{See also|Effect of spaceflight on the human body}}[[File:Lucid on Treadmill in Russian Mir Space Station - GPN-2000-001034.jpg|thumb|[[Shannon Lucid]] exercises on a treadmill during her stay aboard ''Mir''.]]
The most significant adverse effects of long-term weightlessness are [[muscle atrophy]] and deterioration of the [[skeleton]], or [[spaceflight osteopenia]]. Other significant effects include fluid redistribution, a slowing of the [[cardiovascular system]], decreased production of [[red blood cell]]s, balance disorders, and a weakening of the [[immune system]]. Lesser symptoms include loss of body mass, nasal congestion, sleep disturbance, excess [[flatulence]], and puffiness of the face. These effects begin to reverse quickly upon return to the Earth.<ref name="JCB">{{cite book|author=Jay Buckey|title=Space Physiology|publisher=Oxford University Press USA|date=23 February 2006|isbn=978-0-19-513725-5}}{{page needed|date=February 2021}}</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2021}}

To prevent some of these effects, the station was equipped with two [[treadmill]]s (in the core module and ''Kvant''-2) and a [[stationary bicycle]] (in the core module); each cosmonaut was to cycle the equivalent of {{convert|10|km|mi}} and run the equivalent of {{convert|5|km|mi}} per day.<ref name="SSSM"/> Cosmonauts used bungee cords to strap themselves to the treadmill. Researchers believe that exercise is a good countermeasure for the bone and muscle density loss that occurs in low-gravity situations.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/behindscenes/colbert_feature.html|access-date=23 August 2009|title=Do Tread on Me|date=19 August 2009|author=Amiko Kauderer|publisher=NASA|archive-date=21 August 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090821165909/http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/behindscenes/colbert_feature.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Hygiene===
[[File:Russian space toilet.JPG|thumb|upright|One of the [[space toilet]]s used aboard ''Mir'']]
There were two [[space toilet]]s (ASUs) on ''Mir'', located in the [[Mir Core Module|core module]] and [[Kvant-2|''Kvant''-2]].<ref name="Dragonfly"/> They used a fan-driven suction system similar to the Space Shuttle Waste Collection System. The user is first fastened to the toilet seat, which was equipped with spring-loaded restraining bars to ensure a good seal. A lever operated a powerful fan and a suction hole slid open: the air stream carried the waste away. Solid waste was collected in individual bags which were stored in an aluminium container. Full containers were transferred to Progress spacecraft for disposal. Liquid waste was evacuated by a hose connected to the front of the toilet, with anatomically appropriate "urine funnel adapters" attached to the tube so both men and women could use the same toilet. Waste was collected and transferred to the Water Recovery System, where it could be recycled back into drinking water, but was usually used to produce oxygen via the [[Elektron (ISS)|''Elektron'']] system.<ref name="SSSM"/>

''Mir'' featured a shower, the ''Bania'', located in ''Kvant''-2. It was an improvement on the units installed in previous [[Salyut program|Salyut]] stations, but proved difficult to use due to the time required to set up, use, and stow. The shower, which featured a plastic curtain and fan to collect water via an airflow, was later converted into a steam room; it eventually had its plumbing removed and the space was reused. When the shower was unavailable, crew members washed using wet wipes, with soap dispensed from a toothpaste tube-like container, or using a washbasin equipped with a plastic hood, located in the core module. Crews were also provided with rinse-less shampoo and edible toothpaste to save water.<ref name="SSSM"/>

On a 1998 visit to ''Mir'', bacteria and larger organisms were found to have proliferated in water globules formed from moisture that had condensed behind service panels.<ref name = date>{{cite web|url=https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2007/11may_locad3/|title=Preventing "Sick" Spaceships – Science Mission Directorate|website=science.nasa.gov|archive-date=14 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170514233537/https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2007/11may_locad3|url-status=dead|first = Trudy E. |last = Bell |date = 11 May 2007}}</ref>

===Sleeping in space===
{{main|Sleep in space}}
[[File:Mir Crew Quarter.jpg|thumb|right|Cosmonaut [[Yury Usachov]] in his ''Kayutka'']]
The station provided two permanent crew quarters, the ''Kayutkas'', phonebox-sized booths set towards the rear of the core module, each featuring a tethered sleeping bag, a fold-out desk, a porthole, and storage for personal effects. Visiting crews had no allocated sleep module, instead attaching a sleeping bag to an available space on a wall; US astronauts installed themselves within ''[[Spektr]]'' until a collision with a [[Progress (spacecraft)|Progress spacecraft]] caused the depressurisation of that module.<ref name="SSSM"/> It was important that crew accommodations be well ventilated; otherwise, astronauts could wake up oxygen-deprived and gasping for air, because a bubble of their own exhaled carbon dioxide had formed around their heads.<ref name="ESALife">{{cite web|url=http://www.esa.int/esaHS/ESAH1V0VMOC_astronauts_0.html|publisher=ESA|access-date=28 October 2009|date=19 July 2004|title=Daily life|archive-date=13 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100213144154/http://www.esa.int/esaHS/ESAH1V0VMOC_astronauts_0.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Food and drink===
{{See also|Space food}}
Most of the food eaten by station crews was frozen, refrigerated or canned. Meals were prepared by the cosmonauts, with the help of a [[dietitian]], before their flight to the station. The diet was designed to provide around 100&nbsp;g of [[protein]], 130&nbsp;g of [[fat]] and 330&nbsp;g of [[carbohydrate]]s per day, in addition to appropriate mineral and vitamin supplements. Meals were spaced out through the day to aid assimilation.<ref name="SSSM"/> Canned food such as jellied beef tongue was placed into a niche in the core module's table, where it could be warmed in 5–10 minutes. Usually, crews drank tea, coffee and fruit juices, but, unlike the ISS, the station also had a supply of [[Cognac (brandy)|cognac]] and [[vodka]] for special occasions.<ref name="Dragonfly"/>

===Microbiological environmental hazards===
In the 1990s ninety species of micro-organisms were found inside ''Mir'', four years after the station's launch. By the time of its decommission in 2001, the number of known different micro-organisms had grown to 140. As space stations get older, the problems with contamination get worse.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=Space.com  |title=The chemical contamination of the ISS is out of this world (and not in a good way) |date=8 August 2023 |url=https://www.space.com/chemical-contaminant-levels-discovered-on-international-space-station 
|accessdate=2023-08-09}}</ref> Molds that develop aboard space stations can produce acids that degrade metal, glass and rubber.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2007/11may_locad3/|author=Trudy E. Bell|year=2007|title=Preventing "Sick" Spaceships|access-date=12 July 2017|archive-date=14 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170514233537/https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2007/11may_locad3|url-status=live}}</ref> The molds in ''Mir'' were found growing behind panels and inside air-conditioning equipment. The molds also caused a foul smell, which was often cited as visitors' strongest impression.<ref name="bbc2001">{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/1209034.stm|title=Mutant fungus from space|date=8 March 2001|publisher=BBC|access-date=9 May 2015|archive-date=18 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518095038/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/1209034.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> Researchers in 2018 reported, after detecting the presence on the [[International Space Station]] (ISS) of five ''[[Enterobacter|Enterobacter bugandensis]]'' bacterial strains, none pathogenic to humans, that [[microorganism]]s on ISS should be carefully monitored to continue ensuring a medically healthy environment for the astronauts.<ref name="EA-20181122">{{cite web |author=BioMed Central |title=ISS microbes should be monitored to avoid threat to astronaut health |url=https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/bc-ims112018.php |date=22 November 2018 |work=[[EurekAlert!]] |access-date=25 November 2018 |archive-date=26 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181126005739/https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-11/bc-ims112018.php |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="BMC-20181123">{{cite journal |author=Singh, Nitin K.|display-authors=etal|title=Multi-drug resistant Enterobacter bugandensis species isolated from the International Space Station and comparative genomic analyses with human pathogenic strains |date=23 November 2018 |journal=[[BMC Microbiology]] |volume=18 |issue=1 |page=175 |doi=10.1186/s12866-018-1325-2 |pmid=30466389 |pmc=6251167 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2018BMCMb..18..175S }}</ref>

Some biologists were concerned about the mutant fungi being a major microbiological hazard for humans, and reaching Earth in the splashdown, after having been in an isolated environment for 15 years.<ref name="bbc2001"/> On the other hand, some scientists are conducting research on whether this situation can be used for life in space.  Scientists have discovered that fungi could actually assist space travel and detect livable environments for humankind in space. In fact, these resilient and frequently underestimated organisms might hold the key to our future on other planets. Fungi play a dramatic role in creating innovative and sustainable building materials. Most fungi possess [[Mycelium|mycelia]], hair-like root structures that grow and spread across surfaces. As mycelia expand, they bind surrounding materials, as wood chips, sawdust, or [[regolith]] (the loose material covering solid rock on planetary bodies like the Moon or Mars). This growth process results in a dense, interconnected network that creates a remarkably strong and durable substance. The resulting mycelium-based material offers notable [[thermal insulation]] and radiation protection, making it an ideal candidate for construction, particularly in severe environments like outer space or other interplanetary habitats.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.ted.com/talks/shannon_odell_why_are_scientists_shooting_mushrooms_into_space/transcript?subtitle=en |title=Why are scientists shooting mushrooms into space? |date=2024-07-18 |last=Odell |first=Shannon |language=en |access-date=2024-12-28 |via=www.ted.com}}</ref>